Tweet Vehicular Disasters in Silent Film

The Blacksmith turned into a horror movie for me - the way that beautiful, luxurious, showroom-ready looking car was smashed in so many unlikely ways. The rest of the short I was perfectly okay with, but that car... damn, just damn!
I didn't realize a Keaton short could impact me so emotionally.

Martie

Haven't seen this, & based on this description, I never will. The amusement derived by most from seeing something destroyed is an element of the human psyche incomprehensible to me, though, clearly, that "pleasure" appears to be almost universal; destruction, that is, merely for the sake of laughs, not as a serious demonstration that the destoyer has lost his mind, gone berserk, etc. Antique cars, it so happens, have enthralled me since high school, when I acquired a dilapidated '34 Ford, & several others since (very expensive hobby that my resources couldn't sustain!), but I get no kick from seeing anything mindlessly destroyed.

Nell Shipman's SOMETHING NEW (1920) is one long vehicular disaster for the poor Maxwell automobile she and her crew put the car through in the Texas Desert. Nell is a gal who gets kidnapped by bandits and her boyfriend(also real life bf) uses a 1920 Maxwell, fresh off the showroom, to scamper over rocks and jagged edges to get to Nell. After some pretty helacious driving he gets to her in the knick of time, (notice Nell's dog in the back seat) and they escape putting the car through more desert paces.

At one point in the chase/flee the car is somewhat shiny/polished after Truyle punishes it in the desert and sand. Obviously several Maxwell examples were being used. I was expecting that car to just fall apart at the end, much like the Blues Brothers Dodge Polara did at the end of that 1980 film. This car 'abuse' also reminded me of the multi car destruction by WC Fields in IF I HAD A MILLION(1932).

here's a screen pic:
http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/So ... w1920.html" target="_blank

[Christopher Jacobs]

The Blacksmith turned into a horror movie for me - the way that beautiful, luxurious, showroom-ready looking car was smashed in so many unlikely ways. The rest of the short I was perfectly okay with, but that car... damn, just damn!
I didn't realize a Keaton short could impact me so emotionally.

Martie

Haven't seen this, & based on this description, I never will. The amusement derived by most from seeing something destroyed is an element of the human psyche incomprehensible to me, though, clearly, that "pleasure" appears to be almost universal; destruction, that is, merely for the sake of laughs, not as a serious demonstration that the destoyer has lost his mind, gone berserk, etc. Antique cars, it so happens, have enthralled me since high school, when I acquired a dilapidated '34 Ford, & several others since (very expensive hobby that my resources couldn't sustain!), but I get no kick from seeing anything mindlessly destroyed.

Well, such a long time since the film's release it's sometimes harder to keep in mind that these cars were not antiques at the time. Watching the systematic destruction of the beautiful and fancy new car in Keaton's THE BLACKSMITH may be wince-inducing, but it would be equivalent to watching a modern comedy that shows a 2012 Cadillac or Lexus or Mercedes, etc. get demolished -- in cases like this it's less about the visceral primitive urge for destruction and more about the vicarious satisfaction of seeing somebody else's overpriced toy get damaged because we could never afford one ourselves. Now in a film like TWO TARS, on the other hand (or BIG BUSINESS, or ...), it's all about the joy of breaking things.

it's all about the joy of breaking things.

That's what I don't get. Has nothing to do with whether the item in question was old or new, valuable or worthless. I don't own any luxury vehicle, & never will, but for me, it's hard to find the amusement in seeing one trashed.

[silentfilm]

The car destruction in The Blacksmith makes me wince as well as laugh. I think that one reason is that the rich car owner, while maybe fussy about his new car, didn't really deserve to have his car destroyed. On the other hand, in Two Tars, the cars were not as fancy and their occupants did so something rude to somebody else in the traffic jam, meaning that in comic terms they deserved what they got.

Now in a film like TWO TARS, on the other hand (or BIG BUSINESS, or ...), it's all about the joy of breaking things.

I just saw BIG BUSINESS for the first time a few months ago and laughed so hard I cried. It is destruction on a Wagnerian, Gotterdamerung level and carried out with such glee. It was extremely satisfying.

There's a beautifully filmed train wreck in ORLACS HANDE (well, the aftermath of a train wreck, to be precise).
It's quite mesmerising - probably the best thing in the film.

The car destruction in The Blacksmith makes me wince as well as laugh. I think that one reason is that the rich car owner, while maybe fussy about his new car, didn't really deserve to have his car destroyed. On the other hand, in Two Tars, the cars were not as fancy and their occupants did so something rude to somebody else in the traffic jam, meaning that in comic terms they deserved what they got.

As much as I like Harold Lloyd and what Walter Kerr labelled the "Architect of Sympathy" created for his Glasses character, I've never enjoyed the sequence in HOT WATER where his hard-earned new car is systematically destroyed while his misanthropic in-laws remain indifferent to his troubles.

Now in a film like TWO TARS, on the other hand (or BIG BUSINESS, or ...), it's all about the joy of breaking things.

I just saw BIG BUSINESS for the first time a few months ago and laughed so hard I cried. It is destruction on a Wagnerian, Gotterdamerung level and carried out with such glee. It was extremely satisfying.

