Some of the film histories suggest that D. W. Griffith's The Curtain Pole, made for Biograph in 1908 and released early the following year, is the first slapstick comedy film made in America. Considering the enormous number of missing titles from the early days -- as well as the uncertain production dates of some of the survivors -- one hesitates to call anything a "first," but it's safe to say that this is a very early example of the genre. It is certainly one of the few outright comedies Griffith would produce, and it's interesting to see the youthful Mack Sennett in the lead role, several years before left Biograph, founded the Keystone Studio, and began making similar films himself.
According to the memoir of Griffith's first wife Linda Arvidson (who has a brief role in this film), Sennett's character was an excitable Frenchman named Monsieur Dupont, although his nationality plays no part in the proceedings. In the opening scene Monsieur Dupont is present at a party where he manages to break the hostess' curtain pole, and it is his offer to purchase a new one that starts the ball rolling, so to speak. In the course of acquiring the replacement pole Dupont manages to poke and trip practically every citizen in the community, and his increasingly frantic efforts to bring it back to his hostess' home while evading his pursuers provokes a rousing chase that builds greatly in scale as it progresses. The tempo of the editing, which of course would become a Griffith specialty, is quite rapid for the period, and certainly must have been exciting for contemporary audiences. Even today, we are startled when the pole upsets a baby carriage. Also notable is the use of footage run backward, and the close-up that closes the film, depicting a crazed-looking Sennett chewing the pole in frustration.
Whether or not it was the first American slapstick comedy, I believe we can safely say that The Curtain Pole remains one of the funniest movies ever made in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
According to the memoir of Griffith's first wife Linda Arvidson (who has a brief role in this film), Sennett's character was an excitable Frenchman named Monsieur Dupont, although his nationality plays no part in the proceedings. In the opening scene Monsieur Dupont is present at a party where he manages to break the hostess' curtain pole, and it is his offer to purchase a new one that starts the ball rolling, so to speak. In the course of acquiring the replacement pole Dupont manages to poke and trip practically every citizen in the community, and his increasingly frantic efforts to bring it back to his hostess' home while evading his pursuers provokes a rousing chase that builds greatly in scale as it progresses. The tempo of the editing, which of course would become a Griffith specialty, is quite rapid for the period, and certainly must have been exciting for contemporary audiences. Even today, we are startled when the pole upsets a baby carriage. Also notable is the use of footage run backward, and the close-up that closes the film, depicting a crazed-looking Sennett chewing the pole in frustration.
Whether or not it was the first American slapstick comedy, I believe we can safely say that The Curtain Pole remains one of the funniest movies ever made in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
