Showing posts with label Bebe Daniels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bebe Daniels. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

What's here is funny stuff, but...

Take a Chance (1918)
Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Harry 'Snub' Pollard, William Blaisdell, Belle Mitchell, and Helen Gilmore
Director: Alfred J. Goulding
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A dapper young man (Lloyd) sets out to woo a pretty cleaning lady (Daniels). Trouble, chaos, and police chases ensue.
 

This is a film that's full of funny bits that are so loosely connected that this film just ends. Literally. Nothing in what little plot we have gets resolved, and if it was a serial I'd be eager to see the next installment, because it ends on quite the cliffhanger. In fact, when the film ended, I thought maybe it was a fragment and that the last few minutes (or maybe an entire second reel) had not survived to the present day... but every description of the film (at IMDB, Wikipedia, and elsewhere) give its run-time as the roughly ten minutes that the version embedded below.

It wasn't a surprising conclusion to reach that I watched a complete version of "Take a Chance", because the version I saw is among one of best preserved and/or restoration jobs of any film from the 1910s I've come across. Nonetheless, it was a disappointing one, because it showed that very little thought was put into what passes for the story here.

Although there are better Harold Lloyd/Bebe Daniels vehicles, this one is still worth watching for a number of reasons. First, Daniels is a joy to watch as always; no one mugged at the camera better than her, nor seemed to be having so much fun or being so annoyed as her. Second, although nearly every one of the loosely connected slapstick and/or comedic chase sequences go on for a little too long, each and every one of them is initially very funny. As a collection of bits, this is an excellent film, but the fact the story presented has a beginning and a middle but no proper end to speak of.

"Take a Chance" is embedded below for your convenience. Take a chance and check it out. See if you agree or disagree with my take... and leave a comment below!


Thursday, May 26, 2022

Dont be shy. Watch 'Bashful'!

Bashful (1917)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, William Blaisdell, Snub Pollard, Belle Mitchell, and Bud Jamison
Director: Alf Goulding
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A shy young man (Lloyd) will inherit millions of dollars if he has a wife and child. When the estate executor (Blaisdell) pays him a visit, his girlfriend (Daniels) pretends to be his wife, and his manservant (Pollard) and cook (Mitchell) set out to find and "borrow" a baby.

Bebe Daniels, William Blaisdell, and Harold Lloyd in "Bashful" (1917)

"Bashful" hits the ground running and never slows down for its 9-minute running time. The early part of the film is amusing, but things get over-the-top hilarious once the menacing executor of the estate (played with great effect by the giant-of-a-man William Blaisdell) arrives to vet the heir and his family, and the household staff go through their efforts to make sure their employer can present a baby.

As is almost always the case, Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels are a joy to watch. This film is made all the more fun by there being a slight role reversal to what was typical in these older films: Daniels' character wants to smooch with Lloyd's character and she isn't afraid to go after him for it. Meanwhile, Lloyd's character is more demure and brushes off her advances. (Daniels played a similar character in "Off the Trolley", which is another Lloyd/Daniels pairing I highly recommend.)
 
Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels in "Bashful" (1917)

As mentioned above, "Bashful" is a fast-moving film, and not a second of screen time is wasted on anything that doesn't move the plot along, or isn't a gag or an extended comedy bit. This might have been an Eight Star film if it had been a little slower in a couple of different ways--or maybe a little longer. The film ends with a couple of MAJOR plot elements unresolved--and they had intersected and were coming to a head as things fade to black. 

I don't think the version I've watched is incomplete, because the ending isn't abrupt and satisfying in the overall context of the film... but I would have loved to see the total chaos and possible brawling and chases that almost certainly descended upon the Lloyd household after. All it would have taken would be another minute or two or run-time (well, and a longer shooting schedule and a bigger budget and...)

I can't go into details about what those plot elements are without ruining some of the film's funniest moments, but I hope you will take a few minutes to check out this great little film. I'm not terribly fond of the music used in this version, but the image quality is fantastic!

And if you feel inclined, let me know if you agree with my view that this would have been an even better film if those severed plot threads and been run out completely.


Tuesday, March 15, 2022

'The Non-Stop Kid' is non-stop funny

The Non-Stop Kid (1918)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Snub Pollard, William Blaisdell, Billy Fay, Lew Harvey, and Sammy Brooks
Director: Gilbert Pratt
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Miss Wiggles (Daniels) is pursued by many suitors, including her true love, Harold (Lloyd). Her domineering father (Blaisdell) has arranged for her to marry Professor Noodle (Harvey), so a desperate Harold decides to impersonate Noodle and steal Miss Wiggles's hand in marriage.

