This short film takes a nostalgic look at the Mack Sennett comedies of the silent cinema era.
Social & External
The people behind it
Lou Marcelle
Narrator (voice)
Roscoe Arbuckle
(archive footage)
Billy Bevan
Chester Conklin
Louise Fazenda
James Finlayson
Phyllis Haver
Harry Langdon
Polly Moran
Charles Murray
In this Pete Smith Specialty short, clips from several unidentified silent films are woven into a story, with humorous commentary by Smith.
A newlywed couple tries to make her sea captain Uncle feel like a welcome house guest by giving him all the comforts of the sea...
A 1924 Jack Duffy comedy. Jean manages to be expelled from college to be able to go to Europe with her grandfather. When he learns about that, grandpa disinherits Jean and starts looking for a grandson to replace her. Jean dresses as a boy, Oswald. Grandpa then tries to marry Oswald and test his new grandson’s strength.
County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.
A 1920 Eddie Barry comedy. Eddie and Earle get a job at a seaside carnival tent and fool some people by dressing as Fatima the belly dancer.
Colonel Bunk, after seeing his first movie, appoints himself “supreme censor of the movies” and he and his Board of Censors set to the task of “pruning” a movie (in more ways than one).
Timid bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss discovers a magical mask infused with the spirit of the Norse god Loki. Donning it transforms him into an unrestrained, green-faced, cartoon-like wild man. While the mask grants him the confidence to woo a local singer, it also makes him the target of a ruthless mobster.
Instead of flying to Florida with his folks, Kevin ends up alone in New York, where he gets a hotel room with his dad's credit card—despite problems from a clerk and meddling bellboy. But when Kevin runs into his old nemeses, the Wet Bandits, he's determined to foil their plans to rob a toy store on Christmas Eve.
The trademark of The Phantom, a renowned jewel thief, is a glove left at the scene of the crime. Inspector Clouseau, an expert on The Phantom's exploits, feels sure that he knows where The Phantom will strike next and leaves Paris for the Tyrolean Alps, where the famous Lugashi jewel 'The Pink Panther' is going to be. However, he does not know who The Phantom really is, or for that matter who anyone else really is...
Four animal friends get a taste of the wild life when they break out of captivity at the Central Park Zoo and wash ashore on the island of Madagascar.
Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister makes the most of the situation after his family unwittingly leaves him behind when they go on Christmas vacation. When thieves try to break into his home, he puts up a fight like no other.
When an alien fugitive crash lands into a local puppy farm and begins turning people into machines that feed on puppy flesh, Dylan and her BFF Eddie have to decide whether or not to take on the SheBorg menace, and save the world.
John Brown is a bumbling but well-intentioned security guard who is badly injured in an explosion planned by an evil mastermind. He is taken to a laboratory, where Brenda, a leading robotics surgeon, replaces his damaged limbs with state-of-the-art gadgets and tools. Named "Inspector Gadget" by the press, John -- along with his niece, Penny, and her trusty dog, Brain -- uses his new powers to discover who was behind the explosion.
A 1923 Christie comedy starring Babe London and Dorothy Devore. Queenie (London) has sent a picture of her sister Katie (Devore) to her pen pal as if it was her. Now that the pen pal is in love and coming to meet Queenie in person, Katie has to pretend she is a child.
To win his girl Gertie back, Freddie decides to climb a high mountain and challenge a world champion.
A 1924 Neal Burns comedy. To show his son that there’s more to life than work, a rich man pretends he is getting married to a chorus girl.
A 1925 comedy featuring Walter Hiers and Jack Duffy. A theater company does a unique presentation of the Shakespeare classic after consuming gasoline in their drinks.
In order to escape from the police after a small car accident, Bobby dresses as a girl and a sailor in a boat ride.
A tramp enters a cabaret and orders a drink, but then is thrown out when he cannot pay for it. After trying again, he is told by the manager that if he wants to avoid being charged and sent to jail, he will have to work.
Scotland Yard investigators have to prevent the murder of Victoria Dickman when her name is found on a death list.
The Little Fellow finds the girl of his dreams and work on a family farm. He helps defend the farm against criminals, and all seems well, until he discovers the girl of his dreams already has someone in her life. Unwilling to be a problem in their lives, he takes to the road, though he is seen skipping and swinging his cane as if happy to be back on the road where he knows he belongs.
Aspiring filmmakers Mel Funn, Marty Eggs and Dom Bell go to a financially troubled studio with an idea for a silent movie. In an effort to make the movie more marketable, they attempt to recruit a number of big name stars to appear, while the studio's creditors attempt to thwart them.
After his girl leaves him for someone else, Herbert gets really depressed and starts searching for a job. He finally finds one in a big house which is inhabited by many, many women. Can he live in the same home with all these females?
A janitor at a bank is in love with a secretary and dreams that she has fallen in love with him too.
After literally swimming across the Atlantic Ocean, an Englishman takes a country trip across Canada on a railcar.
Eddie Murphy delights, shocks and entertains with dead-on celebrity impersonations, observations on '80s love, sex and marriage, a remembrance of Mom's hamburgers and much more.
In what might be his most personal and introspective hour yet, Bill offers hilarious takes on everything from male sadness to dating advice.
Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer, the Core Four are back in the killer's crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe.
This comedic retrospective mixes archival footage and scripted sketches as it revisits all the dread — and occasional delight — that 2021 had to offer.
Jimmy Carr refutes the idea that you can't joke about anything these days with his edgy takes on gun control, religion, cancel culture and consent.
The now estranged bandmates of Spinal Tap are forced to reunite for one final concert, hoping it will solidify their place in the pantheon of rock 'n' roll.
When college friends reunite after 15 years over the Christmas holidays, they discover just how easy it is for long-forgotten rivalries and romances to be reignited.
Ricky Gervais tackles life, death and the state of the world in a brutally honest special that spares no topic, even his own mortality.
Disgraced and cast out of his tribe for lusting after Lana, the mate of the tribe's head muscle man, Atouk stumbles along gathering other misfits and learning a bit about the world outside of his cave. Eventually he and friends Lar and Tala learn the secrets of fire, cooked meat, and how to defend themselves from the brutal, yet very stupid dinosaurs.
Hired to helm an Americanized take on a British play, director Lloyd Fellowes does his best to control an eccentric group of stage actors. With a star actress quickly passing her prime, a male lead with no confidence, and a bit actor that's rarely sober, chaos ensues in the lead up to a Broadway premiere.
Self-deprecating comic Russell Howard plows ahead through politics, porn, social media and his own shortcomings. Yet he somehow keeps it positive.
Firefighter Charlie Chaplin is tricked into letting a house burn by an owner who wants to collect on the insurance.
A group of teens hit the road in a stolen driver's ed car, racing against time to help a lovesick high school senior track down his college-freshman girlfriend and win her back.
Three manic idiots—a lawyer, a cab driver and a handyman—team up to run a ballet company to fulfil the will of a millionaire. Stooge-like antics result as the trio try to outwit the rich widow and her scheming big-shot lawyer, who also wants to run the ballet.
The characters we met a little more than a decade ago return to East Great Falls for their high school reunion. In one long-overdue weekend, they will discover what has changed, who hasn’t, and that time and distance can’t break the bonds of friendship.
