{"id":25215,"date":"2017-05-05T19:50:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T23:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=25215"},"modified":"2017-05-05T20:43:21","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T00:43:21","slug":"the-bootleg-files-the-gay-nighties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/05\/the-bootleg-files-the-gay-nighties\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: The Gay Nighties"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 588:<\/strong> \u201cThe Gay Nighties\u201d (1933 short starring the comedy team of Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough plus James Finlayson).<\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> It is on YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> In a public domain label collection of the team\u2019s films.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> A lapsed copyright.
\n
\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> No one is going to restore this orphaned gem.<\/p>\n

Unless you are a near-rabid devotee to old-time comedy, you are probably unfamiliar with the team of Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough. They began their careers as circus acrobats before working their way through vaudeville and burlesque until they reached stardom on the New York and London stages during the 1920s. When sound came to movies, Clark and McCullough were recruited by Hollywood to star in a series of two-reelers, first under Fox and then under RKO.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But calling Clark and McCullough a team might be something of a stretch. As Lawrence J. Epstein noted in his 2004 book \u201cMixed Nuts,\u201d the division of labor and laughs was weirdly divided. \u201cIt is odd to see the pair work because they aren\u2019t really a team,\u201d Epstein observed. \u201cClark dominates throughout, and McCullough lurks out of the spotlight, a second banana who observes and assists but stays out of the way of the laughs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The real problem here, at least in terms of their films, was that Clark was frequently more obnoxious than funny. This was because the comic never figured out how to readjust his performing from a theatrical setting to the movie camera. Clark even tried too hard in his appearance to be funny: he wore painted on glasses and an oversized jacket while he used a large cigar and a thick cane as props. And his grand line readings and gestures felt like they were being addressed to the last row of the theater. Too often, the camera magnified his vices instead of his virtues.<\/p>\n

McCullough, however, seemed genuinely funny when he was given the chance to shine \u2013 he boasted a big smile and an infectious nasal laugh, and his costume of a ten-gallon hat, tiny clip-on mustache and bushy raccoon coat was amusing. Clark tried and failed to look like a fool, but McCullough really looked like a happy nut. Whenever he was ceded a funny line or gag, McCullough always stole the show from his partner.<\/p>\n

The Clark and McCullough films were not particularly popular in their day \u2013 the reviews of the era stated their screen work was inferior to their stage performances \u2013 and their output is mostly dismissed by contemporary film critics, due in large part to Clark\u2019s overbearing presence. Because their films were never part of the TV rerun culture in the manner that the Three Stooges or Laurel Hardy were, the team\u2019s work is most unknown to today\u2019s audiences. This is a shame, because some of their work is very amusing \u2013 especially the 1933 short \u201cThe Gay Nighties,\u201d which took full advantage of the libertine environment encouraged in the Pre-Code years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gay Nighties\u201d finds the duo as Hives and Blodgett, campaign strategists to would-be politician Oliver Beezley. Alas, no one wants to vote for Beezley \u2013 the delegates at a political convention are keen on Commodore Amos Pipp (played by Laurel and Hardy\u2019s beloved nemesis, squinty-eyed James Finlayson). The Beezley team comes up with a plan to take advantage of Pipp\u2019s weakness for women by catching him in the act of adultery in a hotel suite. Incredibly, the team decide to use McCullough in drag as a bait for this scheme \u2013 overlooking the fact that he has a mustache and a portly masculine physique that the frilliest of dresses and curliest of wigs cannot disguise. But Beezley\u2019s wife (Dorothy Granger) agrees to be part of the scheme to frame Pipp, which is pulled off despite constant interruptions of gunfire exchanges between a hotel\u2019s private detective (Monte Collins) and a machine-gun toting burglar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gay Nighties\u201d was shot during the now-celebrated Pre-Code era, when sex, violence and taboo behavior were par for the celluloid course. Thus, the film has a reference to a \u201cdope fiend\u201d and several gratuitous gun battles, and it is also rich with salacious gags \u2013 including a myopic hotel detective peeking through a keyhole to see Clark putting his hand up the dress McCullough is wearing \u2013 that would be unthinkable one year later when Hollywood self-censored under the rigid Production Code. There is also a running gag with an aristocrat lady known as The Countess whose sleep walking arouses Clark and McCullough. \u201cShe\u2019s a somnambulist,\u201d remarks Clark, to which McCullough exclaims, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t show on her.\u201d Clark\u2019s efforts to lure the sleepwalking Countess into a double bed is a running gag that is wrapped up with a splash of unexpected gay humor when an unexpected male intruder takes the place of The Countess.<\/p>\n

But for sheer insanity, \u201cThe Gay Nighties\u201d is punctuated with bizarre jokes that are tonic for their undiluted absurdity. Clark and a drag-wardrobed McCullough are together in bed when a woman walks into their hotel suite and pulls off their blanket \u2013 as she exits, Clark deadpans, \u201cWe must have forgot to pay the cover charge.\u201d When Mrs. Beezley agrees to frame her husband\u2019s opponent, Clark and McCullough lock arms and jump on their bed while chanting, \u201cWe\u2019re going to frame the commodore!\u201d And when a squadron of motorcycle cops ride through the hotel hallway, all logic officially ceases to exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gay Nighties\u201d was directed by Mark Sandrich, an underrated filmmaker responsible for the 1929 gem \u201cThe Talk of Hollywood<\/a>\u201d and who would later helm the Oscar-winning short \u201cSo This is Harris<\/a>\u201d and the classic features including \u201cTop Hat\u201d and \u201cHoliday Inn.\u201d Supporting performers Monte Collins, Dorothy Granger and, especially, James Finlayson, enriched many comedy films of the Golden Era, and their presence here raises \u201cThe Gay Nighties\u201d considerably.<\/p>\n

The copyright for \u201cThe Gay Nighties\u201d was not renewed and the film fell into the public domain. Although some people may quibble that you cannot bootleg a film with a lapsed copyright, the sad fact remains that available copies of public domain film are frequently crummy dupe that are several generations removed from the original prints. That seems to be the case with \u201cThe Gay Nighties,\u201d as a YouTube copy<\/a> is faded and a tad blurry. A better version was released by Alpha Video in a collection of Clark and McCullough shorts, although it would be lovely if a proper restoration of this film was done. (Hello, Criterion?)<\/p>\n

Admittedly, the Clark and McCullough brand of comedy is not everyone\u2019s cup of tea. But, hey, you can keep your cup of tea \u2013 for rude, weird and wild comedy, Clark and McCullough is my poison!
\n
\nIMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen to \u201cThe Online Movie Show with Phil Hall<\/a>\u201d on SoundCloud, with a new episode every Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 588: \u201cThe Gay Nighties\u201d (1933 short starring the comedy team of Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough plus James Finlayson). LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube. AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: In a public domain label collection of the team\u2019s films. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A lapsed copyright. CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: No […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":25222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1369,1513],"tags":[1691,219,1605,1588,938],"class_list":["post-25215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retro-cinema","category-bootleg-files","tag-clark-and-mccullough","tag-comedy","tag-james-finlayson","tag-pre-code","tag-short-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25215"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25221,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25215\/revisions\/25221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}