This is a great series. I love seeing these comedies with an all-new, live piano score—and all for free! That said, I’m starting to see repeats. That said, that’s not a bad thing. Saturday’s films were Feed ’Em and Weep and Steamboat Bill, Jr., both from 1928. In fact, May 12, 2018 was the exact 90th anniversary of Steamboat Bill, Jr.’s premiere. How cool is that? In a neat casting two-fer, Marion ‘Peanut’ Byron was featured in both films. And she was funny in both films.
Feed ’Em and Weep had ‘Peanut’ and Anita Garvin as completely inexperienced waitresses on their first day of work at a train-side eatery. The train arrives. The customers flock in. Food is delayed. As it’s rushed out, both waitresses sail over a table, sliding into food. The boss then takes matters into his own hands—and promptly sails over the table, sliding into food.
Much mayhem ensues as people try to go in the ‘out’ swinging door and vice versa. Except the doors are not marked ‘In’ and ‘Out’—hence the mayhem. When the train conductor arrives and announces that they’ll be leaving in just a few minutes, he is promptly trampled by the folks rushing to get back to the train. All’s well that ends—well—not quite well. But it was a funny film.
Steamboat Bill, Jr. starred Buster Keaton in the title role, a back-east college kid sent off to the wilds of the Midwest to be with his father, who he hasn’t seen in years. The very first sight gag involves the white flower in his lapel to be used as an identifier. It seems that, due to a special function taking place in the town, every man getting off of the train is wearing a white flower in his lapel. Father and son are eventually reunited. The plot, as such, is that Bill Sr. is a steamboat captain on the Mississippi river. A newer steamboat has just steamed in, owned by a rich, non-seaworthy captain. His daughter (‘Peanut’ again) and Bill Jr. are sweethearts from back east, and both parents, as dueling steamboat captains, are dead set against the two young’uns getting together. There are lots of slips and pratfalls as Jr. tries to acclimate himself to life on a boat. But trouble is a-brewin’ as is a big storm. In an iconic storm image, the façade of a house falls down around Jr.—literally—the upstairs window, fortunately open, lands right where Jr. is standing. During the rest of the storm, Jr. finally proves his mettle (and sea legs) by rescuing the girl, rescuing her father, and rescuing a minister who then officiates the lovebirds’ wedding, with the approval of both fathers. Fade to black.
As always, Ben Model provided a lively, entertaining score that included the tune to Victor Dalhart’s “The Prisoner’s Song” at the same time Jr. is singing it to his father who’s in jail. Mr. Model clued us in ahead of time to be looking/listening for it and it was fun when we came upon it in the film. It’s the little gems like this that improve the silent film experience for me.
MovieMeister
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