Ham and Eggs at the Front

Santayana wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." There was a time actors in blackface were accepted in society. It even seems to have been acceptable in more recent times by certain politicians who now feign contempt of it. The calls for censorship are as foolish as the act was when it occurred. Get over it. This movie is a relic of American cinema. It has its place in history.

I had to accompany this film once 4 years ago. I was assigned to play it because it was thought I could get this horror "over the hump" and make it tolerable. I did my best with it, but aside from the blackface - which I accept as a part of American entertainment history - the film's humour was infantile, the story was hackneyed, the justification Warner Bros. Publicized at the time for making this film was idiotic, and the "comic" business given the main characters was all the more revolting for the CONCEPT of giving it to blackface actors, who played their parts in the demeaning way written into Darryl F. Zanuck's screenplay. The only faintly amusing part was a sequence early in the film with a dog actually kibitzing a poker game. Even Myrna Loy, who also appears in blackface, recollected this film with acute embarrassment; she said she only did it because it was the first leading role offered to her at Warners'. There are relics of American cinema best kept away from the public at large; unfortunately in this country (the U. S.) there are many who would find it funny because of its stereotypes and their own racism, which this film would justify and reinforce in their minds. This is without a doubt the worst film I have ever seen in my 55 years of experiencing silent films. And the Italian archive that restored it was very proud of it and intended to tour it over here! That only shows how unaware some Europeans are of our country's history and current affairs.

This is a film that should have every element reprinted on nitrocellulose stock, the safety film materials discarded, and then placed in conditions where it would quickly rot.