Tweet Eddie Cline - Info?

As someone who moved from vaudeville to gag man to director, Eddie Cline would go to work with Buster Keaton on a number of projects in the early 1920s. Later he directed Mae West, and, impressively, one of W.C. Fields' two best comedies, The Bank Dick (1940). Yet auteurist-centered criticism as practiced by Andrew Sarris and David Thomson exclude Cline's contributions to Hollywood comedy in their work, and even Buster Keaton seems to leave him out of his autobiography. All in all, such a critical gap or omission seems fairly mystifying. Is anyone aware of information or analyses of his work that I might have overlooked in the body of film literature? If so, I'd be obliged for any assistance from NitraVillers.

Thanks,
Jeff

None. Just as there is precious little information on Clyde Bruckman, Gil Pratt, the two Harry Edwards, Del Lord, etc. 'Twould make a worthy research project to get beyond the myth that these guys were just traffic cops for the star comedian who REALLY directed the picture. There must have been a reason that all the best comedians kept hiring Bruckman in spite of his baggage.

They felt sorry for him......?

He told very funny off-color jokes about the Pope??

He was a competent third baseman???......

I just happened to be reading the end notes in Brent Walker's Sennett book, and came accross this:

Besides his comedy skills, Cline also apparently had an innate understanding of how to work around studio politics. In W.C. FIELDS: A BIOGRAPHY, author James Curtis tells of Cline's convincing a reluctant Fields that they could get away with shooting Fields' rejected original screenplay for his classic THE BANK DICK - rather than the studio-approved but inferior rewrite - without studio bosses noticing. Cline's prediction proved correct.

Obviously his instincts were finely honed for comedy. Decades later, Mel Brooks would do the same thing with BLAZING SADDLES.

Since we're talking about "traffic cops for the star comedian who really directed the picture." Please let's not leave out Jimmy Parrott. I've seen it stated in various Laurel & Hardy tomes that Jimmy looked at Stan, and when Stan gave Jimmy the nod, Jimmy yelled the appropriate direction. In a Facebook exchange with Richard Bann, I was told that HR never mentioned Jimmy, but only had good things to say about Charley Parrott/Chase. Most information about Jimmy ends by saying that he was possibly an epileptic, who died of a heart attack or suicide. It never says that he was the director of the first short to win an Academy Award, or that he was for years one of the premier directors on the Roach lot. Many of his co-workers said that he was quiet and gentle, and never hurt a soul except himself, which was with alcohol and amphetamines. Jimmy didn't appear to be a Boy Scout, but nobody ever said anything about his talent. It seems that a guy who spent as much time with L & H, Charley Chase, and the rest of the Roach All-Stars must have had some talent. I won't even mention his other life as the on-screen performer, Paul Parrott. Does anybody know anything about Jimmy Parrott, or should we just put him in the tomb of the Unknown Director with Cline and the rest of the guys?

Eddie Cline also directed one of George O'Brien's best Fox Westerns, THE DUDE RANGER(1934).

Cline seemed to be going good in the late 30s/early 40s period, directing several Fields films including The Bank Dick (where Keaton's name is dropped along with Chaplin and Arbuckle as people Egbert Sousé claims to have directed "Back in the Keystone days"), and the bizarre The Villain Still Pursued Her which reunited him with Keaton, based on the same old stage warhorse "The Drunkard" performed by Fields and his acting troupe in The Old Fashioned Way.

Later came a series of films with Olsen & Johnson, and he ended his career as film writer/director with films based on the "Bringing Up Baby" comic strip with the Jiggs & Maggie characters — somehow fitting for an old Keaton collaborator, since those characters had been proposed for Joe and Myra Keaton back in 1915 for a series of film shorts, but Joe wasn't as yet enamoured of the movie business.

In television, he again worked with Buster and also Spike Jones. In short, Cline was indeed a figure to be reckoned with in the annals of American comedy, especially of the "crazy" variety.

I don't believe the omission of Cline's name in the autobiography was any intended slight on Buster's part. Any blame on that account might rather be placed on the co-author Charles L. Samuels who wrote it based on taped interviews. Certainly Keaton frequently mentioned Cline in interviews, and seemed happy enough to meet him as one of the guests on his "This Is Your Life" appearance.