A scene from "The Non-Stop Kid" (1918)

"The Non-Stop Kid" is a swift-moving comedy where we, once again, see Harold Lloyd trying to dodge the domineering father of the lovely Bebe Daniels. There are some portions that feel like throwbacks to the rotten, trouble-making character that Lloyd began his career playing--rather than the tricky romantic that became his signature later on--and these drag the film down a bit for me. (As I've previously noted, I have a strong dislike for those early Lloyd pictures.) Thankfully, those moments are few... in addition to being more funny than anything in the early films they reminded me of.

With the negativity out of the way, let me praise this short film for its 12-minutes of non-stop action and gags. While some work better than others, the scene where Miss Wiggles ) plays a trick on a gang of nattily dressed suitors; the one where Harold is wiping away Miss Wiggles tears and her father interrupts their moment; and the entire afternoon tea sequence makes up for any shortcomings present elsewhere. 

My personal favorite part of the film is the opening bit. The hoard of dimwitted suitors pursuing Daniels' character feel like precursors to the Upperclass Twits that were mainstays in some of the greatest skits from "Monte Python's Flying Circus" and they are every bit as funny.

I strongly recommend you take a few minutes out of your day to check out this great little comedy. Click below... and enjoy! (I had to update the embedded version... and now the best available one has Russian subtitles...)

Sunday, May 16, 2021

'Move On' is worth pausing for

Move On (1917)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, William Blaisdell, and Sammy Brooks
Directors: Billy Gilbert and Gilbert Pratt
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A patrol officer (Lloyd) and his sergeant (Blaisdell) both have romantic design on a wealthy family's nursemaid (Daniels).

Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels in "Move On" (1917)

I'm not entirely sure what to make of the version of "Move On" that I found on YouTube. Its content and cast bears only a passing resemblance to the description and cast list both at IMDB and at Wikipedia. Either there are two films from 1917 with the same title and the stars, or there is a chunk of the film that doesn't survive to the present day. It's impossible for me to figure out which (with the level of time I am willing to commit to research that is).

I do suspect that the version of "Move On" I watched (and have embedded below, so you can watch it too) is fairly intact, because its run-time matches the five minutes listed on IMDB. However, there way Harold Lloyd's character enters the first scene he shares with Bebe Daniels makes it seem like something is missing, because it appears that he may have been chasing someone but then decided to make time with the cute girl instead. (Perhaps that's where "Snub" Pollard appears, along with others of the listed cast members, because they are nowhere in this film, except maybe as faceless extras at the very beginning.)

Whether this is a complete film or not, what we have is a fast-moving bit of entertainment. One bit feels like it's missing a pay-off, but otherwise this feels like a complete story. What's better, it has a somewhat surprising ending when compared to other Lloyd/Daniels-led comedies from this period. All-in-all, if you've enjoyed other of their works, I think you'll enjoy this one, too. 




Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Harold and Bebe grapple with 'Spring Fever'

Spring Fever (1919)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Snub Pollard, Noah Young, Fred C. Newmeyer, Marie Mosquini, Gus Leonard, and Raye Hampton
Director: Hal Roach
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Stricken with Spring Fever, a bookkeeper (Lloyd) leaves work early. He proceeds to cause chaos in the park and find love in the arms of a young lady (Daniels).


"Spring Fever" is a few minutes of fast-paced fun. It hasn't aged as well as some of the other Harold Lloyd/Bebe Daniels team-ups--Lloyd plays a trickster character who is just a tad too obnoxious to be likeable and Daniels plays far more interesting characters in some of their other films together--but director Hal Roach doesn't waste a second of the film's eight minutes of run-time: If characters aren't being established, plot isn't being forwarded, and gags aren't being executed, then gags are being set up.

If you like silent comedies, I think you'll find this one entertaining. It's even more fun to watch if you've seen other of Lloyds and Daniels' vehicles, as you'll recognize some of the locations from other films. Why don't you kick back and take a few minutes to watch it right now?


Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Christmas is almost here...

... and Bebe Daniels has an innovative idea for those of you who haven't gotten your Chirstmas Tree decorated yet: Just dress yourself like one. It's even more festive!



Thursday, November 26, 2020

Wishes for Happy Thanksgivings!

