Paul Merton's Silent Clowns (Leeds Town Hall, 09/11/11)

basics...
Earlier in the year Paul Merton's documentary about the Birth of Hollywood opened my eyes to tales of early movie making that I knew little about. Impressed with Merton's knowledge and approach I was delighted to come across his Silent Clowns, which was on as part of the Leeds International Film Festival.

brilliant...
In the magnificent setting of Leeds Town Hall, Merton introduced 4 silent film extracts, a Laurel & Hardy short and the feature length Harold Lloyd movie, Safety Last!, all accompanied by a live pianist and musicians. The whole evening was an unqualified success, with the biggest surprise for me being how much I enjoyed all of the films, particularly the final one. In the first part of the 'show', Merton introduced the concept of silent movies and gave potted histories of some of the stars before showing clips from: It's a Gift (1923) with Snub Pollard; Get Out 'n' Get Under (1920) with Harold Lloyd; The Pawnshop (1916) with Charlie Chaplin; and Seven Chances (1925) with Buster Keaton. I've not seen any silent cinema before, aside from a couple of Shakespeare shorts when at uni, and I've only seen Chaplin's The Great Dictator, a much later talkie. From the clips I saw I certainly can't wait to see more Chaplin and Keaton - Seven Chances was a breath-taking delight featuring special effects and stunts that hold up against anything in today's cinema. 

The Laurel & Hardy short Big Business (1929) rounded off part one of the evening. In it the comedy duo are selling Christmas trees in Beverly Hills, but soon the whole thing descends into chaos as Stan and Oliver trash an unresponsive customer's house, while he pulls apart their car. I enjoyed the short, but I would have to say that the comedy of Laurel & Hardy doesn't seem to have aged as well as some of their contemporaries.

The second act was devoted to Safety Last! from 1923. The live music accompanying this and all of the previous extracts was first rate, adding to the experience and not once being distracting. In fact I forgot the musicians were there, which I suppose is a complement to how well integrated what they were doing was with the action on the big screen. The whole audience laughed along with Lloyd's hapless character, who was trying to make it big in the city and embellishing his successes to his sweetheart back home. When she turns up to surprise him it leads to new comedy heights - literally in the case of the extended final sequence, which features Lloyd climbing the outside of the building in which he works in order to draw the crowds. On the way up he faces angry dogs, men with guns and frisky pigeons... it all adds up to a funny and ultimately thrilling piece of filmmaking - as I heard one audience member say, he was tense during the scenes of the climb as Lloyd balanced precariously off a clock face, and I could agree with this. The tension was always released with a laugh, and not a cheap one either, generally the humour is physical (there's no words beyond occasional caption remember!) yet sophisticated. Lloyd is a truly gifted comedian, and on the basis of Safety Last! I intend to search out more of his prodigous output. The whole evening left me with the widest grin on my face, having given my chuckle muscles a thorough work out. 

but...
The only thing that was a bit of a let down on the night was that Merton's input was all too brief. I would have liked to hear him talk more about the early Hollywood era. In the end though, the movies spoke for themselves.

briefly...
A magical evening of comedy, with films that felt as fresh as they were 80+ years ago when first shown. Will today's blockbusters have the same longevity one wonders?