When Knights Were Cold

While most of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival is devoted to screening films preserved with the aim of being in their best shape since their initial releases, this year's online version ended with this incomplete slapstick short, "When Knights Were Cold," starring Stan Laurel. Missing the first of its two reels, it's absurdly comical in its opening with knights, with names made out of puns, riding fake, costume horses in a pretend medieval setting. As Rob Stone claims in his notes for Pordenone, there is a Monty Python quality to the parody. Later, swashbuckling sword fights are lampooned, as is the smooching with the damsel-in-distress, including as Laurel lays one on one of his male nemeses. There's also some sheet music shown for a musical ragtime gag during the wedding scene and a film-specific gag involving substitution-splices. It's all quite silly and rather amusing. It reminds me a lot of the same year's "Robin Hood" starring Douglas Fairbanks, although the film could just be a general parody of such fairy tales and swashbucklers.

As of the writing of this review, only one reel of this comedy is known to exist, but it is in pretty good shape at the Library of Congress and a projectable print is in existence and was shown at Slapsticon 2010 -- for my taste, much more important than the Chaplin discovery of A THIEF CATCHER, since that was about ninety seconds of Charlie in a supporting role and this is ten minutes of Stan in the lead.

It's not the Stan Laurel you know from Laurel and Hardy. Instead, at this stage in his career, he's doing burlesques of popular movies like UNDER TWO FLAGS and DOCTOR JEKYLL AND MISTER HYDE. Here he's taking on Douglas Fairbanks' blockbuster production of ROBIN HOOD and the gags keep on coming one after another, machine-gun style. No money has been spared for this production and it's very funny on its own terms, not to mention seeing Stan at this stage of his career.

And keep an eye out. That first reel could turn up anywhere.

A good comedy with Laurel cast as Lord Helpus. From that alone, you know not to take this period drama seriously, and it is just a good laugh. He has the black mascara around his eyes again because the blue of his eyes does not react well the black and white photography.