We wish a Happy Thanksgiving with family and loved ones to all our American readers, wherever in the world they may be! Even if it has be done virtually for many of us.

Bebe Daniels with a wish bone

Saturday, September 19, 2020

Yarr! Here be comely pirate lasses!

Here at Shades of Gray we observe Speak Like a Pirate Day by looking like a pirate!

Bebe Daniels

Tahliah Debrett Barnett (FKA Twigs)
Joan Crawford


Joan Blondell
Gloria Blondell



Colleen Moore





Monday, August 3, 2020

Happy National Watermelon Day!

I made a joke about Taco Tuesday to someone I know from Australia. Her response was, "Americans and their weird holidays..."

The fact there is such a thing as National Watermelon Day, and no one seems to know who first declared August 3rd to be that day, nor when it was first named so--the earliest reference I could find to it was in 2015, but my Google-Fu is weak--seems to prove her point.

National Watermelon Day is celebrated every year on August 3rd by... well, eating watermelon. That's it.

Weird holiday or not, we here at Shades of Gray encourage everyone to enjoy some tasty watermelon to mark this very special day. We will be--whille Bebe Daniels will be performing the traditional Watermelon song. (And we all hope you will have more fun than Harold Lloyd... he doesn't like watermelon, the freak!)


Tuesday, July 21, 2020

You'll have fun with 'Young Mr. Jazz'

Young Mr. Jazz (1919)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Bud Jamison, Harry Pollard, Marie Mosquini, and Noah Young
Director: Hal Roach
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

An overly protective father (Jamison) and the young couple he is trying to keep apart (Daniels and Lloyd) all end up in a seedy dance club and become the target of muggers and pickpockets.

Bebe Daniels & Harold Lloyd in "Young Mr. Jazz" (1919)

"Young Mr. Jazz" is a swift-moving comedy populated by amusing characters played by charismatic actors. (In fact, it's so swift-moving that I think the version I watched might be missing an intertitle, just like it was missing its opening title and credits.)

Made toward the end of Bebe Daniels' four-year tenure at the Hal Roach Studios, and her fruitful onscreen partnership with Harold Lloyd, this is about average for their output. There aren't any belly-busting gags, but there aren't any that fall flat either; what viewers get is a solid ten minutes of non-stop entertainment... and that's really all we can ask and expect when it comes right down to it.

Highlights of the film include the way Lloyd performs more like an animated character (as in one that exists in cartoons than in a live-action film) during the beach scenes, the pickpocketing sequences in the dance club, and the massive brawl that breaks out at the end when Lloyd and Daniels come to the rescue of her endangered father. An added nice touch is the openly lecherous attitudes of the father character, leering at women on the beach and later accepting the attentions of a random woman at the  club, even while trying to chase away his daughter's boyfriend. It's a nice bit of characterization that gives Daniels' character every moral right to be "rebellious." (Also, the differences in how Americans dressed at the beach 100 years ago, and how we do it now, are fascinating... at least to me.)

I invite you to take a few minutes to check out "Young Mr. Jazz" right here from this post. Let me know if you liked this film as such as I did.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

'Somewhere in Turkey' is dated but fun

Somewhere in Turkey (1918)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, William Blaisdell, and Harry Pollard
Director: Alf Goulding
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

An explorer (Lloyd) and a beautiful castaway (Daniels) fall in love while imprisoned by an idol-worshipping sultan (Blaisdell).

Bebe Daniels and Harold Lloyd in "Somewhere in Turkey" (1918)

"Somewhere in Turkey" may be one of those films that the passage of time has left behind... or maybe it's just not that good and even audiences in 1918 might have felt a little disappointed. While it's probably both, I think it's more of the latter than the former.

First, while the film has many strong slapstick moments (several involving literal slapping), most of the comedic routines are stretched to the point they stop being funny and start being repetitive; this is not a good thing for any film, but it's Very Bad when we're talking about something with a running-time of 10 minutes. Second, the story is sloppily constructed with Harry Pollard's character just vanishing about 2/3rds of the way through... and Lloyd's character doesn't seem to give him a second thought as he rides off with his new lady-friend. It's actually unusual for these comedies to leave such a huge element unresolved. (Of course, since the version I viewed--which is embedded below--is 10 minutes in length, and various sources report that it's 12 minutes long, so maybe Pollard's fate is explained in that missing footage.)

