“Film Comedy’s Eves” Watchalong

You know how, when you read a book on film, you inevitably inflate your to-watch list to untenable levels (or pause your reading to check some titles out)? Or is that just me?

On that note, I’ve been reading Steve Massa’s Slapstick Divas: The Women of Silent Comedy. So far, it’s an expansive, indispensable survey of the work of women in the early days of film comedy with a few cheeky extras thrown in. As a devotee of The Silent Comedy Watch Party, I was already familiar with some of the women Steve profiles in the book, but obviously I wanted to see as much of their work as possible.

So, I put together a playlist featuring most of the women from the first chapter of the book, “Film Comedy’s Eves.” The list below was curated based on the prominence of the women in the film as well as general quality (although how good a comedy is is highly subjective!), but the youtube playlist has a few more titles included.

Two quick presentation notes: 

Some of the videos have music and some don’t, so you may want to check your volume level. 

The intertitles for some of these films are not in English, so be sure you have captions turned on for English translations.

I didn’t do write-ups for the films or the divas because if these films interest you, you should check out Steve’s book! I would also be remiss if I didn’t note that many of the women from this chapter of Slapstick Divas are featured on the Cinema’s First Nasty Women set. (See if your local library has a copy!)

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Little Moritz enlève Rosalie / Little Moritz Runs Away with Rosalie (1911) 

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The Diva: Sarah Duhamel (Rosalie)

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Boireau et la gigolette (1912)

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The Diva: Valentina Frascaroli

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Léontine garde la maison / Léontine Keeps House (1912)

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The Diva: Léontine (performer as yet unidentified)

Watch more BELOW the JUMP!

James Cagney pinches Mathilde Comont's cheek in a scene from Ceiling Zero (1936) with June Travis. Matty was born in Bordeaux, France, and had 76 acting credits from a 1908 short to 1937.