And yet, you're the one who doesn't care for the Three Stooges, right? (Correct me if I'm being a Weisenheimer, I'm probably just typecasting.) I had thought there was a pretty clear line with BIG BUSINESS and the stooges on one side, and all of what's lovely in civilization on the other. But apparently, I was being too simple.

I just saw BIG BUSINESS for the first time a few months ago and laughed so hard I cried. It is destruction on a Wagnerian, Gotterdamerung level and carried out with such glee. It was extremely satisfying.

And yet, you're the one who doesn't care for the Three Stooges, right? (Correct me if I'm being a Weisenheimer, I'm probably just typecasting.) I had thought there was a pretty clear line with BIG BUSINESS and the stooges on one side, and all of what's lovely in civilization on the other. But apparently, I was being too simple.

Don't ask me to explain it, I can't, I just live with the inherent contradiction. In my more reflective moments it causes me angst and despair. Oh wait...no it doesn't.

The Blacksmith turned into a horror movie for me - the way that beautiful, luxurious, showroom-ready looking car was smashed in so many unlikely ways. The rest of the short I was perfectly okay with, but that car... damn, just damn!
I didn't realize a Keaton short could impact me so emotionally.

Martie

Haven't seen this, & based on this description, I never will. The amusement derived by most from seeing something destroyed is an element of the human psyche incomprehensible to me, though, clearly, that "pleasure" appears to be almost universal; destruction, that is, merely for the sake of laughs, not as a serious demonstration that the destoyer has lost his mind, gone berserk, etc. Antique cars, it so happens, have enthralled me since high school, when I acquired a dilapidated '34 Ford, & several others since (very expensive hobby that my resources couldn't sustain!), but I get no kick from seeing anything mindlessly destroyed.

Real life can make that cruel joke seem tame. Around here, wherever there's a big tree near a winding road there's inevitably a cross on it and I've seen so many mangled expensive, new, high-powered cars that it ceased being novel when I was in high school. High speed motorcycle wrecks are also proof that man cannot fly. Witnessing enough of these makes a Keaton destructo-fest less shocking than it otherwise would be.

The car destruction in The Blacksmith makes me wince as well as laugh. I think that one reason is that the rich car owner, while maybe fussy about his new car, didn't really deserve to have his car destroyed. On the other hand, in Two Tars, the cars were not as fancy and their occupants did so something rude to somebody else in the traffic jam, meaning that in comic terms they deserved what they got.

One could argue that handing your car over to Buster Keaton you deserve what you get, but that doesn't really wash. Two points: Buster Keaton also found that the joke went flat, and stopped destroying really nice things that people might want in his films after this (leaving open the destruction of jalopies, badly built houses, old locomotives, and such). Second point: This is only one of the sequences in The Blacksmith. Plenty of the rest of the film works brilliantly on all levels, the magnet bit is clever, and the bit involving horseshoes is downright inspired, so don't avoid the film on the rich-guy's car's account. You can close your eyes.

Maybe it isn't quite a "disaster"; but there's also the spontaneous discombobulation of the rented Ford in the Arbuckle-Keaton The Garage of 1920. I'm not sure who the actor playing the part of the unfortunate renter of the vehicle is; but I always admire his handling of a scene in which he has to play second banana to a car.

An early classic is Hepworth's How it feels to be run over (1900).

Sadly, the actual taxi crash from Clara Bow's Get Your Man is missing, but as we saw in Syracuse, there is a surviving clip of the aftermath gag, where she fixes her makeup before laying back down on the ground to await the arrival of the handsome nobleman.

An early classic is Hepworth's How it feels to be run over (1900).

"Oh will be pleased?" What? Is there an explanation for that title? That film must have given the La Ciotat crowd a run-out-of-the-theater for their money, that car really WAS going in their lap.

And in response to the comment on Clara Bow faking injury in Why Get Your Man, she has the same stunt pulled on her in Wings, which I've been spending a lot of time with lately. And Wings has quite a series of vehicle disasters... mostly then-obsolete WWI airplanes, but the occasional automobile as well.

There's a bit missing- it's the ironic statement "Oh Mother Will Be Pleased"

There's a bit missing- it's the ironic statement "Oh Mother Will Be Pleased"

Thanks. Maybe some day the complete film will surface

It exists and I've seen it on a disc intact- it's just this particular copy that has lost a few frames somehow

It would almost be easier to make a list of comedies that DON'T have vehicular accidents...

After his debut film MAKING A LIVING (which features a spectacular car wreck), Charlie Chaplin's films almost NEVER indulge in another vehicular accident for his next 75 or so movies...that is, until his final silent film, MODERN TIMES (the overturned paddy wagon from which he and Paulette make their escape).

Coincidental -- or what?

I remember in one of Robert Youngson's compilation films, he included a scene with a 'propeller car' , basically an airplane prop attached by chain drives to a chassis. It looked to have bicycle wheels. I know it was a Sennett film but not that it was a Chaplin. Nobody was hurt but that prop would have diced and sliced.

In Garbo's THE SINGLE STANDARD(1929), the chaeuffeur in love with her commits suicide when he wrecks her limousine convertible and it overturns in a gully. They don't say it but we're led to believe he's killed.

There were some genuine propeller cars in Hollywood as wind machines- in SOULS FOR SALE you can see a completely unshielded airplane engine on a wheeled chassis. Yes, someone does walk into the blade.