Only Me

Not much of the material in this short comedy is original, but given that most of it was recycled from other (and better) comics, it's pretty entertaining. Lupino Lane takes some ideas from Keaton's "The Playhouse" and Chaplin's "The Show", then adds a few gag ideas of his own, to create "Only Me".

If nothing else, it all fits together well, and it has a good assortment of slapstick material. Lane plays a great many different roles, and he does have his own style, with a persona rather different than either Chaplin or Keaton. It makes this movie more interesting than those features made by comics who more closely tried to imitate better-known talents, especially Chaplin.

Recycled or retread material is much more common now, with constant remakes or re-workings of older and better movies being churned out with little genuine effort or skill. Even movies with some original ideas are too often crammed full of labored references to other movies, not for any worthwhile purpose, but merely to show how clever the film-makers are.

Lane did not contribute a lot of his own ideas to this feature, but he did show that he appreciated the possibilities in the source material, and he performs it well. While "Only Me" is not especially original, it's entertaining, and this kind of feature is certainly more enjoyable than the slapped together rehashes or the formulaic money grabs of recent years.

This film is so much like many other silent comedy shorts such as THE SHOW (with Larry Semon) and A NIGHT IN THE SHOW (with Charlie Chaplin). But because it was one of the last silent comedies made, it is probably the best of these types of films because the concept appears to have perfected and improved upon compared to these earlier films.

Lupino Lane (not exactly a household name) plays 24 different roles in this cute short. Not only does he play obnoxious patrons but the act on stage as well--even the female ones! For this incredible dexterity alone, this film deserves not to be almost completely forgotten! And, the bottom line, it is funny and well worth your time.

This is the best comedy I've seen featuring Lupino Lane, an English music-hall veteran who came from a long family line of theater people. Lane appeared in numerous silent comedies in which he worked with top directors and gag writers, and yet, although he was a gifted performer, somehow he never quite rose above the second-tier of comedy stars. Lane was an acrobatic little fellow with a round face and a puckish expression; to contemporaries he might have suggested a more energetic version of Harry Langdon, but to my eyes he resembles a mixture of Eric Idle and Paul McCartney. Lane moved well and could take a fall like a Keystone veteran, but he doesn't have the vivid, distinctive personality of the top silent comedians. Beyond that, perhaps the biggest drawback of his films -- or the ones I've seen, anyway -- is that so much of his material is borrowed from other sources. Only Me is a cute comedy, clever at times, but the central idea is one with a long pedigree, and many of the gags will be familiar to silent comedy buffs.

Back in 1915 Charlie Chaplin made a two-reel comedy that was an adaptation of his early stage success, "Mumming Birds." This famous sketch, also known as "A Night in an English Music Hall," featured a show-within-a-show which is disrupted by a drunken man in the audience. The film version, renamed A Night in the Show, featured Chaplin in a dual role as two audience members, an upper class swell named Mr. Pest and a lower class bum named Mr. Rowdy. Mr. Pest has a number of run- ins with a bratty kid in an opera box who has brought a picnic lunch (including pies) to the theater; Mr. Rowdy, meanwhile, is so alarmed at the sight of a fire-eater on stage that he douses the man -- and much of the audience -- with water from a fire hose. There's little doubt that Lane (and his writers) saw the Chaplin film, for many of these details find their way into Only Me. There's even less doubt in my mind that Lane and his crew were familiar with Buster Keaton's 1921 short The Playhouse. This great comedy begins with a legendary dream sequence in which Buster plays all the personnel in a vaudeville theater. He's the conductor and the entire orchestra, all of the performers and all of the audience: men and women, young and old, including a bratty kid in an orchestra box (possibly a tip of the hat to Chaplin). Keaton's dream sequence is a fantastic cinematic achievement running several minutes, and ends when stagehand Buster is rudely awakened and told to get back to work.

In Only Me Lupino Lane and his crew took Keaton's concept and stretched it to fill two reels, with elements from Chaplin's film liberally sprinkled throughout. Lane's short begins, like both Chaplin's and Keaton's, with our star comic buying himself a ticket and entering the theater. Like Chaplin, he is a drunken swell in a tux, and before long he is having a conflict with a bratty kid in the opposite opera box -- who, like Chaplin's brat, has brought a picnic lunch along, including pies, and is soon flinging food at the swell. We quickly recognize that the kid, his grandpa, the band leader and the pit musicians are all played by Lupino Lane. And when a juggler takes the stage (Lane sporting a mustache and cape) and begins to juggle flaming torches, the swell becomes alarmed and sprays him with a fire hose.

Get the idea? Basically, if you've seen the Chaplin & Keaton originals this film will feel awfully familiar at times, and yet Lane manages to introduce some clever touches of his own that keep his interpretation of the material fairly fresh. One of my favorite bits involves Lane in drag as a Diva in a long gown, preparing to sing an aria; trying to get comfortable she kicks the train of her gown one way and then another, then kicks it so hard she flips herself over. Recovered, she sings, and as she hits some presumably high notes the camera zooms right into her wide open mouth! There are also some amusing moments featuring a bewigged stagehand (Lane, of course) dressed in livery, whose job it is to step out on stage and change cards announcing the various acts. This character's running gags anticipate the later Warner Bros. cartoons set in theaters, such as Tex Avery's Hamateur Night. After a melodramatic one-act in which a villain demands rent money from a impoverished woman (both played by Lane) and throws her baby (Lane) out the window, the show builds to a wild finale when the strong man (Lane) challenges anyone in the house to fight him, and the drunken swell takes him on. Mayhem ensues, and the show ends with one last surprise twist.

Taken on its own merits, this is a moderately enjoyable silent comedy. Buffs will recognize most of the source material, but the star comic himself is charming and fun to watch, and if you've never seen Lupino Lane before Only Me certainly presents a good look at what he could do. Incidentally, I mentioned up top that our leading man came from a show business family; in several shots in this film he is doubled by his brother, Wallace Lupino. Their cousin Stanley happened to be the father of actress/director Ida Lupino, who kept the family business going well into the TV era.