Trevor Hallatt

I watched this film last night and although I'm a fan of silent stuff I know that sometimes it can be a little tedious but this was very good. It held my attention from start to finish and wasn't overly melodramatic as some films can be from this era. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys silent film.

This is a very good early comedy which I have on video (From British Film Institute). It's well ahead of it's time in that it's the sort of thing Keystone etc were doing 10 years later. Basically it's a man who's that engrossed in his book as he walks to work that he falls over a woman scrubbing her steps, walks into a skipping rope as children play and finally gets flattened by a steam roller. Two passers by pump him up with a bicycle pump. He thanks them and carries on along his way reading his book. I've not seen anything as funny as this from this very early period.

Stan arrives in the wild west, no place for a timid, mild mannered man! He's inherited a saloon from his uncle, unless he dies in which case it goes to his two cousins! It's not a bad film at all, I've only seen a few of Stan Laurel's comedies before he teamed up with Ollie but they are quite good and this one deserves a looking at if you're into the silent stuff. I'd give this one 7/10.

As nobody else has commented on it yet I might as well. Pretty run of the mill slapstick comedy of the time. Obviously from the title set at a sawmill. Larry Semon manages to get the girl in the end after a series of chases etc. Interesting to most people I would imagine for the appearance of Oliver Hardy as Semon's "competition". Perhaps rates 5/10.

The talking magpies Heckel and Jeckel rent a nest which happens to be outside the window of an old man and his dog. The old man sends the dog to tell the magpies to be quiet. They chase the magpies around the house and in the end the magpies end up in the hose and the old man and dog in the nest outside. Not a bad animated short

A sex comedy? Is that what it's meant to be? I suppose it's very much like a lot of this genre from the seventies. If you think of a George Romero film of this type then it's much worse. Admittedly there is some nudity to keep your interest but overall it's barely watchable.

It's difficult to comment on a piece of film only 1 minute long but the age of it makes it interesting. As you would imagine a woman climbs out of a window and rides off with her waiting lover on horseback. Made by Thomas Edison.

What makes this short remarkable is that it not only contains footage of Judy Garland but also Deanna Durbin (not mentioned in the credits) It was made as a showcase for young talent at MGM and led to a contract for Judy Garland, Deanna Durbin though was released and went to Universal Studios.

This is the best Christmas cartoon short I have ever seen, I have it on tape and watch it over the Christmas holidays along with 'The Night Before Christmas (Tom & Jerry). Sniffles tries his best to stay awake to see Santa but as soon as he's fallen asleep he arrives.