Unearthed Treasures – Episode #5 : Out for the Coin

Up until now, the films from the “Calais lot” that we’ve highlighted have all been French productions : Adrienne Lecouvreur, La Bonté de Jacques V, Impéria and Rigadin aime la musique.

This time, let’s travel a bit farther — across the Atlantic to the United States — to talk about Out for the Coin, Al Christie, slapstick comedy, Nestor Films, and of course, Betty Compson and Neal Burns.

And who better to discuss all this than historian and writer Steve Massa, the ultimate authority on slapstick cinema and the author of several essential works on the subject (Rediscovering Roscoe: The Films of ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle ; Slapstick Divas: The Women of Silent Comedy ; and his most recent, Lonesome Luke’s Lively Life: Hal Roach, Harold Lloyd and the Rolin Film Co.) ? Because beyond being a true expert, Steve Massa is also the one who identified the reel from the “Calais lot” as being Out for the Coin, a comedy directed by Al Christie at the end of 1916.

But before we get into that, let’s take a moment to look at what we currently know about this comedy, once thought to be lost…

1 – A purely farce comedy style

Originally, Out for the Coin was a two-reel comedy, about 1500 feet long according to Motion Picture News — roughly 22 minutes at a projection speed of 18 frames per second. This short film, described as being « of a purely farce comedy style »¹ was written by William E. Wing, already referred to in the press in 1917 as a « well-known scenario writer ».² By that time, the screenwriter already had several years of experience in the motion picture industry, having worked for the Selig Polyscope Company, Biograph, and Vitagraph. Although his first credited work on IMDb dates from 1912, a 1914 article tells us that William E. Wing — considered one of the few professional screenwriters of the time — had already been active « for the past three years, […] has enjoyed almost continual exploitation upon the screen […] and has worked in all branches of the game from poetry to practical politics. »³

Already 47 years old when he wrote Out for the Coin, William E. Wing continued writing for the screen until 1927, before retiring from the business and passing away twenty years later.

Filmed by Al Christie, a Canadian-born director and pioneer of American comedy whom Steve Massa will tell us more about in detail, Out for the Coin was released at the end of 1916 or early 1917 as part of a program featuring three films.

The first was Hist! At Six O’Clock, an « eccentric comedy »⁴ written by William Wing and directed by Al Christie, one reel long and starring Betty Compson in the role of a vampire ; and the second was His Model Wife, also a one-reel picture, considered quite daring at the time for including several shots showing a nude woman in profile.

Although these three comedies were described as « average products from Al Christie’s fun factory »⁵, Out for the Coin seems to have been the most successful of the program. The press at the time referred to it as « quite the best of the three »⁶, an « amusing farce comedy »⁷ whose humor, « of the rough-and-tumble variety »⁸ « will provoke considerable laughter from the average audience. »⁹

We are therefore all the more delighted to have unearthed this film, even though the copy found in the “Calais lot” is unfortunately incomplete. Of the original 1500 feet, only 375 have survived — roughly 25% of the total footage. Running 5 minutes and 34 seconds at 18 frames per second, the print seems to correspond to the beginning of the film, as suggested by the synopsis published in Motion Picture News at the time of its release : « Try & Helpus are two junk dealers, who have to raise five hundred to pay the rent which the villainous landlord demands. Various times the five hundred is placed in their hands but always it is removed therefrom by a grouchy policeman. »¹⁰

We may therefore never (or perhaps surely never) know how and where those $500 end up — but it is still a real joy to rediscover, nearly 110 years later, these five minutes of comedy with such an irresistibly frantic pace !

2 – An interview with Steve Massa

 

Having just returned from his trip to Pordenone, Italy, where he co-presented — together with Ulrich Rüdel — a program entitled “Six Degrees of Chaplin” at the Giornate del Cinema Muto festival, silent comedy specialist Steve Massa kindly agreed to answer a few of our questions. We extend our sincere thanks to him for his time and generosity.

Classicinema : Al Christie is known as the first person to have directed a film in Hollywood, right ? Could you tell us more about that?

Steve Massa : Well, it’s hard to say who really was the first person to have directed a film in Hollywood – it could have been Christie, as he was definitely part of the first people making films there. William Horsley had organized Nestor Films in New Jersey in 1910 and Christie became its director, turning out a steady stream of westerns and comedies. He had his first real success with a 1911 series of “Mutt and Jeff” shorts, but in order to fly under the radar of the Motion Picture Patents Trust the company soon moved from Bayonne to California. There they became Hollywood’s first studio when they took over Blondeau’s Tavern and turned out their initial West Coast film, The Best Man Wins (1911).

 

Classicinema : Is there such a thing as an “Al Christie style?” If so, how would you define it ?

