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Evento musicale / Special
musical presentation
Musica dal vivo di / Live music
by TILLIE'S NIGHTMARE
Prima americana / American première: UCLA Festival
of Film Preservation (29.07.04)
Prima europea / European première: Sacile - Teatro
Zancanaro (13.10.04)
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The
Sounds of Tillie’s Nightmare
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TILLIE’S PUNCTURED ROMANCE (Keystone Film Co., US 1914)
Dir/prod: Mack Sennett; sc/adapt: Craig Hutchinson,
Hampton Del Ruth, loosely based on the play Tillie’s Nightmare, book & lyrics by Edgar Smith, mus. A. Baldwin Sloane; cast: Marie Dressler
(Tillie, a Country Girl), Charles
Chaplin (The Stranger), Mabel Normand
(The Other Woman), Mack Swain (Tillie’s
Father / Man in White Shirt, run down by policemen); Dan Albert (Society Guests, with and without moustache / Keystone Cop), Phyllis Allen (Prison Wardress / Society Guest
/ Woman in Underskirt, shot at by Tillie),
Billie Bennett (Dusting Maid / Society Guest whose dress Charlie
pulls), Charles Bennett (Farm Mortgage Holder / Maître d’Hôtel / Douglas Banks, Tillie’s Uncle), Glen
Cavender (Suspicious Cop / 1st Pianist in 1st
Restaurant / Guest in 1st Restaurant / Uncle’s Rescuer
/ Society Guest), Dixie Chene (Society
Guest), Nick Cogley (Police Chief behind desk in station), Chester Conklin (1st Singer in 1st Restaurant
/ Guest in 1st Restaurant’s Adjoining Room / Obnoxious
Society Guest), Alice Davenport (Society
Guest), Hampton Del Ruth (Tall Secretary searching for Tillie), Frankie Dolan (Movie Viewer / Society Guest), Minta Durfee (Movie Villain’s Accomplice), Ted Edwards (Light-haired Waiter in 1st Restaurant
/ Policeman in Station), Fred Fishback
(Tall Wigged Servant / Unwigged Servant),
Edwin Frazee (Movie Viewer / Society Guest /
Keystone Cop), Billy Gilbert (Keystone Cop), Gordon Griffith (Newsboy),
Bill Hauber (Wigged Servant / Keystone
Cop), Alice Howell (Guest in 1st Restaurant’s Adjoining
Room / Society Guest), Edgar Kennedy
(Butler / 2nd Restaurant’s Proprietor),
Grover Ligon (Society Guest / Keystone
Cop), Wallace MacDonald (Society Guest),
Hank Mann (Waiter in Movie / Keystone Cop), Harry McCoy (2nd Singer in 1st
Restaurant / 2nd Pianist in 1st Restaurant
/ Guest in 1st Restaurant’s Adjoining Room / Prisoner
/ Movie Theatre Pianist / Wigged Servant / Guest in 2nd
Restaurant / Society Guest / Other Society Guest, imitating Ford
Sterling), Rube Miller (Tillie’s
Visitor, knocked down by Charlie), Charles
Murray (Plainclothes Detective in Movie),
Eva Nelson (Disgusted Guest in 2nd Restaurant),
Eddie Nolan (Tall Man Dancing in 1st Restaurant /
Laughing Policeman Outside Station / Innkeeper on Mt. Baldy / Society
Guest), Frank Opperman (Guest in
1st Restaurant / Policeman in Station / Movie Viewer
/ Reverend D. Simpson), Charles Parrott [Charley Chase] (Plainclothes
Detective in Movie Theatre), Hugh Saxon (Gray-haired Secretary searching for Tillie) / Fritz Schade (Portly Waiter in 1st Restaurant / Policeman
in Station / Prisoner / Guest in 2nd Restaurant / Kitchen
Worker in 2nd Restaurant),
Al St. John (Keystone Cop), George “Slim” Summerville (Guest
in 2nd Restaurant / Keystone
Cop), Joseph Swickard (Movie Viewer),
Morgan Wallace (Movie Villain), Meiklejohn & Hazel Allen (Dancing Couple); 35mm, 5536 ft., c.85’ (18 fps) [film 82’, restoration & cast
credits c.3’], UCLA Film and Television
Archive. Preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, in
cooperation with the BFI / National Film and Television Archive.
