New-York tribune., 1921-11-27

called over, "of. breaking your neck One Of
the many ways have discovered"
Cheerful lads, what say you?
Temperament doesn't enter into the making
Of comedy. Ben Turpin and Clyde Cook, not
disslmilar in their working methods, offer little
or no difficulty to the director in charge. Nor
do they offer anything in the way of byplay to
the hopeful newspaper man standing near.
None of the comedy canneries are exactly
cheerful places, but the respective haunts of
the Messrs. Turpin and Cook are unqueston-
ably the most dismal studios in Hollywood
Turpin performs stoidly, in a matter-of-
fact way, much as brcklayer performs.
There are no bursts of inspired comedy, no
flashes of divine wit. The whole affair seems
quite drab and coorless, despite the fact that
the finished product will probably make mil
lions chortle in glee. He is making a living. he
feels honestly. That is all there is to comedy
He told me he doesn't read, doesn't go to thea
ters and never attends picture shows
IF went to movies when l got through
here" he said, at would be like motorcycle
cop going riding after hours for pleasure
There is no fun in seeing comedies after you've
been making the things all day long-thinking
up gags, breaking in new shoes tripping over
chairs, falling down broken ladders Say, what
makes you think comedy is funny?"
Turpin's elongated neck and popping. mis-
mated orbs make him comical figure. but
there his humor ends. He is morbidly common
place in his street Clothes In the studio CUPS
DO not fly between comedian and soubre.ta:
puns do not ricochet off the ivory shoulders
Of fair Phyllis Haver as the sawed-off Ben
his g.,
camera. There is nothing family suggestive
OF carnival spirit, nothing even vaguely call
ing to mind the JOY of Endeavor. No one on
the hilarious lot looks happy, as matter OF
fact, unless the scenario specifically demands
q smile.
In Clyde Cook I found another Turpin IN
manner and mood. Cook is a diminutiye
cockney Englishman, with a burlesque scrubbv
mustache, ill-fitting trousers and false
fronted shirt, which is devoid of collar sleeves
or launderer's care. The nclosed field in which
he works is woebegone place. a barren
waste peopled occasionally with slow-moving
crowds and putteed assistant directors. The
comic Clyde is no ray of light in the encirclng
gloom. Rather does he blend in with the dead
ly atmosphere of unrelieved ennui Nothing
could be more BADLY prosaic than the droll Mr..
Cooks conversation just prior to producing
what undoubtedly turned out to be an uproar-
iously funny slice of film.
Ihls, y know, is me lawst comedy in this
ere makeup Yep, sure; tryin' out somethin'
new for EN-. toff, y know. Patent feathers.
top hat, swanking, y know. All that Nope,
y cawn't tell 'ow they'll take it; never can.
It's all orfully uncertain"
But certainly also "orfully" serious. And
his English accent served only to accentuata
the pathetic note in his speech In Cook be-
ieve we have the saddest figure of the sextet.
perhaps. Life for him apparently holds forth
nothing but three meals day-and Hollv-
woods cafeterias are little enough to live forl
Hardly more appropriately ugubrjous
comedian could be found to round out thia
somber sixsome than Larry Senon. the ex
tended and narrow mirth provoker of the Vita
graphics. He is indubitably one Of the gravest-
looking mortals Hollywood houses. His gang
ling height, his gaunt face, his hungry ewes
all qualify him for place in tableaux vivants
picturing Starving Afghanstan" or "rhe
forsaken' or "In the Wake Of the Flood"
His expression fairly gnaws at your heart .
strings, strumming ooh. Dry Those Tears"
Semon walks as though the weight of tho
world rested upon his narrow shoulders. and
II you encountered him on Broadway or Sum
set Boulevard you would probably and pardon
ably lock for the rest of the funeral cortAga
But ne works not in morgue, but in q
chuckle foundry.
In general, the comedians philosophy Of life
is not cynical, but simply tinged with shade
OF Harding blue. Their views are not exact;v
pessimistic, but they challenge the world, mild
ly enough to produce the much advertised Silver
Lining. They make more money than they can
comfortably spend. and yet, you see, Money
Isn't Everything. These men are not exactly
rivals OF the Pollyanna school. Their horizon
IS one OF perpetual planning Of gags, stunts
ard wheezes and Jokes, just to make yon laugh (,
Ia task that makes sorrowful thia ssx.st ss
smile stealark