Steve Massa : The “Christie Style” had more sophisticated plot elements combined with the required slapstick of silent comedy. His stars like Lyons & Moran, Neal Burns, Bobby Vernon and Dorothy DeVore were people that you could pass on the street, as opposed to the big mustached, baggy-pantsed, zanies that populated the Mack Sennett comedies. The Christie films, especially in the 1920’s, included plenty of slapstick action, but there was always a solid reason for it to happen.

Classicinema : Do you have any idea what percentage of Christie’s films have survived ?

Steve Massa : Christie’s output from 1910 to 1931 was tremendous, so only a fraction of it exists today, especially the very early films from 1910 to 1916, but compared to many of his contemporaries (Fox Sunshine, L-KO, Joker or Century Comedies) a good cross-section of his work survives. Many of the films from the teens exist at the world’s film archives in good and complete form. Many of his comedy shorts from the 1920’s exist, but often in cut-down or edited re-release versions. A number of the features he produced like So Long Letty (1920), Hold Your Breath (1924), Charley’s Aunt (1925) and Up in Mabel’s Room (1926) also survive.

Classicinema : A few words about the cast of this film ?

Steve Massa : Betty Compson was discovered by Christie playing the violin in vaudeville. From 1915 to 1918 she was one of the company’s main leading ladies, often paired with Neal Burns in short such as Innoculating Hubby (1916), Out for the Coin (1917) and Betty’s Adventure (1918). After leaving Christie, she did other shorts but quickly became successful in feature films. The Miracle Man (1919), Paths to Paradise, The Pony Express (both 1925), The Docks of New York and The Barker (both 1928) are some of her best-remembered films. Having been married to director James Cruze, she made a smooth transition to talking pictures, but the bulk of her sound films were routine, and she retired in 1948.

Steve Massa : Neal Burns had been a light comedian on the stage, and began working with Christie at Nestor in 1915. Around 1918 he began freelancing at L-Ko, Sennett and Century, but by 1921 was signed exclusively with Christie and was one of the producer’s top stars of the 1920’s. In the early 1920’s Burns was the handsome and charming everyman who always got the girl by the end of the picture, but in the mid-1920’s he adopted a pair of glasses that gave him a bookish, character look that set apart from the crowd of good-looking but bland leading man. Burns turned out top-notch shorts for Christie until 1929. The arrival of sound was not kind to him, as he lost his star status and the stock market crash wiped out the fortune he had amassed in the 1920’s. Relegated to uncredited extra work, he kept busy in films until 1946, and passed away in 1969.

Steve Massa : Eddie Barry was a character comedian who spent 14 years on and off working for Christie. Born George Joseph Burns, he was the older brother of Neal Burns, and had extensive theatrical experience touring in stock and vaudeville. Christie first hired him in 1916, and until 1930, the tall and gangly Barry played all kinds of character support to his brother, Betty Compson, Fay Tincher, Billie Rhodes, Jack Duffy, Billy Dooley, and Frances Lee. Christie would occasionally give him a starring role in something like Monkey Shines or Mr. Fatima (both 1920), but he was also in demand in support at L-Ko, Century and Arrow, as well as being a sidekick in western features like Sagebrush Lady (1925) and That Girl from Oklahoma (1926). After a few sound appearances he left movies in 1930, and died in 1966.

Steve Massa : George B. French was something of the mascot of the Christie Studio, as he appeared as fathers, eccentric professors, or some kind of other supporting character part in practically every short that the studio made. Ubiquitous in the Christie shorts, he also appeared in comedies for Hal Roach and Universal, not to mention features such as Monty Bank’s Horse Shoes (1927) and the western The Arizona Cyclone (1928). Later appearing in bit parts in sound films, he passed away in 1961.

Steve Massa : Pop-eyed David Morris came from the stage and entered films in 1911 with the American Pathe Co. From there he worked as a character player at practically every comedy unit that existed – Biograph, Keystone, Kalem, Fox, Universal, as well as Christie. In the 1920’s he teamed with Billy Bevan for some Mack Sennett shorts like Muscle Bound Music (1926), as well as some early Sennett talkies. He appeared in features such as The Fighting Demon (1925) and Beware of Bachelors (1928), but worked as a writer and artist in Hollywood during the 1930’s. He popped up in bit roles in features like Hollywood Cavalcade (1939), Swamp Water (1941), and Unfaithfully Yours (1948) until the end of the 1940’s. He passed away in 1955.

 

That’s it.

Enough talk.

Let the images « speak » !

Check out my YouTube channel to (re)discover this excerpt from Out of the Coin !

---

4 – The Moving Picture World – 23 décembre 1916 – p.1813