Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Mishaps of Musty Suffer (1916-1917)


Kleine-Edison Feature Services
Directed by Louis Myll
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
(DVD, Undercrank Productions)

Harry Watson, Jr., was a vaudevillian clown and musician in the Ziegfield Follies. He made the jump to film in a series of one reel comedies for producer George Kleine. Those that survived are presented here in a nice compilation with new piano accompaniment. Musty is a downtrodden tramp who takes odd jobs as bellhop, waiter, cook, etc., leading to all sorts of mayhem. Watson and his supporting cast frequently make use of costumes, leading to some bizarre characters, including the scariest dentist I have ever seen. There are dream sequences, trick photography, men in drag, and Musty's ever present mug, perhaps the most expressive in all of silent slapstick.

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