Ben Turpin

Peter Sellers makes funny voice narration over the Chaplin film A Burlesque on Carmen (1915).

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This film is a compilation, with narration by Steve Allen, of comedies from the old Mack Sennett silent studio. Sennett, himself, appears in a cameo at the end of the film.

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This short film takes a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennett comedies of the silent cinema era.

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Sardonic commentary over an abridged version of DOWN ON THE FARM (1920).

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The edition of Screen Snapshots celebrates 25 years of production. It looks at the content of edition #1, then a tribute to movie people who have died in those 25 years. Finally there are tributes to the Screen Snapshots series by Cecil De Mille, Walt Disney, Louella Parsons and Rosalind Russell.

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Stan and Ollie work in a horn factory. Ollie starts having violent fits every time he hears a horn. His doctor prescribes a restful sea voyage. Mayhem ensues.

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Starting in 1913 movie director Connors discovers singer Molly Adair. As she becomes a star she marries an actor, so Connors fires them. She asks for him as director of her next film. Many silent stars shown making the transition to sound.

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In Sleepytown, cross-eyed Sam Smith and Mary Brown are about to get married. But the scoundrel, Jim Jones, wants Mary for himself. Jim uses a publicity still that Sam sent away for against him to show Sam the cad in the eyes of Mary. Disgraced and without Mary, Sam leaves town and heads for Hollywood to redeem himself. Despite not being typical leading man material, Sam is able to make a success of it in Hollywood, and wants to return to Sleepytown a new man and to get Mary back. But Jim will not give Mary up without a fight, he using any means, including lying, to turn the town, including Mary, against Sam, their newly beloved hometown son. This 1939 version was re-edited from a 1921 film with added sound.

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Basically this is a commercial for Hollywood's Lido Lounge and for MGM contract players. The Lido is a large watering hole; we visit one afternoon with an orchestra playing, all sorts of stars and would-be stars sitting at tables near the pool alongside paying customers, and bathing beauties parading and diving. The Lido's manager, Reggy Denny, introduces the stars in the audience. He's sometimes interrupted by someone who does a bit, sings a song, or otherwise entertains: most of these are novelty acts. By the end, everyone's having a swell time.

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The Keystone Hotel hosts a very prestigious beauty contest. When the cross-eyed judge presents the first prize to an elderly cleaning woman, angry members of the audience respond by hurling custard pies. The Keystone Kops are summoned, and arrive just in time to get plastered with pastry.

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This very strange film features old silent footage with added audio commentary to give you a comedic look at a typical day in Hollywood. Featuring some Ben Turpin footage. Edited together by Robert O. Crandall.

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Rex, a wild stallion, and Rinty, a police dog, are pals. Their master , John Sheldon, is framed for murder, and Alice Ingram plans to race Rex for money to pay for John's legal defense. Meantime, Frank Nolan, who has falsely accused John, sets out to steal Rex for himself.

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Jimmy Durante asks popular song writing team Mack Gordon and Harry Revel to demonstrate some of their songs. There is interplay with impersonator Florence Desmond, Ben Turpin, Rudy Vallee and many others. Sometimes this film is incorrectly labelled as A-2. In the Criteron Pictures rerelease, this has an incorrect copyright date of 1932.

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A small country on the verge of bankruptcy is persuaded to enter the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as a means of raising money.

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A grocery clerk, longing to become a cowboy actor, goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Unfortunately, his acting ability is non-existent.

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A short featuring many stars

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Two marines stationed in the Chinese port of Hang Chow decide to swear off women and join the lighthouse patrol.

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Running Hollywood is a comedy short.

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An American ambassador arrives in a small country that is being convulsed by political intrigue and civil unrest. He befriends the young boy who is to be the country's king, to ensure that the boy is prepared to take on the role and also to see that he lives long enough to assume the crown.

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Oliver is making plans to marry his sweetheart Dulcy with Stan as his best man, but the plans are thwarted when Dulcy's father sees a picture of Ollie and forbids the marriage. The couple plan to elope, and run away to a Justice of the Peace. After typical Laurel and Hardy blundering, they manage to sneak the girl away from her father's house.

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To impress his fiancee's aunt, a young man tries to become king in a small kingdom, but the people there have already crowned one, who has won this honor by gambling. So he plans a coup d'etat. He tries to achieve this with a bomb, but then something goes wrong...

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To avoid hostilities, Maryan, the ward of Doc May, a medicine show owner, induces Pop Garner, a circus owner, to join forces with her guardian. Doc May and Daphne, his wife, work as clowns; and Garry, a singing soldier of fortune, sings along with Maryan's act. Ruth, Maryan's partner, quits to get married; and Joe, who is jealous of Garry, replaces her with Trixie, his former assistant. When Garry announces his engagement to Maryan, Trixie persuades him to join a strip poker game in a drunken state and "compromises" him in the presence of his fiancée. Grief-stricken, Maryan falls during her act, and Garry, robbed of circus funds, is arrested. In spite of her injuries, Maryan, learning of Trixie's treachery, performs the act with her and forces a confession by threatening to drop her; Garry is released and is welcomed back to the show.

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This time it's Ben Turpin as the nominal announcer, and several well known performers appear, including Myrna Loy. Madge Bellamy sings "The Last Rose of Summer" in a very sweet voice, and there are a couple of canned gag sequences.

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A young writer, John Hale, inherits a fortune and moves into an alleged-haunted castle with his servant "Rusty." He discovers the 'hauntee' to be Countess von Baden, hiding in a secret chamber with her son, whom the court has awarded to her divorced husband.

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Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the first time in a gaudy, grandiose music-comedy-novelty revue that also included Talkie stars, Broadway luminaries and of course, Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay hosts a jamboree that, among its 70+ stars, features bicyclers, boxing champ Georges Carpentier, chorines in terpsichore kickery, sister acts, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic Far East beauty, John Barrymore in a Shakespearean soliloquy (adding an on-screen voice to his legendary profile for the first time) and Winnie Lightner famously warbling the joys of Singing in the Bathtub. Watch, rinse, repeat!

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The queen of mythical Sylvania marries a courtier, who finds his new life unsatisfying.

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A dubious count comes on a visit.

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Amos faces a few difficulties as he tries to drive his cross-eyed wife and their two rambunctious children to California.

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