Movie-Town

Marjorie Beebe, a talented comedienne and actress of the early-sound era but nearly forgotten today, starred in a number of comedy shorts for producer-director-studio head Mack Sennett, and she was a brilliant physical comic who reminds me of Lucille Ball at her best during the I Love Lucy/Lucy Show era. This early-sound comedy short, shot in beautiful color and directed by Mack Sennett himself, really has no plot--most of the first reel takes place poolside where Beebe (who plays herself, Marjorie Beebe, actress in Mack Sennett films!) is chatting with an Italian count, played by Luis Alberni. Sennett himself appears, and there is some fine underwater footage in the pool, including a swimming sequence with Buster Crabbe, in one of his earliest film appearances, although a "non-acting" one. The second reel of the film takes place at a party. Music and show are provided by George Olsen's band, and their fascinating performance is a wonderful document of a pre-swing-era, 1920's dance band and their floorshow, which shows us how much is lost to us when we only hear music such as this on old phonograph records. Someone tries to convince Sennett to hire one Virginia Whiting (playing herself), a young woman hoping to get into films. Interestingly, this was the last of six comedy shorts that Ms. Whiting appeared in (in small roles) for Sennett. Her seventh and final screen credit was in a Charley Chase film at Hal Roach Studios. In this part of the film, Marjorie Beebe eats dinner with The Count, and a number of jokes are garlic-related. Beebe's natural,spontaneous comic style is a joy to watch throughout, and she looks great in color! While Mack Sennett's sound-era output is usually written off as awkward and not very funny--and often it is both of those--he was still taking chances, the use of color and the underwater photography being two interesting elements here. Overall, this is a fascinating curio sure to interest any fan of either Sennett or Beebe or early sound-era comedy shorts.

I recently found "Movie-Town" on YouTube and I recommend you try to find another source for the film...or perhaps there's a different copy posted on YouTube. All I know is that the copy I saw was in very rough shape. Instead of nice vivid two-color footage, the green-blue part of the film is almost black and the orange-red part is there....but not in great shape. Now this is due much to age...but also two-color Technicolor and Cinecolor are pretty ugly processes and never give you the full spectrum of colors. Oh, and incidentally, the sound also isn't all that good!

This film is from the Mack Sennett Comedies...though I didn't exactly think it was a particularly funny film. It's more an interesting curio, being such an early color film. It consists of Baron Gonzola trying to sell directors Mack Sennett and William Beaudine on his latest protoge, Marge (Marjorie Beebe). The beginning is set at a pool--where there's ample opportunity to gaze at Sennett's latest batch of bathing beauties. On hand also is Olympic champion Buster Crabbe...just before he went on to win the gold in the 1932 Olympics. Later, the action switches to a swank nightclub.

So is this film worth seeing? Probably not. But if you are a movie buff and you want to see and hear Mack Sennett as well as pre-Hollywood Buster Crabbe, then by all means watch. But it isn't that funny and the print quality is a serious detriment....so much so that I'm not going to rate this one as it doesn't seem fair based on the print.