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#11
Entertainment / Re: What have you been listeni...
Last post by Allhallowsday - June 03, 2026, 02:08:07 PMBLACK EYED PEAS The E.N.D.
#12
Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2
Last post by M.10rda - June 03, 2026, 01:12:50 PMTHE CHASER (1928):
This is a very odd silent feature that was a notoriously early box office bomb and has retained a sour critical reputation. You know the running joke from the meta season of "Seinfeld" where the pilot to George & Jerry's sitcom focuses on a judge sentencing George to be a butler? That's the plot of THE CHASER, only a divorce court judge sentences the male lead to dress as a woman and be his estranged wife's housekeeper.
Auteur/star Harry Langdon was a comedy also-ran who, like Chaplin and latter-day Keaton, insisted on behaving onscreen like a mime... forgoing facial expressiveness in favor of a blank stare and broad actions and gestures. For the record, I don't know why this was a Thing in the 20s - yeah, I get that it's "silent" film, but every other actor in the same films registers emotion on their face... why not these guys? Imho Keaton was much funnier in his earlier films w/ Roscoe Arbuckle, where he was at liberty to project rage and horror and lust and elation and outrage and all those other things that tend to be funny around the facial region. Why did he and Chaplin and Langdon deny themselves that tool? To compound matters, Langdon wears white base all over his face (and highlighter on his eyes, lips, etc) thus really resembles a mime. It's a Choice, yeah, but unless you have a sincere soft spot for traditional mime bu11$#!t, it's an off-putting choice.
Many reviewers on Letterboxd hate THE CHASER, but I found it just odd enough to warrant one viewing. In some ways it has more in common with late 20th century Jarmusch or slacker cinema than it has with other silent comedies. The plot ambles along as if improvised while the cameras were rolling, and very little happens for at least half the film. The plot does take a dark turn when Langdon realizes he cannot hack it as a housewife and declares that he is running away from home to commit suicide. He doesn't, though - instead he goes golfing with an Oliver Hardy-esque buddy in the film's most conventional slapstick sequence. However the two men then discover a women's volleyball league, and in the last (absolutely confounding) act, Langdon dresses as Napoleon (?) and stares at a procession of women until they fall unconscious.
I have been unable to locate a single online review that can explain what is happening in this (long) sequence - no one even attempts to rationalize it.
THE CHASER's tone shifts one last time in the final moments as Langdon is trapped in a madly careening/driverless vehicle as if he was Wile E. Coyote. 3/5? That driverless vehicle is actually a pretty apt metaphor for the entire film.
This is a very odd silent feature that was a notoriously early box office bomb and has retained a sour critical reputation. You know the running joke from the meta season of "Seinfeld" where the pilot to George & Jerry's sitcom focuses on a judge sentencing George to be a butler? That's the plot of THE CHASER, only a divorce court judge sentences the male lead to dress as a woman and be his estranged wife's housekeeper.
Auteur/star Harry Langdon was a comedy also-ran who, like Chaplin and latter-day Keaton, insisted on behaving onscreen like a mime... forgoing facial expressiveness in favor of a blank stare and broad actions and gestures. For the record, I don't know why this was a Thing in the 20s - yeah, I get that it's "silent" film, but every other actor in the same films registers emotion on their face... why not these guys? Imho Keaton was much funnier in his earlier films w/ Roscoe Arbuckle, where he was at liberty to project rage and horror and lust and elation and outrage and all those other things that tend to be funny around the facial region. Why did he and Chaplin and Langdon deny themselves that tool? To compound matters, Langdon wears white base all over his face (and highlighter on his eyes, lips, etc) thus really resembles a mime. It's a Choice, yeah, but unless you have a sincere soft spot for traditional mime bu11$#!t, it's an off-putting choice.
Many reviewers on Letterboxd hate THE CHASER, but I found it just odd enough to warrant one viewing. In some ways it has more in common with late 20th century Jarmusch or slacker cinema than it has with other silent comedies. The plot ambles along as if improvised while the cameras were rolling, and very little happens for at least half the film. The plot does take a dark turn when Langdon realizes he cannot hack it as a housewife and declares that he is running away from home to commit suicide. He doesn't, though - instead he goes golfing with an Oliver Hardy-esque buddy in the film's most conventional slapstick sequence. However the two men then discover a women's volleyball league, and in the last (absolutely confounding) act, Langdon dresses as Napoleon (?) and stares at a procession of women until they fall unconscious.
I have been unable to locate a single online review that can explain what is happening in this (long) sequence - no one even attempts to rationalize it.THE CHASER's tone shifts one last time in the final moments as Langdon is trapped in a madly careening/driverless vehicle as if he was Wile E. Coyote. 3/5? That driverless vehicle is actually a pretty apt metaphor for the entire film.
#13
Off Topic Discussion / Re: Website was down
Last post by Dr. Whom - June 03, 2026, 01:08:13 PMQuote from: Rev. Powell on May 04, 2026, 08:13:44 AMProbably a hosting issue. But someday this site will disappear entirely. The website domain is registered until 1/7/2028, so it should be good until at least then.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
#14
Good Movies / Re: 100 THREE-WORD movie title...
Last post by zombie no.one - June 03, 2026, 12:52:58 PM62. BIG BAD MAMA (1974)
#15
Good Movies / Re: 100 THREE-WORD movie title...
Last post by Dr. Whom - June 03, 2026, 12:43:16 PM61 Saturday Night Fever
#18
Games / Re: Answer the question with a...
Last post by Rev. Powell - June 03, 2026, 10:01:18 AM
Why are you having trouble sleeping?
#19
Entertainment / Re: What have you been listeni...
Last post by Rev. Powell - June 03, 2026, 09:59:18 AM
#20
Bad Movies / Re: Generate Movie Poster with...
Last post by Rev. Powell - June 03, 2026, 09:56:54 AM