I love silent movies, especially comedies and especially when they're presented the way God and Cecil B. DeMille intended — at the proper projection speed and with proper musical accompaniment. I also like to see them with an audience but we'll settle for two out of three here. For some time now, a gent named Ben Model has been presenting great silent pics online. He's a fine pianist and an expert on the material he's accompanying, plus he brings in other experts to supplement his online presentations.
Each week, he offers up a program of well-selected silent comedies and he does these live online, though we're about to look at one that was recorded on June 13. The point is you can watch them live every Sunday at 3PM Eastern Time. There's a lot of talk and history preceding each film and I find it all fascinating.
If you don't — if you just want to watch the movies — you might want to catch the replays so you can fast-forward. One friend of mine told me he started doing it that way but one day, he watched a little of the commentary and history, got hooked and now watches Ben's presentations live or delayed, start to finish.
Either way, it's free…though I think an occasional donation is in order. Mr. Model and his crew do a great job.
To perhaps get you hooked, I selected a Silent Comedy Watch Party from a few weeks ago with two great shorts. There's Harry Langdon in one of his best ones, All Night Long and even better is Buster Keaton in Cops. In my opinion, Cops is about as good a comedy short as anyone ever made. It's joke after joke, great physical feat after great physical feat…and as a bonus, you get a nice look at how Los Angeles looked in 1922.
Langdon can be an acquired taste so if you're totally new to silent comedies, start with Cops, which starts in the video below at this point. Then go back and watch the commentary that precedes it. Then go back and watch All Night Long. Then plan on joining future Silent Comedy Watch Parties and catching up on ones you've missed. Or you can just watch all of this one in sequence by clicking below…