Højt paa en Kvist / [Up in the Attic]

Lau Lauritzen: Højt paa en Kvist (DK 1929) Fy & Bi / Pat & Patachon. Harald Madsen (Bivognen/Patachon) and Carl Schenstrøm (Fyrtårnet/Pat). From IMDb.

Lau Lauritzen: Højt paa en Kvist (DK 1929). Two dancers across the street: Marguerite Viby, Nina Kalckar. From IMDb.

Lau Lauritzen: Højt paa en Kvist (DK 1929). Two dancers across the street: Marguerite Viby, Nina Kalckar. From IMDb.

Lau Lauritzen: Højt paa en Kvist (DK 1929). Fy & Bi meet the dancing duo. Harald Madsen, Marguerite Viby, Nina Kalckar and Carl Schenstrøm. From IMDb.

[Su un soffitta] (Moster Malins Millioner) [I milioni di zia Malin/Aunt Malin’s Millions] (The Mannequins) / Keikareita, keplottelijoita ja kummituksia
    DK 1929. regia/dir: Lau Lauritzen Sr. scen: Lau Lauritzen Sr., Alice O’Fredericks, A. V. Olsen, Lau Lauritzen Jr. photog: Carlo Bentsen, Einar Olsen. asst. dir.: Alice O’Fredericks. 

    cast: Carl Schenstrøm (“Fyrtårnet” [SWE:“Fyrtornet”]) / Pat / “Lighthouse”), Harald Madsen (“Bivognen” [SWE: “Släpvagnen] / Patachon / “Sidecar”), Marguerite Viby, Nina Kalckar (le due ragazze / the two girls), Bruno Tyron (il pugile/the boxer), Emmy Schønfeld (Aunt Malin/the fortune teller), Mathilde Felumb-Friis (padrona di casa/landlady), Victor Wulff (l’avvocato/the lawyer), Gerda Kofoed (sua figlia/his daughter), Alex Suhr (impiegato/the clerk), Christian Arhoff (maestro di balletto/the ballet master), Anton de Verdier (il giudice/the judge), Lau Lauritzen Jr. (agente di polizia/police officer), Asbjørn Andersen (il signore in attesa/waiting gentleman), Aage Bendixen (falsario/counterfeiter), Arthur Jensen (vicino del piano di sotto/downstairs neighbor), 

    Henrik Malberg. prod: Palladium-Film. exec. prod: Svend Nielsen. uscita/rel: 26.12.1929 (Kosmorama, København). copia/copy: DCP, 97' (da/from 35 mm nitr. pos., orig. l. 2935 m, 24 fps); did./titles: SWE. fonte/source: Det Danske Filminstitut, København.

    Finnish premiere: 28 April 1930 Punainen Mylly, Piccadilly – control number 16325 – 2280 m.

    Finnish re-release (sonorized): 16 Dec 1945 Scala, released by Kelo-Filmi Oy – 2700 m.

    Finnish re-release: 10 Feb 1956 Pallas, relased by Oy Columbia Films Ab.

    Finnish telecast: 24 June 1965 Yleisradio TV1.

    Grand piano: Meg Morley.

    Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muro (GCM): Slapstick Prog. 4 Odd Couples, 12 Oct 2023

Ulrich Rüdel (GCM 2023): " By the late 1920s Pat and Patachon had cemented their stardom as Europe’s most popular comedy duo prior to their American successors in audience affection, Laurel & Hardy. During this time, they churned out more feature comedies than Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd combined, though obviously they never achieved comparable artistic heights. However, after 30 feature films variation was overdue, and they were loaned out for foreign productions in Sweden, Britain, and Austria, appearing under the direction of such well-known names as Hans Steinhoff and Monty Banks (Banks also directed Laurel and Hardy, in Great Guns, 1941). This strategy provided the necessary shake-up and further underlined their international popularity, but also bore the risk of straying from a highly successful blueprint. By 1928’s Filmens Helte, the “jubilee” 25th Palladium/Lau Lauritzen/Pat and Patachon collaboration, the formula had become both tried and tested but also somewhat tired and stale, yet Højt paa en Kvist the following year provided a charming return to old form at Palladium with director Lauritzen. "

" The title roughly translates literally as “High Up on a Twig,” a reference to the domestic comedy’s setting in an attic flat, conveniently allowing for some slapstick rooftop antics, as well as an ominous prediction by a fortune teller, a mix-up with a brutish boxer, and innocent romance with two pretty dancer neighbors thrown in for good measure. In the process the film greatly benefits from featuring not just one but two odd couples, with Marguerite Viby and Nina Kalckar adding considerable charm as the dancers the comics are smitten with. Another important duo helped with scriptwriting duties: Alice O’Fredericks (1899-1968) would become, teamed with the director’s actor son Lau Lauritzen Jr., the dominating creative force in a specific Danish genre, folkekomedie, a warm, gentle, and ultimately untranslatable word that literally means “folk comedy,” which established Marguerite Viby as a major Danish comedienne for decades. "