Still from "Somewhere in Turkey" (1918)

As for the film being left behind by the passage of time, I think there are some things that modern viewers will find distracting that might not have bothered audiences a century ago. For example, there's an executioner in the sultan's palace that appears in straight-up minstrel show black face instead of a black actor playing the part--something which probably shouldn't have been so far-fetched an idea, since less than two years later, black characters were being played by in films headlined by Buster Keaton, such as "Convict 13".

I have some further nitpicks about the costuming choices for this film. The characters look more Arab or Tunisian than Turkish, but that's all those are... nitpicks, and I probably wouldn't even have thought about it if not for a far bigger problem in the film:

It's a major plot point that the Sultan's court are idol-worshippers, in spite of the setting being northern Turkey and the Sultan ruling over Muslim. Even for a goofy comedy, this really stretched my disbelief, even allowing for Turkey being more "secular" in those days. Maybe audiences of 1918 didn't have the same level of cultural insights we have today--or maybe it's me that's over-educated in this matter--but more so than anything that bothered me about this film. (It's possible that the Sultan and his inner circle are secret idol-worshippers, as this is something that's hinted at in the manner Lloyd' and Pollard's characters end up in the mortal danger, but it seems more likely to me that this is just another artifact of indifferent writing. These problems could have been avoided if the film's setting had been a fictitious nation, It's a problem that could have been avoided if the location had been an imaginary one, such as in "His Royal Slyness", a 1919 film also starring Lloyd. That said, it's entirely possible that the film originally was set in a fictitious country, but was "relocated" due to Turkey being an enemy of U.S. and allies in World War I.)

For all the negativity I've just heaped on "Somewhere in Turkey", I have to say that Lloyd and Daniels are excellent together as always (once they finally get to share the screen). In fact, Daniels is front and center in all the best scenes in the film, from her melodramatic posturing when captured at the beginning of the film; to her confrontation with the Sultan; and her imprisonment and escape with Lloyd's character at the end, the scenes are all cute, funny, and to the point. In fact, I think that Daniels' presence, more than anything else, makes this film worth your taking a few minutes to check out. (And you can do so right now, since it's embedded below.)




Friday, May 22, 2020

Happy International Goth Day!


Is that right? Is it appropriate to say happy International Goth Day (or World Goth Day)? Hm... wow. I don't know! If everyone wasn't under house-arrest and hiding from the Coronavirus, I could have just walked outside my front door and asked one of the goths who are usually hanging out around the corner.

Oh well; one must stay home in order to save lives. I hope any Goths out there takes my well-wishes and this small gallery of photos and art celebrating their ways in the friendly spirit is was intended!

Goth Chick breathing out smoke or demons...

Bebe Daniels on Halloween

John Astin and Carolyn Jones in "The Addams Family"




Sunday, May 17, 2020

'Just Neighbors' is just a lot of fun

Just Neighbors (aka "Neighbors") (1919)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Harry Pollard, Bebe Daniels, and Margaret Joslin
Directors: Harold Lloyd and Frank Terry
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Fighting breaks out between once-friendly neighbor couples (Lloyd & Daniels and Pollard & Joslin) after escalating damage happens to both homes following a failed attempt at one husband to help the other with a backyard construction project.


If one wanted a cinematic illustration of what "that escalated quickly" means, "Just Neighbors" fits that purpose exactly. From the point where the two husbands (Harold Lloyd and Harry Pollard) run into each other on their way home from work in the city through Lloyd's misbegotten attempt to show off his handyman skills, through to the property destruction and literal slap-fight across the backyard fence, this film is a string of small situations that get out of hand--and hilariously so.

While none of the gags in this film are going to surprise anyone--what we have here is sit-com territory that's been well-trod in the past 100 years--but they're economically delivered by a cast with perfect comedic timing, so the action is constantly moving and not a second of screen-time is wasted.

The only complaint I can mount about the film is that I would have liked to see some more situations where the wives fight with each other was well. Any movie where Bebe Daniels has more to do is a better movie!  (I think the film might have been more interesting if perhaps it had played up and on the class differences between the two couples... but that would have probably resulted in a different and much longer movie.)

But, thanks to YouTube, you can check out "Just Neighbors" right now and see if you agree or disagree with my take on it.


Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Meet our official Master of Ceremonies

For all of 2020, Bebe Daniels will serve as the Shades of Gray Master of Ceremonies. She will oversee our observations and celebrations of each major holiday during this year. Please be nice to her... but if you find any of our observances lacking, be sure to let her know!


