←

A Genteel Black Hole

Tag: comedy

  • Century of Cinema: Animal Crackers

    Ally

    Day 5 of Century of Cinema. Also day 48 of Project Glowing Rectangle, in which I try to divert some of my daily doomscrolling time back towards a more nourishing oblong: Cinema.

    Title: Animal Crackers
    Director: Victor Heerman
    Writer: Morrie Ryskind
    Year: 1930
    Country: USA

    Format: Blu-ray
    Length: 99 minutes
    Seen: 22 April 2026
    Rewatch

    I haven’t made much time for films this past month, but today I finally resumed my Century of Cinema project with Animal Crackers (1930), a Marx Brothers musical comedy directed by Victor Heerman. The first full talkie of the project!

    As with most Marx Brothers films, the plot is largely irrelephant. The action takes place at a high society party, hosted by Mrs Rittenhouse (Margaret Dumont), to celebrate the return of the famous explorer Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding (Groucho)—the T. stands for Edgar. Also at the party are Signor Emanuel Ravelli (Chico) and the Professor (Harpo), a pair of musicians and petty criminals. The two of them get involved in a scheme to steal a valuable painting and replace it with a fake. But when some other guests hit upon a similar plan, all three paintings go missing and chaos ensues.

    Captain Spaulding: One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.

    Is Animal Crackers a perfect film? No. Did I have a great time watching it? Yes! The Marx Brothers’ madcap antics never fail to delight me. Groucho’s quickfire quips come at a dizzying pace, complemented perfectly by Chico’s malapropisms and Harpo’s silent slapstick. (Zeppo is also there.) Margaret Dumont is the perfect ‘straight man’ amid all the chaos: the stern and stately authority figure for all the Marxes (Groucho especially) to undermine. Then there’s the musical interludes. Chico’s fancy fingerwork on the piano always makes me grin, as does Harpo’s harping. It’s a welcome respite from the otherwise constant madcap energy.

    Animal Crackers, being an early talkie and an adaptation of a stage play, has a certain ‘stagey’ quality that might put off some viewers. It took me a few minutes to tune back into that frequency myself. But once I got there, the smile never left my face.

    ~

    On a personal note: I plan to continue blogging Century of Cinema, but I will probably do less blogging of my general film-viewing. The self-imposed pressure of blogging every film I watch has discouraged me from actually watching films, which is supposed to be a relaxing activity to re-centre myself. So from now on I plan to reclaim films as a leisure activity.

  • Century of Cinema: The General

    Ally

    Day 1 of Century of Cinema. Also day 41 of Project Glowing Rectangle, in which I try to divert some of my daily doomscrolling time back towards a more nourishing oblong: Cinema.

    Title: The General
    Director: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
    Writer: Al Boasberg, Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton, Charles Smith
    Year: 1926
    Country: USA

    Format: Blu-ray
    Length: 75 minutes
    Seen: 4 March 2026
    Rewatch

    In a recent YouTube video I made an offhanded comment about maybe watching a Century of Cinema, inspired by my friend Gavin’s project to read a Century of Sci-fi. Having combed through my film collection and found almost every year accounted for (the only exceptions being 2020, ’22, and ’26), I’ve decided to take the idea more seriously. So here’s my mission statement:

    I aim to watch a Century of Cinema: One film for every year from 1926 to 2026. Some films will be new to me, others old favourites. In most cases they will already be part of my physical media collection. I won’t use this as an excuse to buy more films! There’s no deadline for the project, and I’m not promising to make blog posts or YouTube videos about it. It’s just a fun personal project of mine. I won’t announce the full list ahead of time, so I’ll have some wiggle room with my choices as I go along. And I’ll check in with myself every ten films to decide whether I want to continue with the project. If it stops being fun, I’ll stop.

    With all that out of the way… Today’s film was The General (1926), the classic Buster Keaton comedy. Keaton stars as Johnnie Gray, a Confederate train engineer whose engine, the titular General, is hijacked by Union soldiers. Johnnie sets out to retrieve the train he loves, coincidentally rescuing the woman he loves (Marion Mack) along the way, and helping his side win the battle… if not, thankfully, the war!

    Buster Keaton’s deadpan screen persona makes him feel like the most modern of the legendary silent comedians, and his inventive use of the camera is surely the most cinematic of the bunch. I’m a huge fan, and The General was my introduction to his genius. It’s not my favourite of his films—not least because of the slightly uncomfortable Civil War aspect—but as a piece of cinema it’s incredible.

    Keaton’s daredevil stunts remain thrilling to this day. I feel a frisson every time I watch him use one railway sleeper to knock another off the tracks, all while perching perilously on the front of a moving train. A few years ago I was lucky enough to see the film on the big screen, with live musical accompaniment, and that moment still had the power to make an audience gasp, cheer and applaud. Rewatching it today didn’t quite match that magical big screen experience, but I still had a great time.

    An auspicious start to my Century of Cinema!

  • Bookish Ramble: Some Tame Gazelle

    Ally

    Title: Some Tame Gazelle
    Author: Barbara Pym
    Year: 1950
    Country: UK

    Format: E-book
    Pages: 252
    Read: 30 December 2025 – 9 January 2026
    First reading

    “Some tame gazelle, or some gentle dove:
    Something to love, oh, something to love!”
    ~ Thomas Haynes Bayly

    Some Tame Gazelle is a comedy about two fiftysomething spinsters, the not-especially-venerable Bede sisters, Belinda and Harriet. For the last thirty years Belinda, the older and dowdier of the two, has been carrying a torch for Henry Hoccleve, the village’s married Archdeacon. Meanwhile Harriet, the more glamorous and outspoken sister, repeatedly rejects the advances of the melancholy Italian Count Riccardo Bianco, preferring instead to dote on a series of young curates. But when new guests come to stay with the Archdeacon, will they upset Belinda and Harriet’s comfortable life together?

    We really ought to love one another, she thought warmly, it was a pity it was often so difficult.

    This was my first time reading Barbara Pym and it certainly won’t be my last! Some Tame Gazelle is so good, I find it hard to believe it was her debut novel. I’m a big fan of bittersweet comedies and funny dramas, so it really hit the spot for me. Pym’s wry observations of village life made me chuckle and smile with recognition. (I grew up in a small Oxfordshire village myself, so it feels very much like my childhood home, albeit a few decades before my time.) There are several running gags that get funnier each time—especially “the Apes of Brazil.” But Pym balances this humour beautifully with pathos. My heart ached for poor Belinda, with her constant self-doubt and her comfortably hopeless crush on Henry.

    Belinda gave a contented sigh. It had been such a lovely evening. Just one evening like that every thirty years or so. It might not seem much to other people, but it was really all one needed to be happy.

    Nothing much actually happens plot-wise. Like a sitcom, the status quo is temporarily upended, then restored. The Bede sisters reject some unexpected suitors, then continue to focus their affections on people who either can’t or won’t love them back. The characters don’t grow or change; they confirm exactly who they always were. In the end, Some Tame Gazelle is a story about how having “something to love, oh, something to love!” is so much easier and more comfortable than allowing yourself to be loved.