INTRODUCTION TO FILM
SLAPSTICK COMEDY/MACK SENNETT/KEYSTONE KOPS
NAME CLASS PERIOD ______
BASED ON THE INFORMATION FROM THE TEXT:
1. Give three other examples of exaggerated physical violence (slapstick).
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B.
C.
2. In contemporary representations, where may we find an abundance of slapstick?
3. From what theatrical style is slapstick derived?
4. Give another example of a “slapstick” comedian.
5. What was Mack Sennett’s moniker?
6. What film studio did Mack Sennett create?
7. Who were Mack Sennett’s brightest stars?
8. What were the two top film studios in 1927?
9. What studio bought Mack Sennett’s backlog of films in the 1930’s?
10. Of what elements did Mack Sennett’s film formula consist?
11. What is a definition of the term “Keystone Kops”?
12. Originally, what was on the site where Mack Sennett built his studio?
13. What was Sennett’s studio space used for after it was sold in 1932?
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B.
C.
14. What inspired Mack Sennett to begin a film career?
15. As Mack Sennett became a producer and director, his films were slanted toward a mass audience. They were ______feasible and above all, ______. What was lacking in these early comedies of Mack Sennett’s?
16. According to Coy Watson Sr., what did Mack Sennett do to women’s bathing suits?
17. Watson specifically recalls one of the Mack Sennett sets. Pease describe it.
18. What effect did this set create?
19. Who was attributed for the first pie thrown in film?
20. The Keystone Kops films incorporated three important components of a Mack Sennett film. Please identify them.
A.
B.
C.
SLAPSTICK COMEDY
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence. (E.g., A character being hit in the face with a frying pan or running full-speed into a wall.) The style is common to those genres of entertanment in which the audience is supposed to understand the very hyperbolic nature of such violence to exceed the boundaries of common sense and thus license non-cruel laughter. Its greatest modern representations thus lie in cartoons and the simple, amplified film comedies aimed at younger audiences. Though the term is often used perjoritively, the performance of slapstick comedy, based on exquisite timing and unerring calculation of execution, character reaction and audience laughter, is considered among the more difficult tasks facing a live performer.
The style is derived from the Commedia dell'arte which employed a great deal of physical abuse and tumbling. The phrase comes from the battacio, a club-like object composed of two wooden slats which, when struck, produced a loud smacking noise; little force, however, is transferred from the object--called the 'slap stick' in English--to the person being struck, allowing actors to strike each other repeatedly with great audio effect while causing very little actual damage. Along with the inflatable bladder, it was among the earliest forms of special effects that could be carried on one's person. Karel Dujardins set his closely-observed scene of a travelling troupes makeshift stage against idealized ruins in the Roman Campagna: dated 1657 (Louvre Museum) Commedia dellarte, (Italian, meaning comedy of professional artists) was a form of improvisational theater which began in the 16th century and was popular until... The whip or slapstick is a percussion instrument consisting of two wooden boards joined by a hinge at one end. ... Special effects (abbreviated SPFX or SFX) are used in the film, television, and entertainment industry to create effects that cannot be achieved by normal means, such as depicting travel to other star systems. ...
While the object from which we derive the modern term dates from the Renaissance, theatre historians argue that slapstick comedy has been at least somewhat present in almost all comedic genres since the rejuvination of theatre in church liturigical dramas in the middle ages. (Some argue for instances of it in Greek and Roman theatre, as well.) Beating the devil off stage, for example, remained a stock comedic device in many of the most serious religious plays. Shakespeare also incorporated many chase scenes and beatings into his comedies. Building off its later appearance in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century ethnic comedians of the American vaudeville house, the style was explored extensively during the "golden era" of black and white, silent movies directed by Mack Sennett and Hal Roach and featuring such notables as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy the Keystone Kops, and the Three Stooges. Slapstick is also common in animated cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, Roadrunner. By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance *French Renaissance *German Renaissance *English Renaissance The Renaissance was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ... William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ... Vaudeville was a style of multi-act theater which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ... Michael (or Micheal) Sinnott (January 17, 1880 - November 5, 1960), better known as Mack Sennett, was an innovator of slapstick comedy in film. ... Harold Eugene Roach (January 14, 1892 – November 2, 1992) was an American film and television producer from 1910s to 1980s, born in Elmira, New York. ... Joseph Frank Keaton VI (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966), always known as Buster Keaton, was a popular and influential American silent-film comic actor and filmmaker. ... Chaplin in his costume as The Tramp Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, (April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977) was the most famous actor in early to mid Hollywood cinema, and later also a notable director. ... Laurel and Hardy Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are probably the most famous comedy duo in film history. ... The Keystone Kops was a series of silent film comedies featuring an incompetent group of policemen produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917. ... The Three Stooges was an American comedy act in the 20th century. ... A cartoon is any of several forms of art, with varied meanings that evolved from one to another. ... Tom & Jerry title card from the 1940s Tom and Jerry were an animated cat (Tom) and mouse (Jerry) team who formed the basis of a massively successful series of theatrical short cartoons created, written, and directed by animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (later of Hanna-Barbera fame), and produced... Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner The Road Runner cartoons are a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons created by Chuck Jones for Warner Brothers. ...
