Michael's Movie Grade: A+
Review: Now I am going to write about a festival of classic comedy films (1920's, 30's and 40's) that played at the Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, CA. They do these festivals fairly often so if this sounds great to you look for future times, and this also plays again tomorrow at 8:15 PT. There is plenty more great stuff played at the Old Town Music Hall, so if you are ever in southern California, this place is a must see for my fellow film lovers.
Starting off, Bill Field a very talented organist played a 1925 pipe organ called The Mighty Wurlitzer. Since there are many parts of these organs we usually wouldn't see, the Old Town Music Hall let us see all of it, with brightly colored lights so we could see it clearer. Needless to say this was amazing. Than the screen came down and before the films started we were all lead in a sing a long of such standards as When the Red Red Robben Comes Bob Bob Bobing Along, Under the Silvery Moon, and It Had To Be You.
Then came our first film Flying Elephants a 1928 silent short staring Laurel and Hardy, but not as a team. Since this was a silent it was accompanied by Bill Field playing the pipe organ. If you haven't seen a silent film with live accompaniment, you need to it is an incredible experience that is nothing like watching one of these films on TV. Just feeling the vibrations beneath you, hear the music as clear as only live music can be and just knowing you are seeing these films the way they were meant to be seen is just incredible. This is something I feel everyone should do before they die. As for the film itself, it was very funny. Scenes like Ollie fixed James Finlayson's tooth and Stan fishing were hilarious. However it did lack the later characterizations that Laurel and Hardy films would soon offer. It was still an excellent film though. Next up was another silent short called Bag of Gold, which while not as good as the first was still quite entertaining. This was also accompanied by the Mighty Wurlitzer.
Next after an intermission came a group of sound films. First came an excerpt (the car chase) from the 1940 W.C. Fields film, The Bank Dick. I think of The Bank Dick as one of the funniest feature films of the 1940's and listening to the laughter around me, I am not the only one who thinks that. The scene shown is reminiscent of the early Keystone shorts, but still remains distinctly W.C. Fields, making it a delight to see again. Next came a 1937 Our Gang (AKA The Little Rascals) short, Pigskin Palooka. The Our Gang kids were just as talented as the best of the adult comedians of their era and this short fully showed why. Unlike later shorts, this had no sentiment and was all slapstick, just what the gang is great at. Scenes like Porky and Buckwheat's "Goodbye", Buckwheat "tackling" an opposing player, and Alfalfa's touchdown are as funny as anything else we saw today and in some ways even better. Then came a quick clip of a highlight scene from Abbott and Costello's 1945 film, Here Come the Co-eds. The scene featured Abbott and Costello trying to clean up a college and having little to no luck with it. Next came Hide and Shriek, the last film Our Gang made for Hal Roach studios. This was a great way to end this era of their films and was just as funny as the first Our Gang film shown. Last but far from least was a 1934 Laurel and Hardy short Oliver the Eight. This was one of the many brilliant comedies Laurel and Hardy made in the 1930's and was a fantastic way to end this great experience.
If you get the chance to go to The Old Town Music Hall go, it is something every film buff should do.
-Michael J. Ruhland