Here is the official calendar of holidays that will be recognized here at Shades of Gray during 2020. Some will be recognized with a single post, some will receive several. (Others not on this may also be snuck it as celebratory moods strike us!)

Febuary: Valentine's Day
March: St. Patrick's Day
April: Easter
May: Cinco de Mayo and Memorial Day
June: Flag Day
July: U.S. Independence Day and Nude Day
August: National Watermelon Day
September: Labor Day
October: Halloween
November: Thanksgiving
December: Christmas and New Years


Click here to see a selection of past observances, or click on hoidays with links above to see specific celebrations

Saturday, December 14, 2019

'Counsellor at Law' is undeservedly obscure

Counsellor at Law (1933) 
Starring: John Barrymore, Bebe Daniels, Onslow Stevens, Isabel Jewell, Melvyn Douglas, Doris Kenyon, Thelma Todd, John Hammond Dailey and Vincent Sherman
Director: William Wyler
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

George Simon (Barrymore) is a workaholic and a highly successful attorney who clawed his way up from the gutter to an office high atop New York City in the Empire State Building. Over the space of a few days, he finds his professional and personal life crumbling to ruins.


"Councellor at Law" is a swift moving drama whose origins as a stage play are clearly evident throughout its run-time. While that's usually a negative in these reviews, this film is the exception that proves the rule. All the film's action takes place within the high-cielinged, art-deco rooms that make up the Law Office of Simon & Tedesco, so the limited locations and characters moving about as if they're following blocking on a stage and arriving stage left and existing stage right isn't a distraction. It also helps that the entire cast is made up of actors who are film veterans--some of whom got their start as child actors during the silent film days, like Bebe Daniels--and therefore are all giving cinematic-oriented performances rather than being stagey and projecting and emoting so the audience in the back rows can pick up on what's going on.

John Barrymore and Bebe Daniels, the film's stars, give particularly impressive performances. They both give perfect examples of what "show, don't tell" means. Daniels' character never expresses the deep love and respect she has for her boss, Simon, nor how much it pains her to see how blind he is to the disrespect and disregard he gets from the blue-blood wife (Doris Kenyon) he loves above everything else. Bebe had, literally, grown up on movie stages and at this point had more than 20 years of film acting behind her--and it shows. Similarly, Barrymore's best moments in the film come in near-wordless scenes, and the moments in the picture when he lost all hope and is contemplating suicide are some of the most impactful bits of filmmaking I've come across. (Barrymore's acting is top-notch, but he is ably supported by a director and technical crew who understood how to take full advantage of the black and media they were working in.)


While Barrymore and Daniels shine the brightest here, the supporting cast is also spectacular. Among the most remarkable performances are Thelma Todd in a small, but important role, as one of George Simon's shady clients with a case against an even shadier person who as wronged them; Doris Kenyon as Simon's snobbish wife whose actions demonstrates that he only has value to her so long as she can exploit his love for her and desire for acceptance in her social circles, with Melvyn Douglas taking a turn as a blue-blood leech with with lecherous designs on the wife underscoring this point; and Onslow Stevens and Isabel Jewell, as Simon's law partner and the office receptionist/switchboard operator respectively, providing office and period flavor for the story.

All in all, this film is an example of all the good things works from this period has to offer. It's got cool art-deco sets (since it's set during the 1920s, probably right around the time the stock market is getting ready to crash); a flawed hero who is obviously the embodiment of the film's major social and political messages but who is the creation of writers who have enough respect for the audiences intelligence that he isn't also a funnel-shaped mouthpiece for those messages; and snappy dialogue that moves scenes from lighthearted to dramatic with blinding speed.

I only have one real complaint about this film, and it relates to an otherwise excellent sub-thread about office romances/sexual harassment that runs through the film. While one of the clerks is constantly and crudely hitting on the receptionist, a young lawyer in the firm is just as constantly and politely asking Bebe Daniels' character on dates. She constantly rebuffs him with escalating hostility, because she is increasingly distraught over how everything is falling apart for George Simon, as well as Simon's obliviousness to how he is being badly used by people he thinks are on his side. Ultimately, the young lawyer has had enough of her coldness, stops pursuing her, but he hands her a letter of some sort during their last exchange. We never find out what's in that letter, and I really wanted to know what that was because that subplot (out of the many in the film) remains unresolved at the end.

