Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennett

by Simon Louvish

Book Overview

An Irish-Canadian of impeccably uncomic ancestry, Mack Sennett founded in Hollywood in 1912 the world's first studio devoted to movie comedy alone. For the next 20 years he presided over cinema's most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 057121276X
• ISBN13: 9780571212767
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Much better than reported.

This book is a lot better than the previous reviewers would have me believe. Louvish had access to the Mack Sennett Papers at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, something that previous writers like Walter Kerr and Kalton Lahue did not. Of course, Sennett did not include his private papers in the collection so little is known of his private life--which he apparently kept private. Louvish posts hypotheses based on fact and states that these are Not Proven; he does NOT claim that Sennett was gay. Of course he is putting a modern gloss on the behaviour of people from nearly a century ago. People really did behave, and talk, differently then. Some of his material, particularly new material about Mabel Normand, is saddening and worthy of note. This is also the only book to tell the very moving story of Ben Turpin and his terminally ill wife, whom he supported until her death. There are some erroneous statements in the book that could have been better edited; Chaplin toured the USA in a production called MUMMING BIRDS, not EARLY BIRDS; Buster Keaton was drafted in WWI, not enlisted; and Roscoe Arbuckle's THAT MINSTREL MAN was made for Keystone, not 'just as he was about to join Keystone.' I do recommend that you consider this book. There is a lot of good material in it that is of interest to the silent historian. And I've not read the word 'quoth' once.

For those interested in comedy film history

As comedy is central to the development of cinema, a book on Mack Sennett is essential. Sennett was a movie pioneer who produced some of the earliest slapstick comedies. The films spawned such important comedians as Charlie Chaplin, Roscoe Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, and Harry Langdon. They were also an early, albeit comparatively brief, training ground for the likes of Harold Lloyd and Charley Chase. Director Frank Capra enjoyed some of his early success writing and co-writing Sennett productions. Louvish examines Sennett the man and tells the story of Mack's work from his early days with D.W. Griffith to his own productions beginning in the early teens and lasting into the 1930s and the talking picture revolution. Even for comedy film buffs who have read a great deal about this genre, Louvish offers a lot of interesting information that does not appear in other sources. There have been few truly good books on Mack Sennett and his work. This one is quite good. Recommended.