Preservation made possible by grants from the UK Film Council, The
Film Foundation, and the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Preserved as a part of Saving the Silents,
a Save America’s Treasures project organized by the National Film
Preservation Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and
the National Parks Service, Department of the Interior.
Contrariamente a quanto risulta
da varie fonti, il cast del film non comprende Ford Sterling, Eddie
Sutherland, Gene Marsh, Milton Berle; il Reverendo D. Simpson non
compare nei panni di “se stesso”; Minta Durfee non interpreta
una cameriera, ma la complice del cattivo cinematografico; Wallace
MacDonald non è un Keystone Cop, ma uno degli ospiti d’alto
bordo. La presenza di Joe Bordeaux non è stata accertata:
a causa di una certa somiglianza, egli è stato probabilmente
confuso con Billy Gilbert, il cui vero nome era William V. Campbell.
(NB: Questo Billy Gilbert non va confuso con il pù noto Billy
Gilbert che compare con Laurel and Hardy in The Music Box e che
interpreta il ruolo di Herring nel Grande dittatore di Chaplin.)
/ Contrary to many accounts, Ford Sterling, Eddie Sutherland, Gene
Marsh, and Milton Berle do not appear in the film, and Reverend
D. Simpson does not appear as “himself”. Minta Durfee
does not play a maid, but the Movie Villain’s Accomplice.
Wallace MacDonald does not play a Keystone Cop but a Society Guest.
The appearance of Joe Bordeaux is not verified; because of a certain
resemblance he has probably been confused with Billy Gilbert, whose
real name was William V. Campbell. (NB: This Billy Gilbert should
not be confused with the well-known Billy Gilbert who appeared with
Laurel and Hardy in The Music Box and played the role of Herring
in Chaplin’s The Great Dictator.). – Bo Berglund
Il restauro / The Restoration
Sin dalla sua prima proiezione pubblica il 21 dicembre 1914,
Tillie’s Punctured Romance è stato stato sottoposto
ad una lunga vicenda di tagli, revisioni e rimontaggi. Questa copia
costituisce il tentativo di riportare il film alla sua lumghezza
originale di sei rulli. Le tante copie utilizzate allo scopo differiscono
nell’interlinea e questo fatto è talvolta visibile
sullo schermo. I nuovi titoli di coda provano a correggere errori
ed omissioni. Il restauro, completato nel 2004, è il risultato
dalla collaborazione fra l’UCLA Film and Television Archive
e il BFI / National Film and Television Archive a partire dai seguenti
materiali: una copia originale in nitrato, svariati frammenti da
copie nitrato e da negativi acetato, una copia acetato in 35mm,
un positivo d’epoca a 16mm, una copia a 16mm ricostruita dallo
scomparso John Hampton. / Since its public premiere on 21 December
1914, Tillie’s Punctured Romance has undergone a long history
of revisions, truncations, and reformatting. This print represents
an attempt to restore the film to its original and complete 6-act
version. The many sources utilized had differing framelines, which
are occasionally visible onscreen. At the conclusion of the film
is a newly created credit roll which attempts to correct previous
errors and omissions. The preservation was completed in 2004. The
film was restored as a collaborative project between the UCLA Film
and Television Archive and the BFI / National Film and Television
Archive, from the following sources: an original nitrate print,
numerous nitrate print and safety duplicate negative fragments,
a 35mm acetate print, a 16mm master positive, and a 16mm print reconstructed
by the late John Hampton.
Restoration by Ross Lipman, UCLA Film and Television Archive, with
the assistance of Nancy Mysel. Laboratory Services by Triage Motion
Picture Services, Tony Munroe, Sharol Olson, Paul Rutan, Jr., Dave
Tucker, Title House Digital. Historical Consultant: Bo Berglund.
Special thanks to David Pierce. Additional thanks to the Academy
Film Archive, Film and Photo, Ltd., Film Preservation Associates,
the Library of Congress, the Norsk Filminstitutt, and Kevin Brownlow,
Carl Davis, Robert Gitt, Jere Guldin, John Hampton, Mike Mashon,
Thierry Mathieu, Tom E. Murray, David W. Packard, Mike Pogorzelski,
Richard Roberts, Tony Scott, David Shepard, Rob Stone, and Brent
Walk.
Tillie’s
Punctured Romance è passato alla storia come il primo
lungometraggio americano comico a soggetto. Ma bisogna sempre stare
attenti quando si parla di “primo”. È proprio
vero oppure si tratta di un’affermazione accettata acriticamente
e quindi reiterata nel tempo? Basta sfogliare il catalogo AFI dei
lungometraggi del 1911-1920 per confutare tale affermazione. Sono
molti i lungometraggi comici, anche di sei rulli, distribuiti prima
dell'uscita di Tillie's Punctured Romance nel dicembre del 1914.
Ma basta una piccola precisazione per convalidare l’affermazione
di cui sopra. Tillie, in quanto comica slapstick, farsa
di sei rulli infarcita d'azione era un'assoluta novità per
l'epoca. Quando Sennett s'imbarcò in questo progetto nella
primavera del 1914, comiche di mezzo rullo e da un rullo erano ancora
la norma, anche comiche di due rulli erano un evento occasionale
e Sennett aveva distribuito i suoi primi film a due rulli appena
nell'agosto del 1913.
Probabilmente all’inzio Sennett non pensava affatto a realizzare
un sei rulli. Il 1914 era stato un anno difficile. In febbraio Ford
Sterling e Henry “Pathé” Lehrman avevano lasciato
la Keystone per formare, con Fred Balshofer e la Universal, la Sterling
Film Company. Li seguirono altri attori e registi che passarono
prima con la Sterling Company e poi con la L-KO appena fondata da
Lehrman. L’improvvisa penuria di artisti deve aver indotto
Sennett ad affidare ad alcuni di quelli rimasti nuove mansioni.
Fu così che un relativamente nuovo arrivato come Charles
Chaplin ebbe la possibilità di dirigere i suoi film prima
di quanto Sennett avrebbe fatto in circostanze normali..
Intanto anche una beniamina del pubblico teatrale come l’attrice
Marie Dressler aveva qualche problema professionale. Il 9 marzo
1914 aveva piantato infuriata la rivista musicale The Merry Gambol,
rompendo un contratto di 40 settimane con Gilbert M. (“Bronco
Billy”) Anderson, proprietario del Gaiety Theatre di San Francisco.
(“Deve’essere la più irascibile e presuntuosa
star del mondo del teatro”, commentò il Los Angeles
Times). E non le mancavano i guai neanche nella vita privata: non
poteva considerare il suo compagno James Dalton come legittimo consorte
senza esporlo all’accusa di bigamia (a Boston lui aveva una
moglie). Per di più Dalton era stato denunciato per tratta
delle bianche e violazione del Mann Act, la legge sulla prostituzione.
Nelle sue memorie l’attrice racconta di essere andata a riposarsi
a Los Angeles – dove aveva fatto tappa, rimpiazzandola con
Marta Golden (che poi sarebbe apparsa accanto a Chaplin in Work
e in A Woman), The Merry Gambol. Un Sennett a
corto di personale e una Dressler disoccupata non potevano non collaborare.
Nell’aprile del 1914 Sennett e Bauman andarono a trovare l’artista
nel suo albergo e le fecero firmare un contratto di 12 settimane
con una paga settimanale di 2500 dollari. Tutti i giornali di categoria
annunciarono: “Marie Dressler reciterà in una serie
di comiche Keystone di tre o quattro rulli dsitribuite dalla Mutual."
Benché anche la Dressler se ne attribuisca il merito, secondo
Sennett fu lo sceneggatore Craig Hutchinson a suggerire di prendere
spunto per il soggetto dalla commedia di maggior successo dell’attrice
degli ultimi cinque anni, Tillie’s Nightmare, con
la popolarissima canzone “Heaven Will Protect the Working
Girl”. In effetti la pièce e il film hanno in comune
solo il personaggio di Tillie, con il suo bizzarro costume e le
sue buffonate. Per il resto la storia è la solita, quella
dell’imbroglione dai bei modi che adesca la ragazza di campagna
e la porta nella peccaminosa città.
