Tillie Wakes Up (1917)

Originally posted to Facebook on 9/17/2016

Tillie Wakes Up was the second film we watched from 1917, and was a sequel of sorts to 1914’s Tillie’s Punctured Romance. In fact there was also an intervening Tillie film as well, but it is now mostly lost. As mentioned last week, neither Chaplin nor Mabel Normand are in this one, but Marie Dressler returns as Tillie -- though her presence and character name is literally the only thread connecting these two films. In this movie she is now married, unhappily, and living in an apartment building with a similarly unhappy neighboring couple. She decides to make her husband (Frank Beamish) jealous by going out with the similarly neglected husband of the neighboring couple, played by Johnny Hines. This cliched plot is redeemed by only two things: First, one of the places they visit is an amusement park -- either Coney Island or someplace very similar. I recently saw (but haven’t written up yet) Harold Lloyd’s Speedy, which was made a decade later in 1928, and this sequence makes me wonder if he was consciously emulating this earlier film. Certainly his version is significantly more sophisticated, with jokes that look like they were planned out in advance, whereas this movie mostly relies upon showing Tillie being discomfited by the various rides (all of which look very unsafe by today’s standards.) The most striking parallel between the two movies was a ride consisting of a disc in the floor, which spins its seated riders off to the sides as it quickly rotates.

The second interesting thing about this film was the absurdly slangy title cards, which are impossible to capture without examples. One read, “They missed Mattewan because Officer 666 was too tired to make a pinch. He thought they were a couple of nuts!”, which I think means they weren’t arrested because the officer didn’t take them seriously. Another read “Tillie had never tasted anything stronger than orange Pekoe and J. Mortimer was a bug on Clysmic, but they fell off the wagon with a splash that scared all of the Mackerel out of the Harbor,” which I believe means they weren’t used to drinking, and ended up getting very drunk. There were dozens of cards like these, and some of them were so absurdly obscure I just had to guess when translating for the kids. They were the most amusing thing about the film, although we were laughing at them as much as with them. I do wonder, though, if they really dated from 1917 or had been revised in the twenties or later. Some of them seemed a little too irreverent and jokey for 1917, and we haven’t seen anything like them in the contemporaneous films we’ve been watching, certainly not in this kind of concentrated barrage. One bit of evidence for a later vintage was the use of the word “hep,” which may have been in currency in 1917, but is more associated with later periods. Also, Oscar Hammerstein was mentioned, who was young and not particularly famous in 1917. I thought this latter piece of evidence had clinched it, but after doing a little research it appears Oscar Hammerstein had a grandfather by the same name who was also a well known theatrical figure, and it’s possible they may have been referring to him. So it’s still an open question for me. With the exception of the title cards, the movie was probably about as funny as Tillie’s Punctured Romance (i.e. not very) but there was something slightly more charming about it, perhaps having to do with the fact that it was a decidedly lower budget and less meticulous affair.

Next week we’ll see Wild and Woolly, our third film from 1917 and our second film starring Douglas Fairbanks. This list is linked to here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT

Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914)

Originally posted to Facebook on 4/29/2016

Tillie’s Punctured Romance was our third film from 1914. It is claimed that this was the first feature-length comedy, and would therefore also be the first feature film of many of the comedians present, including Chaplin. It is definitely the first film we’ve seen that contained a significant number of people that are still somewhat famous today. Charlie Chaplin, of course, is the most famous, but it also contained Marie Dressler, who starred in many silent films, and had a resurgence in popularity in early sound films twenty years later, winning an Oscar for Best Actress, and being nominated for another. Also present was Mabel Normand, who was a popular silent star, and Edgar Kennedy, who I remember as the food vendor tormented by Harpo and Chico in Duck Soup, but who also appeared in many films up through the forties. However, this assemblage of talent sadly does not result in anything very funny. There were a few moments where I smiled, such as when people were throwing bricks at one another, or when Chaplin slapped a newspaper boy, but in general it is full of people chasing each other, and falling down and knocking each other over, to such an extent that it becomes monotonous. Chaplin does not play his Tramp character, though he looks somewhat similar. Instead he plays a character given in IMDB as “The City Stranger,” who woos Marie Dressler because he thinks she is rich. Mabel Normand plays his actual pre-existing girlfriend, who is not terribly happy about the whole situation. Marie Dressler is also not happy when she finds out that Chaplin already has a girlfriend. They both express their frustration via violent and repetitive slapstick. So, anyway, something of a disappointment. On the plus side, the film print was bright and clear, which was the first time that’s been true for a couple of weeks. Also, I liked the title -- even without knowing you’d almost guess that “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” was a silent movie title, or failing that a single by The Decemberists.

Next week we watch our final film from 1914: Cabiria, which apparently was one of the first films where camera movements beyond simple pans began to be used routinely. The spreadsheet, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT