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All dressed up like Julius Caesar
Supposedly this has claims to be the first British sound film: it's little more than a camera pointed at the stage on which Billy Merson performs his act, with the use of occasional close-ups, and I'd guess that it quite possibly served the purpose of an experimental test reel -- not exactly an 'audition', for someone who'd been on stage and even in films for so long!
What is uncanny for me is the way in which we are more or less granted a glimpse straight back into the music hall era: Peter Sellers in "The Optimists of Nine Elms" is playing a broken-down character who is clearly out of exactly the same tradition as this performer in the prime of his art, and I've seen the occasional street entertainer whose style is still distinctively the same -- the emphasis of the mobile features, the body language and agility in a man clearly no longer young, the stage projection to an audience beyond. To recognise that so vividly in a genuine Edwardian artiste is, well, enough to give anyone a queer turn or two...
But in addition to this, for all the crudity of the recording it's actually a pretty good performance. The man's stage presence and comic talent is evident, and while this isn't laugh-out-loud stuff it's definitely enough to raise a grin: the comparison is inevitably with George Formby, given the stringed instrument and the Northern accents. We're privileged to be in his audience across a great gap of time; this scrap of film is not merely a curiosity survival, but an enjoyable one as well.
What is uncanny for me is the way in which we are more or less granted a glimpse straight back into the music hall era: Peter Sellers in "The Optimists of Nine Elms" is playing a broken-down character who is clearly out of exactly the same tradition as this performer in the prime of his art, and I've seen the occasional street entertainer whose style is still distinctively the same -- the emphasis of the mobile features, the body language and agility in a man clearly no longer young, the stage projection to an audience beyond. To recognise that so vividly in a genuine Edwardian artiste is, well, enough to give anyone a queer turn or two...
But in addition to this, for all the crudity of the recording it's actually a pretty good performance. The man's stage presence and comic talent is evident, and while this isn't laugh-out-loud stuff it's definitely enough to raise a grin: the comparison is inevitably with George Formby, given the stringed instrument and the Northern accents. We're privileged to be in his audience across a great gap of time; this scrap of film is not merely a curiosity survival, but an enjoyable one as well.
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- Igenlode Wordsmith
- Jul 14, 2007
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