The Movies

Movies, The (1925)

** (out of 4)

Lloyd Hamilton plays a country boy who goes to NYC and gets mixed up with a hot-head before landing a spot in the movies as a stand-in. This film was made a couple years after Arbuckle's infamous rape/murder case so he was working under his fake name of William Goodrich. This film also served as a comeback for star Hamilton who had also been blacklisted over a stabbing incident, which he wasn't involved with but it still ruined his career. Hamilton was a big silent star but today he just comes off as a mix between Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. He had a couple funny bits here but nothing that would make me go out and search for more of his film.

This movie stars Lloyd Hamilton (a silent screen comedian very few would remember today) but the real star involved with this picture is the director, Fatty Arbuckle--though he is credited as "William Goodrich" due to the rape/manslaughter scandal that ruined Fatty's career.

I watched and reviewed this movie about a year and a half ago and gave it a rating of 5. However, in seeing it again, I found myself laughing more and really enjoying the film. Perhaps I was a real serious mood the day I first watched it. I must say it was pretty cute and I enjoyed it enough to see it again.

One scene I particularly loved was in the beginning, this was set on the farm where Lloyd lived with his country-loving parents. He decides to go to the evil "big city" and his parents beg him to stay. Then, he walks out off the property--right into the city! The farm is surrounded by businesses and skyscrapers--an excellent sight gag. Also, the bit involving the cop and the bully was also pretty clever.

Overall, a very good comedy but one that could have been so much better had Arbuckle been able to star in it and not just direct it.

Lloyd Hamilton was one of the most imaginative (and among the funniest) of all the silent-film comedians. Why is he utterly forgotten? Unfortunately, the original negatives for a large percentage of his films were lost when the Fox warehouse burnt in the early 1930s. Hamilton was not handsome or graceful like Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd; nor was he dapper, like Raymond Griffith. And unlike Harry Langdon and (again) Chaplin, Hamilton did not try for audience sympathy.

However, his films were hugely popular at the time of their original release, and they remain hilarious today. Oscar Levant once claimed that he asked Chaplin if there was any other comedian whom he'd ever envied, and Chaplin instantly named Lloyd Hamilton. The character most frequently portrayed by Hamilton on screen -- a flat-capped naff, with fastidious hand gestures and a duck-like walk -- was later adapted by vaudeville comedian Eddie Garr (Teri Garr's father), and further adapted by Jackie Gleason as his 1950s TV character 'The Poor Soul'.

'The Movies', directed pseudonymously by Roscoe Arbuckle, is one of Hamilton's most innovative shorts, and it's hilarious. We first see him as a country boy, bidding farewell to his family outside their homespun cottage, on his way to the big city. Then he steps away from the cottage, and we see that it's IN the big city, with traffic booming all round him!

Eventually, our hero ends up at a restaurant (uncredited, but it's the Montmartre Cafe in downtown L.A.) where all the movie actors eat between takes. There's an amusing gag when Hamilton's bumpkin character meets three actors in costume and makeup as Presidents Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt: this gag would have been funnier if the impostors looked more like the originals. Finally, our lad seats himself at a table, hoping to meet a celebrity. Sure enough, entering the restaurant and sitting at the very next table is a big movie star ... none other than Lloyd Hamilton! There's a very well-made double-exposure shot -- the join is nearly invisible -- when Lloyd Hamilton as himself greets Lloyd Hamilton as the country boy.

Sadly, Hamilton's peak period of creativity was very brief. He began his film career in crude slapstick films as one half of a double act (Ham and Bud, opposite Bud Duncan), and had a brief and blazing period of stardom in shorts during the late silent period. Sound movies were not kind to Hamilton, and he was quickly shoved down the cast list in some crude early talkies. Then he died young. Fortunately, 'The Movies' is quite funny, and a splendid introduction to this unique comedians' style. I'll rate it 7 out of 10.

Lloyd "Ham" Hamilton is the Forgotten Man of the silent era. Although he never made the top tier of comedians alongside Chaplin and Keaton he was popular with the public and respected by his peers, but, like his friend and colleague Charley Chase, Ham never received the recognition that was his due. Worse still where posterity is concerned, much of his work was destroyed in a vault fire in the late '30s, leaving only a handful of his films scattered across the world. Of these survivors Nobody's Business is the best I've seen to date, but The Movies is an amusing and intriguing two-reel comedy that offers the added bonus of featuring our hero in a dual role. First we encounter him in his usual screen persona, i.e. "Ham," a sad sack forever dogged by hard luck, and then we meet comedian Lloyd Hamilton, playing himself, surrounded by his fellow movie-makers. There are good gags throughout this comedy but it's the inside jokes about Hollywood and the movie business that represent the most off-beat and interesting elements.

The first half plays like one of Ham's typical misadventures. Almost immediately upon his arrival in the big city (a great visual gag in itself) his difficulties begin and then quickly multiply. He has trouble crossing the street, trouble with a cop, and trouble when he collides with a big guy who seems to take the matter very much to heart. Eventually Ham winds up in a restaurant favored by movie actors, where he encounters exotic women and odd-looking persons wearing historical costumes. In an especially surreal moment he sees three of the four U.S. Presidents carved on Mount Rushmore dining together. Appropriately, Abraham Lincoln is assigned the punch-line to this sequence.

Soon after, comedian Lloyd Hamilton enters the restaurant with his director, and this is where the film's major inside joke occurs: Hamilton, who is walking with the aid of a cane, laments that he can't finish his current picture because of a leg injury. In 1915, during his early years in the movies, Hamilton did indeed injure his leg badly while filming a stunt, and the injury was serious enough to sideline him for months. That was the unhappy reality of the situation, but in this comic re-imagining of the event Hamilton's director spots "Ham" at the next table (thanks to the clever use of split-screen photography) and gets the notion to sign this look-alike to double for the star, thus enabling the studio to complete the project.

Unfortunately, the final sequence in the movie studio feels rushed and isn't as inspired as we might like. Director Roscoe Arbuckle, who certainly knew a thing or two about the movie business, apparently ran out of inspiration at this crucial point and wrapped things up with a couple of perfunctory gags instead of a real finale. Nonetheless, The Movies is a pleasant and diverting comedy over all, and it may serve to sharpen the viewer's interest in the talented, star-crossed and elusive Lloyd Hamilton. We can only hope for more discoveries from the vaults!

Yes, I know, Roscoe Arbuckle didn't like to be called 'Fatty', but I couldn't resist the joke.

This is a fine Lloyd Hamilton short from his peak period, directed by Roscoe. The two work together with lots of good gags and Roscoe's usual attention to the details of shooting the picture in an interesting manner. Most comedians preferred flat lighting and a still camera to make them more interesting. Roscoe uses a couple of long tracking shots and some nice camera trickery to tell his story and to show Ham as a fine actor, as well as a talented comedian.

This story plays with some interesting themes, like Lloyd's classic MOVE ALONG: here it's about perceptions of reality and the confusion that movies make of them. Or you might choose to ignore such issues and laugh your head off.