Word: slapstick
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1920-1929
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...TAMING OF THE SHREW-Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford hilariously interpret Shakespeare's best slapstick...
...turn. They have created no pedantic replica of Elizabethan comedy, but a vivid, hilarious farce. They have paid Shakespeare the double compliment of using hardly a word that he did not write and of brightening his meaning with new pieces of pantomime that are exactly Elizabethan because they are slapstick. They have translated into exquisite physical imagery the Padua which Shakespeare could not manage on the bare boards of his stage. The Taming of the Shrew is Douglas Fairbanks' first all-talking picture and the first picture in which he has ever appeared with Mary Pickford. His lusty voice, individual...
...Polly Moran carry off the honors over the other ladies of the cast, because they have more opportunity to be funny than the rest have to act. Joan Crawford, Anita Page, and Marion Davies are all acceptable in less distinctive parts. Laurel and Hardy present a little highgrade slapstick, and Buster Keaton's burlesque of the exquisite jewel dance that precedes him, outdoes them...
...with perfume; the spectators sniff-is it possible?-yes, they smell orange blossoms. Gus Edwards sings "Lon Chancy Will Get You If You Don't Watch Out;" Norma Shearer and John Gilbert put on the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet; Marie Dressier sings and prances around. Sometimes slapstick turns into comedy, sometimes comedy trails off into slapstick. The Hollywood Revue is not sophisticated but it is good entertainment. Best song: 'Singing in the Rain.' Prettiest girl: Joan Crawford. Silliest shot: Jack Benny covered with icing from the cake. Best shot: Marie Dressier imitating Marie of Rumania...
Strong Boy (Fox). Full-length, light films which substitute character comedy for slapstick, and homely atmosphere for romantic, amuse and charm adult audiences but rarely do well at the boxoffice. John Ford, who directed Four Sons and The Iron Horse, has now had a lot of fun showing how a muscle-bound baggage smasher carved his way in the world. To Smasher Victor McLaglen's girl, "promotion" meant a white collar; to Smasher McLaglen it meant a job he liked. Told to pick his own job after he kept a trunk from falling on the daughter of a railroad...