Keystone Hotel | |
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Directed by | Ralph Staub |
Written by | Joe Traub |
Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
Release date |
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Running time | 15 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Keystone Hotel is a 1935 two-reel comedy short subject, directed by Ralph Staub and released by the Vitaphone Corporation through Warner Bros. Pictures. Inspired by the silent comedies produced by Mack Sennett, the film reunites many of Sennett's former stars.
Cross-eyed Count Drewa Blanc arrives at the busy Keystone Hotel to judge a fashion show.
In the hotel lobby, the chief of police, the mayor, and a gangster try to sway the Count's decision. Upstairs, the house detective investigates some marital shenanigans, some involving a vibrating exercise machine.
The fashion show is held in a banquet hall, where the hotel manager introduces the contestants. The winner is chosen, but the myopic Count awards the trophy to the wrong woman. The winner protests, "How dare you give it to her when I should get it!" She does—an airborne pie misses its target and hits her. This prompts a huge pie fight, and the hotel detective sends for the Keystone Cops. The Cops spring into action and encounter several detours and difficulties before crashing into the hotel.
In an interview with Leonard Maltin, director Ralph Staub recalled:
The studio went ahead with silent-comedy revivals anyway, consulting its backlog of Mack Sennett silent comedies and compiling them as new two-reel subjects with wisecracking narration. This series of six shorts ran from 1939 to 1945, beginning with a two-reel condensation of the Ben Turpin feature A Small Town Idol . The others were Love's Intrigue, Happy Faces, Wedding Yells, Happy Times and Jolly Moments, and Good Old Corn. [2] The series continued as "Vitaphone Novelties" (now one reel each, ending with Here We Go Again in 1952). Many of these Warner shorts included footage from Keystone Hotel, without the soundtrack, as exhibits of "authentic" Keystone comedy.
Warner Bros. reissued Keystone Hotel to theaters in 1947 with a new title sequence and an updated musical score. The 1947 edition was first reprinted for television in 1957, and was edited into a one-reel, silent 8mm home movie in 1967. The 1947 reissue is the version that aired on Turner Classic Movies.
The Keystone Cops are fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent film slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917.
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career.
Bernard "Ben" Turpin was an American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films. His trademarks were his cross-eyed appearance and adeptness at vigorous physical comedy. A sometimes vaudeville performer, he was "discovered" for film while working as the janitor for Essanay Studios in Chicago. Turpin went on to work with notable performers such as Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, and was a part of the Mack Sennett studio team. He is believed to have been the first filmed "victim" of the pie in the face gag. When sound came to films, Turpin chose to retire, having invested profitably in real estate, although he did do occasional cameos.
Tillie's Punctured Romance is a 1914 American silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Cops. The picture is the first feature-length comedy and was the only feature-length comedy made by the Keystone Film Company.
Keystone Studios was an early film studio founded in Edendale, California on July 4, 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from actor-writer Adam Kessel (1866–1946) and Charles O. Baumann (1874–1931), owners of the New York Motion Picture Company. The company, referred to at its office as The Keystone Film Company, filmed in and around Glendale and Silver Lake, Los Angeles for several years, and its films were distributed by the Mutual Film Corporation between 1912 and 1915. The Keystone film brand declined rapidly after Sennett went independent in 1917.
Edgar Livingston Kennedy was an American comedic character actor who appeared in at least 500 films during the silent and sound eras. Professionally, he was known as "Slow Burn", owing to his ability to portray characters whose anger slowly rose in frustrating situations.
Educational Pictures, also known as Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. or Educational Films Corporation of America, was an American film production and film distribution company founded in 1916 by Earle Hammons (1882–1962). Educational primarily distributed short subjects; it is best known for its series of comedies starring Buster Keaton (1934–37) and the earliest screen appearances of Shirley Temple (1932–34). The company ceased production in 1938, and finally closed in 1940 when its film library was sold at auction.
Ford Sterling was an American comedian and actor best known for his work with Keystone Studios. One of the 'Big 4', he was the original chief of the Keystone Cops.
Chester Cooper Conklin was an early American film comedian who started at Keystone Studios as one of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops, often paired with Mack Swain. He appeared in a series of films with Mabel Normand and worked closely with Charlie Chaplin, both in silent and sound films.
Ralph Staub was a movie director, writer, and producer.
Tango Tangles is a 1914 American film comedy short starring Charles Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle. The action takes place in a dance hall, with a drunken Chaplin, Ford Sterling, and the huge, menacing, and acrobatic Arbuckle fighting over a girl. The supporting cast also features Chester Conklin and Minta Durfee. The picture was written, directed and produced by Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios and distributed by Mutual Film Corporation.
The Golden Age of Comedy (1957) is a compilation of silent comedy films from the Mack Sennett and Hal Roach studios, written and produced by Robert Youngson.
The L-KO Kompany, or L-KO Komedies, was an American motion picture company founded by Henry Lehrman that produced silent one-, two- and very occasionally three-reel comedy shorts between 1914 and 1919. The initials L-KO stand for "Lehrman KnockOut".
Hollywood Cavalcade is a 1939 American film featuring Alice Faye as a young performer making her way in the early days of Hollywood, from slapstick silent pictures through the transition from silent to sound.
Al St. John (1893–1963) was an American comic actor who appeared in 394 films between 1913 and 1952. Starting at Mack Sennett's Keystone Film Company, St. John rose through the ranks to become one of the major comedy stars of the 1920s, though less than half of his starring roles still survive today. With the advent of sound drastically changing and curtailing the two-reel comedy format, St. John diversified, creating a second career for himself as a comic sidekick in Western films and ultimately developing the character of "Fuzzy Q. Jones", for which he is best known in posterity.
A Small Town Idol is a 1921 American silent feature comedy film produced by Mack Sennett and released through Associated First National. The film stars Ben Turpin and was made and acted by many of the same Sennett personnel from his previous year's Down on the Farm. Sennett and Erle C. Kenton directed.
The Big V Comedies were two-reel comedy film shorts produced by Warner Bros. and Vitaphone between 1931 and 1938, contemporary of the more famous Hal Roach, Mack Sennett and Columbia Pictures comedies.
Salome vs. Shenandoah is a 1919 American silent film comedy short directed by Ray Grey, Erle C. Kenton, and Ray Hunt. It starred Ben Turpin, Charles Murray, and Phyllis Haver. It was produced by Mack Sennett and distributed by Famous Players–Lasky and Paramount Pictures.
At It Again is a 1912 American short silent comedy film produced and directed by Mack Sennett. The film stars Fred Mace, Mack Sennett, Ford Sterling, Mabel Normand and Alice Davenport.