I do wish people would think first before they start making the usual of sort of pious statements about the portrayal of African Americans in Semon comedies. In a discussion of another Semon film, for instance, some worthy gentleman mentions how he dislikes seeing a caricatural portrayal of "a negro" (the splendid Spencer Bell in that case). Well, I must say to that gentleman and to anyone else who is inclined to try and tag a racist label on Semon, that I personally very much like to see African Americans getting parts in films at a time when it was still very difficult for them to do so and having an opportunity to exercise their talent as actors, even if, it is true, the parts tend to be caricatural (as they continued to be to a greater or lesser extent for decades to come in most US films).
Spencer Bell was regularly employed by Semon in relatively significant roles in his films. He is one of the very few African American actors to have had regular employment in films at this period and that is to a large extent due to his association with Semon. It is also clear that the two have a close working relationship rather in the way, at the Roach studios, Snub Pollard had with the young Ernie Morrison in the days before "The Little Rascals" made the latter the most celebrated and best paid black film-star in the US.
But Semon quite regularly, as here, employs black actors in other small roles and he also has a way of slightly modifying the standard racial joke to give it a more honourable status. In Kid Speed for instance he uses the well-worn gag about blacks being frightened to death of anyone with a sheet over their head who look like a ghost but he varies it significantly. The sheet over his head becomes spotted with oil or whatever so that it comes to resemble something really scary - a Ku Klux Klan hood!
The same is true here if not quite so obviously. The gag about a man mistaking a white woman for a black one certainly does not originate with Semon, It appears in one form or another in countless films (the first occurrence I can think of being in British director G. A. Smith's A Kiss in the Tunnel of 1899). Note however that in this film not only is the black actress notably good-looking and elegant but that at one point Laurel actually does kiss her, actually on screen, albeit under a misapprehension, something that was still (and would be for many years to come) entirely taboo in a US film. Also note that the actress is given some real work to do, not merely the stock comic reaction but first teasing the shy Semon when he backs away and then fury with the hapless Laurel when he dares to actually kiss her. These make seem like tiny points but to African Americans at this time every little gain was worth gold.
I am not trying to suggest Larry Semon was some kind of starry-eyed philanthropist or campaigner for black rights but he was certainly no enemy to African Americans.
On another matter, Stan Laurel was a fine comedian but not a particularly nice person. His later snide comments with regard to Semon are entirely in character.In fact Semon shares honours with Laurel in this film, even effacing himself at times to give Laurel scope. The only reason Laurel is largely absent from the last few minutes of the film are that it ends, as usual, with the kind of daredevil stunts at which Semon excelled and of which one has absolutely no reason to suppose that Stan Laurel was capable.
Spencer Bell was regularly employed by Semon in relatively significant roles in his films. He is one of the very few African American actors to have had regular employment in films at this period and that is to a large extent due to his association with Semon. It is also clear that the two have a close working relationship rather in the way, at the Roach studios, Snub Pollard had with the young Ernie Morrison in the days before "The Little Rascals" made the latter the most celebrated and best paid black film-star in the US.
But Semon quite regularly, as here, employs black actors in other small roles and he also has a way of slightly modifying the standard racial joke to give it a more honourable status. In Kid Speed for instance he uses the well-worn gag about blacks being frightened to death of anyone with a sheet over their head who look like a ghost but he varies it significantly. The sheet over his head becomes spotted with oil or whatever so that it comes to resemble something really scary - a Ku Klux Klan hood!
The same is true here if not quite so obviously. The gag about a man mistaking a white woman for a black one certainly does not originate with Semon, It appears in one form or another in countless films (the first occurrence I can think of being in British director G. A. Smith's A Kiss in the Tunnel of 1899). Note however that in this film not only is the black actress notably good-looking and elegant but that at one point Laurel actually does kiss her, actually on screen, albeit under a misapprehension, something that was still (and would be for many years to come) entirely taboo in a US film. Also note that the actress is given some real work to do, not merely the stock comic reaction but first teasing the shy Semon when he backs away and then fury with the hapless Laurel when he dares to actually kiss her. These make seem like tiny points but to African Americans at this time every little gain was worth gold.
I am not trying to suggest Larry Semon was some kind of starry-eyed philanthropist or campaigner for black rights but he was certainly no enemy to African Americans.
On another matter, Stan Laurel was a fine comedian but not a particularly nice person. His later snide comments with regard to Semon are entirely in character.In fact Semon shares honours with Laurel in this film, even effacing himself at times to give Laurel scope. The only reason Laurel is largely absent from the last few minutes of the film are that it ends, as usual, with the kind of daredevil stunts at which Semon excelled and of which one has absolutely no reason to suppose that Stan Laurel was capable.