US © 1908 American Mutoscope & Biograph Company.
Dir: D. W. Griffith. Story: ?. Photog: Billy Bitzer. Cast: John R. Cumpson, Harry Solter, Anthony O’Sullivan, Mack Sennett, George Gebhardt, Robert Harron.
Filmed: 7.8.1908 (NY Studio). Rel: 4.9.1908.
Copy: DCP (4K), 7'22" (from paper print, 414 ft, 15 fps); titles: ENG. Source: Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus, Culpeper, VA.
Film Preservation Society (FPS) / Tracey Goessel / digital scan, 2017. Given the absence of original intertitles, new ones have been written by the Film Preservation Society. 2024 edition.
43rd Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone: Early Cinema - The Biograph Project.
Grand piano: José Maria Serralde Ruiz.
Viewed at Teatro Verdi with e-subtitles in Italian, 9 Oct 2024
There is no credit information in the film itself, just the title card with the year of copyright and the name and the address of the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, like in The Adventures of Dollie.
Tracey Goessel (GCM/FPS The Biograph Project 2024): "If Griffith’s early efforts can be fairly described as two steps forward; one step back, Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court represents one step forward; 27 miles back. It was produced in a single shot. A burlesque act, statically recorded; no more."
"It is hard to conceive that this was the product of a director who had already made such progress as early cross-cutting and even insert shots. Granted, such steps were primitive, but he had taken them. Why go backwards? Simple. The pressures of the production schedule meant that Griffith had to keep grinding them out."
"And so he ground this one out. An argument can be made that the action is almost too fast, too well-polished for a simple day’s rehearsal and shooting, suggesting that Billy Bitzer might have employed the early comedy cameraman’s trick of undercranking, speeding things up just a touch."
"Which is a virtue: for our money, this film could not end quickly enough."
AA: The visual quality of the new digital scan is quite appealing, and the intertitles with their colourful descriptions of the suspects (Happy Hooligan, Serpentine Sue the snake charmer, Flossie the pride of the boardwalk, Scrappy Rosenberg and Izzy McManus) help make better sense of the comedy.
Tom Gunning's 1997 remarks in The Griffith Project register his initial disappointment ("could Griffith have ever made a less 'Griffithian' film"?) but also his grudging acknowledgement: "the film retains a great deal of charm as both a record of one sort of burlesque performance and as an image of social history". Gunning also registers "Mack Sennett as Clarence the Cop, possibly the first screen appearance as a policeman of the man who invented the Keystone Kops".
I agree with Gunning. This is not a good film, but a rewarding one. We are in the heart of comedy, in the heart of cinema itself as the subversive art. The court of justice as a gong show. And the craft (though not the art) of the plan-séquence.
...
I saw Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court in GCM's Griffith Project (DWG 42), mattina 14 October 1997 at Ridotto del Verdi on 16 mm at 414 ft /15 fps/ 7 min without intertitles and Neil Brand at the piano.
...
Moving Picture World synopsis from Biograph Bulletin, No. 167, 4 September, 1908: " Socrates said "Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly and to decide impartially". These four qualifications were most assuredly possessed by the Hon. Patrick Henry McPheeney, Justice of the Police Court of the world's greatest playground.
Sunday night is a most busy one for the coppers, and the cooler on Monday morning is jammed with a fascinated mob of law breakers. Quiet reigns as we enter the Hall of Justice, for Bobby, the page, is in the land of nod, while Clarence the cop, who is addicted to the habit of smoking cigarettes in his sleep, is snoring that beautiful sonata. "Please go away and let me sleep."
Regina, the scrubwoman, arouses them, and Bobby, with the bell, opens court. The first to arrive are Mr. Ignatius O'Brien and Mr. Diogenes Cassidy, the attorneys. The gentlemen are bosom friends and get along together like monkey and parrot. Then, ta-ta-ta-tah! The Hon. Patrick Henry McPheeney enters. He is awfully brutal to Clarence, and snatches the cigarette from his mouth, hurling, yes hurling it to the floor, curse him! The Judge has a large gavel with which he calls the court to order; also using it upon occasions on the heads of the learned attorneys, when they become too demonstrative.
The first prisoner to be tried is Happy Hooligan. He is sent up so high it makes him dizzy; next comes Serpentine Sue, the snake charmer, arrested for exercising her subtle contortions on a frankfurter in lieu of the delinquent basket. She is sentenced for life, and should she make it out, is to be hanged. Two small boys are then brought in, charged with having shot the chutes. Diogenes' plea in their behalf brings forth such a flood of tears that the urchins float out on the tide.
"O! Look who's in our midst." Flossie, the pride of the boardwalk, has been so indiscreet as to wear a sheath-gown and an overzealous cop pinches her: but it is easy for Floss, as his Honor's hitherto flinty heart melts like an ice cream block perched on the equator, and he himself escorts her to her auto. Scrappy Rosenberg and Izzy McManus are next hauled in for prize fighting, so are allowed to give a sample of their talents. A spirited bout now takes place, which concludes with the pugs knocking out everyone in the court and then beating it. " — Moving Picture World synopsis from Biograph Bulletin, No. 167, 4 September, 1908
No comments:
Post a Comment