Le riprese di Tillie’s Punctured Romance iniziarono
il 14 aprile 1914, con il titolo di lavorazione di “Dressler
no. 1”, per concludersi il 9 giugno, esattamente 8 settimane
più tardi. Il film finito fu spedito a New York il 25 luglio,
Ricorderà Sennett: “Dovetti continuare a sfornare due
comiche per settimana. Vale a dire che non c’è mai
stato un solo giorno in cui io potessi lavorare con tutto il cast
di Tillie a disposizione. C’era sempre qualche attore
che mancava perché impegnato a girare un due rulli. Durante
le 8 settimane di lavorazione, Sennett produsse 17 film, 5 dei quali
con Chaplin. In Tillie si vedono quasi tutti gli attori
della Keystone, ance se pare che la Dressler non abbia voluto sul
set Roscoe Arbuckle, per paura che le rubasse la scena. Lo si può
intravedere comunque nella sala da ballo: queste riprese saranno
poi utilizzate anche nell’inseguimento finale di The Knockout.
Per fortuna le ultime scene del film vennero girate sul molo di
Venice in uno degli ultimissimi giorni di lavorazione, il 6 giugno.
Quel giorno infatti vi fu un incidente: per scansare un’automobile
coinvolta nelle riprese, Marie Dressler, che si trovava sul bordo
della banchina, indetreggò e cadde in acqua facendosi male.
L’attrice non poté prtanto portare a termine il contratto
di 12 settimane. e forse Sennett prese la decisione di dilatare
Tillie da 4 a 6 rulli perché si era reso conto che questo
sarebbe stato il suo unico film con lei.
(Nota basata sull’articolo di Bo Berglund “La realizzazione
di Tillie’s Punctured Romance” che sarà pubblicato
in forma integrale su Griffithiana 75. Lo stesso fascicolo
conterrà anche un contributo di Ross Lipman sul restauro
del film.)
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The Making of Tillie's
Punctured Romance
by Bo Berglund
Tillies Punctured Romance has gone down in history as the
first American feature-length comedy. One should, however, always
be wary of firsts. Is it really true, or is it just something that,
once stated, has been accepted and then reiterated uncritically time and
time again? A glimpse in the AFI Catalog, Feature Films 1911-1920,
will suffice to refute this statement; there were many feature-length
comedies, even six-reelers, released before the première of Tillies
Punctured Romance in December 1914. But only a slight qualification
is needed to render the statement true. Tillie is a slapstick
comedy, and a farcical, six-reel, slapstick comedy replete with a lot
of knockabout action was something unheard-of at the time. When Sennett
embarked upon this project in the spring of 1914, split-reel and one-reel
comedies were still the norm; even a two-reeler was an occasional speciality,
and Sennett had released his first two-reeler as late as August 1913.
During its unusually long commercial life Tillies
Punctured Romance has been reissued countless times in various re-edited,
cut-down versions, and a large number of spurious gag titles were often
added. The original intertitles were few and succinct.
In his autobiography, Sennett says: "Late in the
summer [of 1914], with the Chaplin-Normand films selling briskly, I battled
with Kessel and Bauman [the co-owners of the Keystone company] for permission
to make the first full-length, or six-reel, motion-picture comedy."
This is of course wrong and his memory is at fault; the shooting of Tillie
had started in mid-April 1914. In some books the outbreak of World War
I in Europe and the production of Tillie are juxtaposed, but wrongly
so. By late summer both the completed negative and Sennett himself were
in New York; he was on his annual New York trip to renew the contract
with Mutual, the distributor of the Keystone films, and this time also
to discuss with Kessel and Bauman how best to market and distribute Tillie,
as Mutual did not handle features. So how and when did Mack Sennett get
the idea of making a six-reel farce in the first place, and was it long
in the planning? The surprising answer is that when Sennett began shooting
Tillie it was probably not meant to become a six-reeler, and there
was a much shorter time between the first idea and the actual shooting
than is generally presumed.
His inspiration is often said to have been Griffiths
plan to make The Birth of a Nation; Sennett wanted to make a comic
equivalent to Griffiths lengthy drama, as it were. Griffith, after
quitting Biograph and joining Realiance-Majestic, returned from New York
to Los Angeles on Saturday, February 14, 1914, and from then on Mack could
get the latest news straight from the horses mouth. No doubt Sennett
was driven by a spirit of rivalry but not primarily with Griffith.
Something had happened, something that would have a decisive influence,
and something that has not been sufficiently emphasised in most books.