"Councellor at Law" is an undeservedly obscure film. If you appreciate early talkies, or have been impressed with John Barrymore and Bebe Daniels in other roles, you need to see it.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Join Harold & Bebe and go 'Back to the Woods'

Back to the Woods (1919)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Harry Pollard, Bud Jamison, Marie Mosquini, T. Henderson Murray, and Arthur Housman
Director: Hal Roach
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A city slicker (Lloyd) and his man-servant (Pollard) head into the country where they run into lions, bears, a flirtatious Native American girl (Mosquini), and gun-toting hillbillies (Jamison and Daniels).


"Back to the Woods" is a great short film that delivers an even mix of situational comedy and slapstick and features Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels not only at their best and working with some excellent material.

Lloyd plays another one of those love-starved/sex-starved characters that seems to have been his bread-and-butter during the late 1910s. His character is less obnoxious than in, for example, "Ring Up the Curtain" and "Hey There". which is good because if he had been he probably would have gotten shot by Bebe Daniels' character. Their interaction throughout the picture is mostly as equals, as they rescue each other from bears and the psychotic backwoodsman played by Bud Jamison. It makes the film more palatable to the modern viewer, I think.

The characters played by Lloyd and Daniels in this film are also more appealing that the ones they portrayed in "Off the Trolley" where they were equals who were equally interested in getting laid but also equally unpleasant personality-wise. While "Back to the Woods" has characters who are an example of opposites attract, "Off the Trolley" is one of perfect mates).
Aside from the character interplay between Lloyd and Daniels, the most amusing parts of the film are scenes involves them interacting with bears... and it appears to be Lloyd in some of the scenes with an actual bear.




The version of "Back to the Woods" I've embedded below is not only the one I found online that's the clearest visually, but the music track is also better and more thoughtful than much of what is provided for many of these films. Check it out--it's well worth 10 minutes of your day!


Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Get ready with 'Captain Kidd's Kids'...

Today seems like the perfect day to review a silent pirate movie, and to embed it in the post so you can watch it right here. Why is that, do you ask? Well,. because it's Talk Like a Pirate Day tomorrow!

 (Oh wait... maybe there's a slight flaw in this plan. Oh well... it's too late now!)


Captain Kidd's Kids (1919)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Harry Pollard, Bebe Daniels, and Helen Gilmore
Director: Hal Roach
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

After falling overboard from a cruise ship, an obnoxious young man (Lloyd) discovers his fiancee (Daniels) and her shrewish mother (Gilmore) are operating a pirate ship crewed entirely by sexy women.


"Captain Kidd's Kids" is a short film that takes too long to get to the pirates promised in the title. It spends half of its running time hammering home how unlikable and dumb Harold Lloyd's character with a series of gags where he's abusive to his servants and other hired help. What's perhaps worse is that the gags are only mildly funny and every one of them outstays its welcome because the routines are too long.

Things get a better once we get to the ship full of sexy pirates, but even here the gags are weak. While none drag on the way the ones in the first half of the film did, they are mostly so predictable that they must have be old back in 1919. There is a very funny and surprising bit involving dinner time on the ship, it's satisfying to see Lloyd's servant throw in with the pirates and pay is boss back for all the abuse early in the film, and Lloyd's ukulele strumming inspiring an impromptu pirate chick dance party inspires a chuckle, but otherwise this is a rather disappointing affair... especially since the idea of Lloyd's dorky trickster character going up against a ship of sexy lady pirates is a concept that held so much promise.

"Captain Kidd's Kids" isn't a terrible move... it's just disappointing, because it falls short of what it could be. But why don't you watch it for yourself and tell me if you agree or disagree with my take on it? It's embedded for your convenience below.






Friday, September 13, 2019

It's Friday the Thirteenth!

Bebe Daniels has volunteered for a scientific experiment to see if there's any truth to the idea that it's bad luck to stand under a ladder on a Friday the Thirteenth.





2019

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Picture Perfect Wednesday: Bebe Daniels

Bebe Daniels may be one of the most resilient actresses in film history. Born in 1901, she got her start as a child actor, at the age of 10, in the early days of the silent film movie industry. She successfully transitioned to adult roles in her teens, survived the dramatic shift to the talkies during her 20s, matured into dramatic roles in her 30s, and found a successful career in radio acting as she entered her 40s. She continued as a working actress in radio and on television until 1961.

Today, Daniels is helping to remind us of the unifying theme of this blog. (And you can click here to read reviews of--and even watch--several of the movies she appeared in, including the one that launched her long and varied career.)

Bebe Daniels as Joan of Arc
a