In recent times, some have criticized representations of violence for encouraging actual violence, a claim supported by the American Pediatric Association. Slapstick comedy has not escaped negative attention, though its lengthy presence in performance history and obviously fictitious nature often innures it from the censorious efforts aimed at video games and action films. Indeed, the uninterrupted modern presence of slapstick comedy--running in film from Buster Keaton to Mel Brooks to the Farrelly Brothers, and in live performance from Weber & Fields to Jackie Gleason to Rowan Atkinson--suggests it shall remain a part of the comedic landscape. Computer and video games A screenshot of Tetris for the Nintendo Game Boy A console game (better known as a video game) is a form of interactive multimedia used for entertainment, which consists of a moveable image displayed on a screen that is usually controlled and manipulated using a handheld... Action movies usually involve a fairly straightforward story of good guys versus bad guys, where most disputes are resolved by using physical force. ... The Farrelly brothers, Peter and Bobby, are screenwriters and directors of many popular comedy films, including Theres Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, Me, Myself and Irene, Shallow Hal, and Stuck on You. ... Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows in a staged publicity shot for The Honeymooners. ... Rowan Atkinson as Edmund Blackadder. ...
Mack Sennett, (January 17, 1880 - November 5, 1960), was an innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime, he was known as "the King of Comedy."
Born in Richmond, Quebec, Sennett was a son of Irish immigrants. His father was a blacksmith.
Sennett was a singer, dancer, clown, actor, set designer and director for Biograph, and founded Keystone Studios in 1912 together with Adam Kessel. Many important actors were discovered by him and started their career at Keystone. Those include Charlie Chaplin, Raymond Griffith, Gloria Swanson, Ford Sterling, the Keystone Kops and many more.
Sennett first acted in films at Biograph studios, playing low comedy parts, usually oafish rural types. His chance at directing came in 1912 at the new Keystone brand. His fast-paced knockabout style and good distribution as part of the Mutual program, insured recognition of the Keystone trade mark as well as his stars and his own name. In a very short space of time, that name became synonymous with screen comedy. In fact, when he left to produce independently, to be released by Paramount in 1917, he didn't fight to take the Keystone Brand with him, his own name proved more valuable.
Into the 1920s, his short subjects were in demand, with stars such as Billy Bevan, Harry Gribbon, Vernon Dent, Alice Day, Ralph Graves, Charley Murray, and Harry Langdon. He even mounted a few features with his brightest stars such as Ben Turpin and Mabel Normand.
In an ultimately poor business move in the mid 1920s, he moved over to Hal Roach. In 1927, Hollywood's two top studios, Paramount and MGM, seeing the profits coming in from short-subject companies like Educational, both got back into their own distribution and production after several years. Roach signed up with MGM, leaving Sennett now by himself at Pathe, but they were now on hard times because the hundreds of exhibitors that used to take their shorts had switched to the new MGM or Paramount subjects.
In 1928, Sennet bought property in the San Fernando Valley on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, founding his 38 acre (154,000m?) Keystone Studios.
Though Sennett occasionally experimented with color and managed to be the first to get a talkie short subject on the market in 1928, the huge overall comedown in quality really showed. The later silents and talkies were pretty poor. Though he had a popular series with up and coming star Bing Crosby, most of his stars, as always, deserted him for greener pastures. Dreadful films such as "Hypnotized" with blackface comedians Mack and Moran ended his career in the early 1930s.
He didn't lose everything, but he was no longer in film. He sold his backlog of films to Warner Brothers in the 1930s. They pretty much used it for occasional stock footage, but basically destroyed them when they took up too much space. Today many Sennett films, especially from his most well financed period in around 1917-1927, no longer exist.
In sum, Sennett's style made our great grandfathers laugh, but he was loath to ever change his formula of chases and messy fights. It was very nearly the same from his first to his last, aimed at the less demanding in the audience. Today his name is still highly recognizable, even to those who will have virtually no contact with his films, and the term "Keystone Kops" has become part of the language to describe incompetent buffoons with some supposed authority.
He died in Woodland Hills, California and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California
Part 1. The Studio
Originally the site was a horse ranch. It was purchased by the New York Motion Picture Company, which owned Keystone and Bison film companies.Later Mack Sennett acquired the property and created permanent sound stage buildings.
The studio building is still in existence. However, there have been multiple transformations since the original filming by the Keystone Company. The property was sold by Sennett in1932.
In the mid-30s, the studio was used as an ice rink. It also contained a small theater on the second level. During WW II, hard maple floors were installed to provide an even and durable floor for the gliding wheels of King's Roller Palace.
Next, there was a western motif; it became the Palace Barn Dance. Tex Williams and his Western Caravan gave forth with "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette" along with other such memorable songs. A sign outside the building read, "Dancing 4 Big Nights a Week," which was later changed to ". . . 3 Big Nights," then ". . . 2 Big Nights," and finally the lights were turned off, the musicians packed up their instruments and the doors closed. Country music had not yet found the strength it needed to continue.There was one last musical stint: a recording studio rented the basement for awhile.