When Griffith returned on that Saturday, Sennett had
experienced a very bad week. Ford Sterling and Henry "Pathé"
Lehrman were on the verge of leaving him, and the following week they
actually did and signed a contract with Fred Balshofer and Universal,
and the Sterling Film Company was incorporated. This was a hard blow to
Mack as he lost not only Ford and Henry but also many of his other players,
and, what was even worse, they kept defecting, both actors and directors,
for many months to come, first to the Sterling Company and then, from
late summer, to Lehrmans newly-formed L-KO company, thereby draining
Sennetts organisation. Merely to keep up production, not getting
behind in the stipulated release schedule, was a feat per se, but to start
a feature film as well under these circumstances is even more surprising,
This sudden dearth of people forced Sennett to husband
his resources and use the rest of his employees the best way he could
which meant that he had to use at least some of them in new capacities.
Mack Sennett would undoubtedly have allowed Chaplin, the greenhorn, to
direct his own films sooner or later, but dire necessity made it happen
sooner. So, spirits were not high on the Keystone lot, or, as Balshofer
in his memoirs so ironically understates it: "After my wholesale
grab of Keystone players as well as Sennetts star Ford Sterling
and his best comedy director Pathé Lehrman, Kessel, Bauman and
Sennett were a pretty unhappy trio."
But Mack, who at this juncture is likely to have experienced
the whole gamut of human emotions, with the possible exception of love,
regained his composure after this jolt, and, realizing that some countermeasures
were needed, he was soon ready to take action. So when Sennett signed
Marie Dressler, the famous vaudeville and musical comedy star, he was
on the rebound, so to speak, but he could never have done it, if
the circumstances, chance and sheer luck, had not played into his hands.
You do not sign a busy, contract-bound Broadway star on the spur of the
moment and then make her work for you immediately, irrespective of her
other engagements. How did he manage it?
Late in 1913, Dressler har signed a forty-week contract
with Gilbert M. Anderson, who was the owner of the Gaiety Theatre on OFarrel
Street in San Francisco. The contract specified a Monday, January 26,
1914 opening date for The Merry Gambol, a musical revue, starring
Marie Dressler. The name of Gilbert M. Anderson may sound familiar. Yes,
it is the famous Western star, better known as "Broncho Billy"
Anderson, co-owner of the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, for whom
Chaplin was to work in 1915. That Anderson was also a theatre-owner is
mostly forgotten today. But there were various troubles from the very
start and they continued, on and off, during the whole of the San Francisco
run until Sunday, March 9, when hell broke loose and Dressler refused
to go on, so Marta Golden of Ye Liberty Theater came over and took the
part. To cut a long story short: it has been said that the warfare between
Anderson and Jake Rosenthal, the Gaiety manager, on one side of the battlefield,
and Marie Dressler and James Dalton, her "husband", on the other,
was one of the ugliest ever waged by members of the American theatrical
community. And this was news, not only in the local newspapers but the
scandalous tidings of how they kept suing and countersuing each other
spread nationwide and even reached London. The Los Angeles Times
had some unusually harsh words to say about the popular Marie Dressler:
"She must be the biggest crab and the most swelled-up star
in theaterdom." On top of everything, charges of White Slavery and
of violating the Mann Act were brought against James Dalton, who was also
accused of not being legally married to Marie Dressler, and if he could
prove that he really was, he would immediately be indicted for bigamy
as he had never been divorced from his lawfully wedded wife in Boston.
That Dressler almost had a nervous breakdown because of all this is easily
understandable. In her memoirs, she says that her doctor ordered her to
go to Los Angeles to rest and recuperate. Now, if she really wanted to
get away from it all and just rest and relax, Los Angeles was a very bad
choice. Why? Because The Merry Gambol was slated to open at the
Morosco Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, March 16 and it did,
but without Dressler on the stage.
So why did she go to Los Angeles of all places, pursuing
and running after the Gambol company, unless she still had some hope,
however faint, that all problems would somehow be solved and that she
would be able to appear on stage again? Nothing happened, however, and
her place was taken once more by Marta Golden during the whole of the
Los Angeles run, from Monday, March 16 to Sunday, March 29. This was the
very Marta Golden who played with Chaplin in his two comedies Work
and A Woman in 1915; later in the same year she joined Keystone
and appeared in A Janitors Wifes Temptation. Incidentally,
in the same Gambol company were also Alf Goulding, the future film director,
and Frank Hayes who some months later was to play with Chaplin in the
Keystone comedy His Musical Career.