" Having appeared in a handful of Pat and Patachon films before (as well as in Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan), and having won a scriptwriting competition for Filmens Helte, O’Frederick made her debut as assistant director in Højt paa en Kvist. It is tempting to think that these female contributions in front of and behind the camera can take some share of the credit for the gentleness and charm that marks many of the Pat and Patachon films, particularly this one. "

" It’s precisely these qualities that make them, as the DFI’s Madeleine Schlawitz proposed, the ideal comedy team for the 21st century, lacking the humiliation and harshness one associates with some aspects of American slapstick that have not aged too well. This is not necessarily a new observation: “They own a gently tempered Danish humor, which compared to American knockabout comedy feels more tame, but also more congenially personable. Even Chaplin can be excessively tart […]. With the […] Copenhagen couple, the humor has a homely, sometimes even slowish quality to it.” (Robert Ramin, Filmkomik und Filmkomiker, Wegweiser Kalender 1931, Berlin) Arguably, the price to pay for this modus operandi was comic timing, precision, and the gag-focused approach of many an American (or British music-hall-trained) slapstick master. Where Laurel and Hardy might expertly revisit, vary, and ref ine sight gags and comedy routines sometimes even dating back to their solo careers, or where Abbott & Costello basically preserved a catalogue of burlesque routines on film in various permutations, Pat and Patachon focused on a comedy of  characterization, through amusing pantomimed reactions, here for instance with their infatuation with the two young dancers, or Patachon’s burgeoning appetite for their neighbor’s breakfast. Perhaps in that sense they anticipated the deliberate “slowness” of Harry Langdon (and, in turn, his influence on the “Stan” character) much more than echoing the gagmen ingenuity of a Chaplin, Lloyd, or Laurel. This is not, however, to say that Lauritzen’s actor/circus clown duo lacked slapstick skills; this is aptly evidenced not just by their popularity, which in many countries was on a par with their more famous U.S. colleagues, but, here, for instance, also in the clumsy yet zany and effective rooftop antics that nicely contrast with the domestic comedy. "

" The ongoing popularity of the Pat and Patachon films resulted in a number of sonorized re-releases and compilations, sometimes sporting elaborate musical settings and/or dubbing, an aspect of this comedy team’s enduring European appeal over decades which offers much promise for further research but also resulted in the loss of the original versions. In the case of Højt paa en Kvist, the re-release benefitted from music by prominent Danish film composer Sven Gyldmark. "

" All Palladium film materials are now with DFI in Copenhagen. However, as with many of the Pat and Patachon features that survive at the archive in reasonably or entirely complete form – which, alas, applies roughly to only a third of their output – this digitization derives from a Swedish nitrate distribution print, with a surprising number of changes to the number and content of intertitles compared to the Danish release, as well as several cast names (Carl Schenstrøm is credited as Karl Schenström, Emmy Schønfeld as Emmy Schönfeld, and Mathilde Felumb Friis as Mathilde Felumb). A 35 mm tinted Swedish trailer for this film was shown at the Giornate in 2019. " – Ulrich Rüdel

AA: I thank the Danish and Swedish archives for reconstructing Pat & Patachon feature films to their original lengths. I was introduced to them as a child (possibly also to Højt paa en Kvist in a 1965 Finnish telecast) in truncated versions, probably cropped, in overspeed (it was considered hilarious) with overdone sound effects (such as banging a sledgehammer when there is a pat on the back).

I have liked the achievements with Polis Paulus' påskasmäll (1925, GCM 2013) and Filmens Helte (1928, GCM 2019) and now Højt paa en Kvist. 

As a child, I rated Pat & Patachon to the same category as the Finnish comedy duo Pekka & Pätkä, but I now realize how much better they are. On a different level altogether.

In truncated versions, physical farce elements were highlighted, and aspects of character and atmosphere pruned. In longer / complete versions, the balance is reset.

The impact is similar to the access to the Harold Lloyd legacy: in the 1970s, the abridged television versions of his masterpieces were appealing enough, but only when the original complete versions became available, the full grandeur re-emerged.

The physical farce aspect in Højt paa en Kvist is embarrassingly inept.

But as soon as Marguerite Viby and Nina Kalckar, the dancing duo across the street, appear, the film becomes tender and appealing. It turns into a comedy of character and relationships.

A similar revelation was the presence of the funny ladies Eli Lehmann and Inger Schmidt in Filmens Helte, as well as the uncredited "Josephine Baker" character with the sunny smile, playing the Native American princess in the film-in-the film.

There is fun in Højt paa en Kvist with clothes borrowed without permission from a neighbour and clothes made by a tailor. But more durable fun is provided by the characters themselves, a fun that is innate, the impact perhaps not far from the folkekomedie later pursued by Alice O'Fredericks as highlighted by Ulrich Rüdel in his program notes quoted above. It is about creating a world of fun, in which the tiniest pretext may give an excuse to laugh. It is about inviting us to a company of people having a great time.