Runtime: 14 Minutes. Studio: Essanay. Director: Louis Myall. Main Cast: Harry Watson Jr., Alma Hanlon, H.H. McCullum.
Like many of you I love the big four of silent comedy (Chalie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon) and have watched their films many times to where they are completely ingrained into my mind. I have never and will never grow tired of the work of these comedic geniuses. However sometimes I like to take some time to watch some of the less well known of the silent movie comedians. Recently I have started watching some shorts from the often forgotten, Harry Watson Jr. Watson played a character called Musty Suffer. Like Harold Lloyd's early character, Willie Work, this character's name was a play on words. Essentially his name describes his condition in these films (Must he suffer?). A typical example of the fun to be had in these shorts is our Silent Film of the Month, Musty's Vacation.
With the over-the-top clowning that takes place in all of these Musty Suffer films, it should come as no surprise that Harry Watson Jr. had worked in the circus earlier in his career. As part of a comedy team (first named "Me, Him and I") with George Bickel and Ed Lee Wrothe, he had performed not only in circuses, but also vaudeville, burlesque and even Broadway. Wrothe would leave the team and the group would be renamed Bickle and Watson. On some of his films Harry Watson's name is followed by "of Bickle and Watson." Watson had even appeared in the infamous Ziegfeld Follies five times. The Musty Suffer series began in 1916 and one film was released each week. 30 Musty Suffer films were made and of that 30, 24 are known to survive. The films had been in the library of congress since 1959, but for most of those years they have not been seen. In recent years though Ben Model and Steve Massa have thankfully made these comedies available to be watched by all interested movie fans.
Moving Picture World, 1916
The storyline of this movie is just as bizarre and crazy as you could hope for. Musty wants to eat at a restaurant. However he must pay as he enters. Due to this he gives the cashier a book of meal tickets. The cashier tells him, "That's not your picture. You found this book of meal tickets." After being thrown out, Musty goes to "Dr. A. Skin: Beauty Doctor" so that he can look like the picture on the meal tickets. The procedures to make him look like that man are delightful wild and surreal, employing lots of Méliès style special effects and over the top slapstick gags.
Comparing this movie to the work of Chaplin or Lloyd, it can't help but come off as bizarre. This short film is as close as you can come to a live action cartoon and frankly it is zanier than many cartoons. Unlike Chaplin or Lloyd, this movie doesn't have a single foot in reality. However this is just what makes the picture so much fun. There is a delightful creativity and imagination here that I find impossible to resist. This film is also simply laugh out loud funny and what more could you want from a silent comedy.
Moving Picture World, 1917
Moving Picture World, 1916
The following is from an issue of Moving Picture World (Dated April 14, 1917), "Essanay in cooperation with George Kleine has launched a new series of 'Musty Suffer' comedies. These comedies presenting Harry Watson Jr., in the varied 'Mishaps of Musty Suffer,' will have a screen time of approximately fifteen minutes. They are released through the Kleine-Edison-Selig-Essanay Service.
"Through the co-operative plan, the two films alternate in making the release. The first production entitled 'The Fried Egg Hero,' was released by Essanay April 1. A week later, April 8, the second comedy, entitled 'The Soda Jerker' was released. The remainder of the series will be released as follows: April 15, 'Wet and Dry' by Essanay; April 22 'Truly Rural' by Kleine; April 29, 'The Ladder of Fame' by Essanay; May 6, 'Pure and Simple' by Kleine; May 13, 'Spliced and Iced' by Essanay; May 20, 'Starlight Sleep' by Kleine; May 27, 'Musty B. Young' by Essanay; June 3, 'Musty's Vacation' by Kleine. Filming of entire series has just been completed."
The following is an article from an issue of Motography Magazine (dated March 4, 1916), "Five of the ten or so single reel comedies produced by George Kleine and known as the 'Musty Suffer' series, were shown for review and generally approved, judging from the frequent and audible chuckles of the onlookers. These subjects are slapstick comedy of a pronounced type and the fact that the vulgar and the coarse have been avoided deserves to be remarked on at the outset. That is a highly commendable thing and exhibitors will doubtless thank the producers on that account first of all.
"These pictures in the main differ considerably from the usual run of screen comedies. The actors are from the speaking stage and their business is of the vaudeville and musical comedy style more than it is of pictures, which have grown away from the stage to quite an extent in slapstick comedy. Harry Watson is Musty Suffer, and his partner, George Bickle is Willie Work. Supporting them are several well known comedy actors; notably Dan Crimmins and Rose Gore (the well known Crimmins and Gore team) and Crissy Fitzgerald.
"Watson is most prominent and in each picture he is funny, there is a distinction between attempting to be comical and really being comical. Watson contorts his face and wears the most ridiculous sort of clothes or rags to good effect. Bickle and Watson perform with the boxing gloves in 'Hold Fast,' and despite the fact that comedy prize fights have been done and done again in pictures, everybody will laugh at this one.
"Each one of these five releases shown has a goodly of laughable incidents, and the 'Musty Suffer' series should be ranked with the best productions of the slapstick variety. In the five reels there was one pie thrown, once a man used pistols, there were no siphon bottles nor was there a policeman in sight; all of which is to bear out the statement that the 'Musty Suffer' pictures are a bit different, and wherever there is a demand for slapstick comedies they will fill the bill splendidly."
For anyone interested this film can be found on YouTube.
Resources Used
https://mediahistoryproject.org/
https://travsd.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/stars-of-slapstick-103-harry-watson-jr/
https://undercrankproductions.com/the-mishaps-of-musty-suffer/
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