I saw the Keaton "LIfe" episode, and it seemed Keaton looked a little perplexed when Cline entered, with Cline even motioning him to stand up! Even their initial small talk appeared a bit strained, with Keaton giving Cline the once over, like "where have you been?" But they chatted agreeably enough after that.

Sort Of Related Topic: I wish those "Life" episodes would be more available, even on YouTube--so many ways of seeing stars in rather unguarded circumstances. Stan Laurel was always peeved over his appearance, while Hardy seemed sentimentally caught up with the occasion. The Mack Sennett episode was an incredible bit of silent comedy history, as was Gloria Swanson's appearance. Other stars, like Dorothy Lamour, couldn't stop crying. Even tough mug Victor McLaglen got all teary, being reunited with his globe-scattered siblings. Very fascinating stuff.

Sort Of Related Topic: I wish those "Life" episodes would be more available, even on YouTube--so many ways of seeing stars in rather unguarded circumstances. Stan Laurel was always peeved over his appearance, while Hardy seemed sentimentally caught up with the occasion.

Which is kind of surprising given that the host kept making fat jokes at him; i was just appalled at his rudeness.

greta

True; despite that I could see how Hardy was touched by seeing some long lost childhood friends. Laurel was always irritated about the show; at least his several ex-wives didn't show up!

Host Ralph Edwards really topped himself though, so to speak, when Lou Costello was a guest. For a couple of grueling minutes Edwards made Costello and his wife relive the agony of their child drowning. The same thing was done when Edwards recounted the death of Joe E. Brown's son in WWII. It's a wonder these gentlemen stayed civil.

True; despite that I could see how Hardy was touched by seeing some long lost childhood friends. Laurel was always irritated about the show; at least his several ex-wives didn't show up!

Host Ralph Edwards really topped himself though, so to speak, when Lou Costello was a guest. For a couple of grueling minutes Edwards made Costello and his wife relive the agony of their child drowning. The same thing was done when Edwards recounted the death of Joe E. Brown's son in WWII. It's a wonder these gentlemen stayed civil.

Wow, Mister Sensitivity. How did he keep his job?

Good question, other than I believe he produced the show. If anything, when he wasn't insensitive he was just being inane with his remarks. There's real value though in seeing these vintage stars acting more or less like themselves. Boris Karloff was delighted to see an old school chum from England (after a half century), though was merely polite with some other guests of dubious association, save for instance a cricket champion he admired. These kind of moments provide an unexpected look at such people. Milton Berle was another good episode, as he expressed genuine disbelief when old colleagues from vaudeville were brought out. "They're killin' me out here!" I heard him say at one point.

Getting back to Eddie Cline for a moment -- I tried to find info on him in the clippings file at the Performing Arts Library, but the pickings are slim. There are a few lightweight P.R. pieces from the period when he was at Universal, working with Fields, then Olsen & Johnson, but they're not exactly informative. The authors wax nostalgic about the Keystone days, and report that Cline was an original Kop, but the pieces read like the narration written for the later Youngson documentaries: sentimental, superficial, and fun of self-conscious punning. For some reason, they all attribute the "invention" of the Sennett Bathing Beauties to Cline. One piece even reports he directed a short featuring both Mabel Normand and Carole Lombard, as if their Sennett careers coincided.

Cline's obituaries -- the ones I could find, anyway -- are all very brief. The obit in the N.Y. Times emphasizes his Keystone beginnings, and also his collaborations with Fields and (once again) Olsen & Johnson, but Keaton isn't even mentioned. Surprisingly, the obit in Variety is even more sparse, and merely lists the studios where he directed films (Paramount, Universal, etc.), but no titles or stars he worked with.

During Hollywood's heyday it seems that only a few celebrity directors were accorded much attention in the press: Griffith, DeMille, Lubitsch, Hitchcock, and a few more. Most of the others, especially "low" comedy directors, were regarded like anonymous hired help. Some of the lucky ones lived long enough to be rediscovered, interviewed, profiled in the film magazines, etc., but unfortunately Eddie Cline didn't quite make it.

P.S. Just to clarify: I didn't mean to imply, in my first paragraph, that Cline wasn't one of the creators of Sennett's Bathing Beauty comedies; rather, that the P.R. pieces I found don't offer any background info. It's simply stated, and then repeated in virtually identical wording in every article.