The Los Angeles Times of March 25 carried the
following paragraph:
Sidney Harris, manager of The Merry Gambol company at
the Morosco Theater, is a very much perturbed young man these days. Pourquoi?
Marie Dressler and her husband Jack [sic] Dalton are spending a week or
so at neighboring Ocean Park. It certainly would be dreadful if Miss Dressler
should plant herself in a stage box and make faces at Marta Golden who
is playing Miss Dresslers role in "The Gambol" show.
This is the background against which the making of Tillies
Punctured Romance must be seen: here is a vilified Dressler in Los
Angeles at the end of March 1914, with no job, no income, no immediate
prospects, verging on a nervous breakdown, her spirits having sunk to
their nadir, and in steps Sennett, who badly needed a gambit to come out
on top again, and offers her a film contract at exactly the right, psychological
moment. Normally stage veterans despised the movies, but now Marie had
nothing to lose. Dressler tells us, in both her autobiographies, how it
happened:
I was convalescing in Los Angeles and went with my nurse
to a movie show [
] As we passed through the lobby I noticed one
of a pair of men staring at me oddly [
] When we came out after the
performance, we found the two men outside the theatre door. The one I
had first noticed approached me with a sort of desperate diffidence. "Miss
Dressler", he said, jerking his head in the direction of his wild-eyed
companion, "wed like to talk to you a minute." I told
them Id see them at my hotel, for I was still weak and trembly and
not equal to the ordeal of standing long at a time. When they presented
themselves in my sitting-room ten minutes later, I discovered that the
wild-eyed one was Mack Sennett, and the spokesman for the pair was Bauman,
of Keystone pictures [
] They wanted to make good pictures that would
take them into first-rate houses. They thought they could break into first-string
theatres if they had my name in the cast.
A photo exists (see p. 32 in Jeffrey Vances Chaplin,
2003) showing Marie Dressler visiting Chaplin and Mabel Normand during
the production of Caught in a Cabaret. This was probably taken
on her first visit to the Keystone studio and even if we do not know the
exact date, it must have been taken some time between March 27 and April
2, the production dates for this film.
Marie Dressler was signed to a twelve-week contract which
guaranteed her a weekly salary of $ 2.500 for a minimum of twelve weeks.
In all the trade papers the following announcement was made in late April:
Marie Dressler is to be seen in a series of Keystone
comedies, three or four reels in length, to be released on the Mutual
programme. Work of production has been going on for some time under the
direction of Mack Sennett, and the first of the films featuring Marie
Dressler will be released in July.
Please note that there is talk of a string of three-
and four-reel films.
Since everything had happened so fast, they had no story
for Dressler until, as Sennett says, Craig Hutchinson, the scenario writer,
hit on the bright idea of using the storyline of Dresslers greatest
success Tillies Nightmare. How this could be such a bright
idea is hard to understand; this play would have been the very first thing
they thought of in connection with Dressler no need for any brainstorming.
She had been playing it on the stage for almost five years and in this
play she had created a character called "Tillie Blobbs, the boarding
house drudge" and to the general public she had become synonymous
with that role as well as with the hit song of Tillies Nightmare,
"Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl". The only thing the play
and the film have in common is, as a matter of fact, the Tillie character
in her outrageous costume, getting drunk and doing some funny dancing.
Otherwise the film is the banal story of the city slicker luring the country
girl to the wicked city the oldest story there is, and also touched
upon in the above-mentioned song. According to Dressler, she herself suggested
playing the Tillie character. Anyhow the shooting of Tillies
Punctured Romance started on Tuesday, April 14, 1914, under the working
title of Dressler no. 1, and was finished on Tuesday, June 9, exactly
eight weeks later. The completed negative was sent from Los Angeles on
July 25 and was received in New York on July 31.
