Silents are Golden

  by Gerry Dunne

 It's time to slip into that old DeLorean, (or Model T), close the doors, and zoom back once again to the black and white tranquility of the silent era. Hopefully you found my last article so well written and inspiring that you immediately went out and invested a few shekels on a silent short. You did? Excellent. Give yourself a point. In fact, for every silent short of the boys you have seen, you get a point. Why don't you let me know which silents you have seen, what you think of them, and tell me about any upcoming screenings in local cinemas or on TV that you know about? My details are below. I would love to hear from you.

The great thing about silent movies is that you have no language barrier to worry about. On a recent trip to Paris I picked up a video featuring six Stan and Ollie solo silents. On the downside, I already had four of them, but the French copies were cleaner prints. The fifth was the two-reeled version of Babe's "The Paperhangers Helper". However, the sixth was the one I was really after. "Near Dublin", which in French was rendered as "Le Facteur Incandescent". How many others can say that they went to Paris to get "Near Dublin"? I have chosen it to review this time around.

Stan made very few movies with other silent stars. He was fortunate in that he was normally the featured performer. He did make one or two with Larry Semon though and in one film, Larry and Stan are convicts who escape from jail. On seeing the rushes at the end of a particular day's shooting, someone shouted out "Hey, this guy's funnier than Semon." Next day, Larry changed the script, had Stan tied to a tree, and made the rest of the picture on his own. Stan never worked with Larry again. A few months ago I was watching a Semon/Laurel picture called "Pick and Shovel" in which Larry and Stan are convicts who escape from prison. I waited for that fatal scene in which Larry leaves our Stan tied to a tree-but it never came. Stan made it to the end of the movie - even though in some scenes he is much funnier than Larry. Perhaps the other movie will surface one of these days.

Has anyone read "Laurel and Hardy: The Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver "Babe" Hardy" by Rob Stone (Split Reel Books, 1996). If you have, please let me know what you think. Did anyone get to the screening of Lon Chaney's " Phanton of the Opera" at St Anne's Cathedral Belfast in April. It was a very atmospheric and memorable occasion.

Write to me c/o 1 Collinward Gardens, Glengormley, N'Abbey, Co Antrim, BT36 6DS - and keep watching those silents.

Near Dublin

1924, Directed by Ralph Cedar. Starring Stan, Ena Gregory, James Finlayson, Charlie Hall, George Rowe, Mae Laurel.

This is a bizarre amalgam of slapstick, pathos, quaintness and whimsy. The characters are leprachaun-like, smoking clay pipes, and sporting cutaway beards, buckles and brogues. The village cop sports an oversized Keystone cops uniform with an absurdly large badge, which he polishes with his coat sleeve at every opportunity. Stan is the happy-go-lucky postman who is more "donkey-express" than pony express. To entertain himself on his rounds, he reads all the letters before delivering them. Stan falls foul of the local brick manufacturer when he vies with Fin for the affections of the local beauty (played by Ena Gregory).

Stan winds up in jail but escapes to rescue Ena from Fin's clutches. Playing dead at the hands of Fin, Stan is able to view the resulting "murder trial" from the upper part of the barn in which the court is being held. - and manages to lob a few bricks Fin's way. The film ends with Stan's discovery - as a ghost - and his and Ena's pursuance into the distance by Fin and the cop.

One highlight of the film is the local village feis in which the participants pack bricks in their bags and down their stockings and it isn't long before the brick-flinging starts. A rare moment of pathos comes when after reading a letter from a son -who has just fallen foul of the law and is in prison - to his mother, Stan hears the mother talking to a friend about how well her son is doing in the big city. Stan thinks about handing the letter to the mother but taking pity on her, he tears it up.

Fin takes on his usual role of villain with great gusto and he enjoys almost equal film time as Stan. They are fantastic foils for each other as shown in other silent shorts such as "A Man About Town", and "The Soilers."

The much employed "I'll foreclose on your mortgage if you don't give me your beautiful daughter in marriage" is employed in this film, and I wonder if this is a distant echo of the same device which Stan would use in Babes in Toyland a decade later.

A charming little film.