Three Silent Movies

Enjoy THREE silent movies, each one artfully accompanied on our Barton organ by Tim Mesun with original scores he developed for this event. Laugh out loud to the antics of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Laurel & Hardy!

The Pawn Shop – Charlie Chaplin 1916 – 25 minutes Chaplin plays an assistant in a pawnshop who goes about his job in his usual manner: insulting eccentric customers and dusting an electric fan while it is running. When a customer brings in an alarm clock to be pawned, Chaplin engages in one of his most famous solo sustained comedy bits: He thoroughly examines the clock as if he were a physician and a jeweler – disassembles the clock piece by piece, damaging it beyond repair, and then carefully puts the pieces into the man’s hat.

The Scarecrow – Buster Keaton 1920 – 19 minutes Buster plays a farmhand who competes with his housemate to win the love of Sybil, the farmer’s daughter. He races around brick walls, jumps through windows, and as a result of a run-in with a hay thresher is forced to borrow a scarecrow’s clothes. When he trips into a kneeling position while tying his shoes, Sybil believes he is proposing marriage. They speed off on a motorcycle, with the farmer in hot pursuit. Scooping up a minister during the chase, they are married on the speeding motorcycle and splash into a stream, where they are pronounced man and wife.

The Lucky Dog – Laurel & Hardy 1921 – 24 minutes. In their first screen appearance together, Stan Laurel plays a penniless dog lover and Oliver Hardy plays a crook who tries to rob him and his new paramour. Mistaken identities, jealous reprisals and mayhem at a dog show ensue. This not the comedy duo that we later came to know – in this film Laurel is the star as the hero of the film and Hardy plays the main villain opposite him.