Marie Dressler always said that the production lasted
fourteen weeks, but principal photography was only eight weeks. However,
if we include post-production (editing, titling, etc.) and count all the
way to July 25 when the film was sent to New York, it will be fourteen
weeks. Sennett says the shooting took forty days, and he may be right
because from April 14 to June 9 there are forty-nine working days
Sundays not included and some whole days must be subtracted when
Mabel Normand and Chaplin were away making other films. The whole operation
was something of a jigsaw puzzle; as Sennett says: "I had to continue
the steady flow of two short comedies each week. This meant that I never
had my Tillie cast all working together on any given day. One or two of
them were constantly out of the picture acting in a two-reeler."
During those eight weeks, Tillie excluded, Sennett produced 17
films: 3 two-reelers, 11 one-reelers and 3 split-reels, 19 1/2 reels in
all; 25 1/2, Tillie included. Hard work, indeed! In 5 of those
17 films Chaplin appeared: The Fatal Mallet, The Knockout, Her Friend
the Bandit, Mabels Busy Day and Mabels Married Life.
Sometimes they had to work on Sundays too. Sennett, Chaplin, Mabel and
Mack Swain made The Fatal Mallet in three days, Sunday, May 10
Tuesday, May 12, using the same shed as can be seen in the background
in the first reel of Tillie. They also had to work on Sunday, May
17, to get pictures of the car races, held at Ascot Park that day, to
incorporate into Mabels Busy Day.
Nearly all Keystone actors can be seen in Tillie,
with one glaring exception: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Marie,
not wanting to be upstaged, barred Roscoe from the set as he always stood
out from the rest of the group because of his bulk; Dressler wanted only
one big, voluminous person in this film. However, a couple of times Fatty
can actually be seen running through the crowded big ballroom set used
in Tillie but these shots were used in another film: in
the final chase in The Knockout.
To gain time, they sometimes worked in different units;
for example, Sennett sent Charles Bennett, who played Tillies uncle
in the film, to the snowcapped Mount Baldy. All the trade papers carried
the story: "Charles Bennett of Keystone Co. recently took a company
of actors, under his direction, up to Mount Baldy amongst the snows. They
threw a dummy into a chasm and badly scared three tourists who thought
a real man had been killed. They scrambled for the remains
and found the dummy with this tag on it. When found return to the
Keystone Co. Thanks."
Films are usually shot out of sequence, but it was lucky
that the final scenes of Tillie were photographed on one of the
very last days of shooting because there was an accident. On Saturday,
June 6, they were in Venice, working on the Venice pier. The Venice
Daily Vanguard had a report headlined: Injury compels comedienne
to cancel contract.
Saturday afternoon the Keystone Film company had secured
a section of the Venice pier for the taking of a moving picture. Miss
Dressler, who was to take part in the picture, was standing close to the
edge, from which the railing had been removed. In an effort to avoid an
approaching automobile which was to be used in the picture the actress
stepped backward and fell thirty feet into the sea. In falling her left
hand and arm struck some of the wooden piling and her body fell across
a rope attached to a nearby boat. She sustained herself for a few moments
by swimming, but by the time that boat reached her she was completely
exhausted. Miss Dressler was immediately removed to her home at 1861 Cherokee
avenue, Hollywood, and Dr. Dudley Fulton
was called in. J.H. Dalton,
manager for the actress, said last evening: "We are thinking more
of Miss Dresslers safe return to health just at present time than
the question of contracts. However, it will be quite impossible for Miss
Dressler to fill any engagements for some time, how long I cannot say,
but at least several months. The ligaments of her arm are torn in such
a manner as to make it possible that she may never be able to use it freely
again."
This meant that Dressler could not fulfil her twelve-week
contract. Of course, Sennett may have decided to expand Tillie
from a four-reeler into a six-reeler some time while it was still in production,
but this decision could also have been a result of the accident. When
Mack realized that there would be no more Dressler films no Dressler
no. 2 he decided to make the most of the footage he had already
shot and it sufficed for a six-reeler without too much noticeable
padding, that is.
The distribution of Tillies Punctured Romance
is rather a convoluted story. Many books have a November première
for Tillie. Why? There was a trade show in New York very late in
October 1914, and therefore all the trade papers could publish reviews
of the film in November, before its release. At first Keystone intended
to offer the film to state-right buyers, but instead they leased the use
of the negative to the newly-formed Alco Film Corporation for a flat sum
of $ 100.000, and the official première was on the Alco programme
on Monday, December 21, 1914. On this date the film opened in Los Angeles
at the Republic theatre, and Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin
were present, sitting in a box as the guests of Bert Levey who had acquired
the rights to the film for Southern California and the Hawaiian islands.
Some months later Alco went into bankruptcy too many hands in the
till but Tillie had already been sold on the state-right
market, so its circulation was not hampered. Then Marie Dressler, always
litigious, sued the Keystone Co. several times for not receiving her share
of the profits, and that is another long story, the upshot of which was
that Dressler finally settled for $ 50.000 plus the return of the negative
after five years. So, in the early 20s, she re-released the film, and
once again she felt she had been cheated out of her share of the profits
– a never-ending story. (July 2004 - To be published in Griffithiana
75. The issue will also include a piece by Ross Lipman on the restoration
of the film)

The Sounds of Tillie's
Nightmare
The jaunty syncopation of ragtime, the stately tango, the slightly pompous
cakewalk, the doleful melancholy of country blues, and just a hint of
the high stepping jazz rhythms (that would soon become so popular) –
these are the sounds of Tillie’s Nightmare.
This five piece ensemble (clarinet, piano, cornet, banjo, and percussion)
combines the talents of some of Boston’s best musicians to bring
to life the classic silent comedy, Tillie’s Punctured Romance.
Ken Winokur, whose other silent film ensemble Alloy Orchestra, has enlivened
the silents for more than a dozen years, put this group together to bring
this much neglected music back to the forefront. “There are a lot
of other groups performing music for silent films, but none like Tillie’s
Nightmare. We’re attempting to bring the verve and excitement back
into the films of the early 20th century. Ragtime and the other popular
musical styles of this period had a grip on that generation’s imagination.
The music was full of energy and innovation. We’re hoping to have
audiences on the edge of their seats, tapping their feet, ready to spring
into the aisles and dance.”
Tillie’s nightmare is:
Billy Novick – clarinet and alto saxaphone. A member
of the highly regarded New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Novick has also performed
with David Bromberg, Leon Redbone, Jonathan Edwards, Martha and the Vandellas,
Freddy Fender, Guy Van Duser, and even J. Giles. As a performer, arranger
and composer, his music has appeared in countless movie and television
soundtracks, including John Sayles' Eight Men Out and Lone
Star, Wes Craven's Music of the Heart, and most recently,
Seabiscuit.
Robin Verdier – piano. Pianist Robin Verdier, an
expatriate Southerner Californian, currently plays with the Paramount
Jazz Band and the New Yankee Rhythm Kings, and leads the Monte Carlo Jazz
Ensemble in the path of righteousness and Family Values. He has performed
with John Sayles’ film Eight Men Out. He has performed
with many other bands and in many Jazz Festivals, and believes, with apologies
to W.C.Fields, that anybody who hates electronic keyboards and "New
York, New York" can't be all bad. He also works as a research physicist
at MIT.
John Kusiak – banjo, guitar. John Kusiak has composed
and performed music for innumerable films, and television programs. His
frequent collaborations with filmmaker Errol Morris have included music
for the Academy Award winning Fog of War, as well as for Mr.
Death, Fast Cheap and Out Of Control, as well as the cable series,
First Person. His music was performed for the opening segment
of the 2002 Academy Awards ceremony, and has been used extensively by
PBS, the Learning Channel, the Discovery Channel and the BBC.
Scott Getchell – cornet. This highly regarded horn
player has been central to many of Boston’s best rock and jazz bands.
He currently adds his talent to such bands as Lars Vegas, The Bad Art
Ensemble, and Skull Session, and the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble. In
the past he has performed with The Bent Men, Ramcat and has fronted the
infamous Bitter Lesbians. He is also a talented cartoonist whose work
is frequently published in publications such as the Boston Phoenix.
Ken Winokur – percussion. Winokur is the director,
percussionist and clarinetist for Alloy Orchestra, one of the countries
premiere silent film orchestras. He has composed music and performed on
soundtracks for Seseme Street, MTV, VHI, Errol Morris’s Fast
Cheap and Out Of Control, and for the films of Jane Gillooly. He
is owner and operator of Chicken Loft Studios a multimedia facility which
has serviced the Boston community with high quality audio recording, photography,
and multi media production for more than two decades. He has done corporate
media production for such clients as Met Life, Polaroid, Sheraton, American
Movie Classics, and Baybank.
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