And a proud rooster too

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Movie
German title And a proud rooster too
Original title Pass the Gravy
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1928
length 620 m (2 reels), 23 minutes
Rod
Director Fred Guiol
script Leo McCarey , Hal Roach
production Hal Roach
camera George Stevens
cut Richard C. Currier
occupation

And a proud rooster is the German title of the silent American two-reelers Pass the Gravy (German perhaps “Rich times the sauce over”), which Fred Guiol gave in 1928 in the Hal Roach Studios based on a script by Hal Roach and Leo McCarey then popular Jewish actor Max Davidson realized in the lead role. Pass the Gravy is generally considered to be the most successful of the mostly above-average Max Davidson comedies.

The German title is based on a quote from a picture story by Wilhelm Busch , the first trick of "Max and Moritz", which is about the poultry of the widow Bolte: "There were three of your chickens / and a proud rooster." .

action

The chickens that neighbor Schultz breeds are a constant cause of quarrels with Max Davidson, as they pick the seeds in his garden. However, when the two children become engaged, the hatchet seems to be buried and Max invites them to dinner. He gives his son Ignatz money to buy a chicken, but he keeps it and slaughters the neighbour's award-winning rooster instead. At the table only Schultz doesn't notice what there is to eat. Everyone tries desperately to hide the bad news from Schultz, who would certainly turn Max's neck if he learned the truth.

background

The film was made at Hal Roach Studios, 8822 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA. The producer was Hal Roach. George Stevens was in charge of the camera, Richard C. Currier was in charge of the editing. The premiere in America was on January 7, 1928.

“The finest surviving Davidson comedy is PASS THE GRAVY, a meticulous exploitation of a single situation as only the Roach filmmakers could achieve. It went before the cameras as D-6 the last two weeks of October, 1927. ” (RW Bann)

Pass the Gravy (1928) consists largely of a scene at the dining table in which the Davidson family has to come up with desperate diversions so that their guest does not notice that they are eating their prized, award-winning rooster.

reception

"Berlin-born Max Davidson (1875–1950) began portraying Jewish tailors, rag collectors and pawnbrokers with ever-bearded shrugging shoulders in 1912, and even produced his own series of short comedies at Hal Roach Studios in the 1920s."

- Stratenwerth-Simon, p. 127

“The subject of the Davidson comedies was the problems of a Jewish family in the USA - with useless sons and a daughter who, to the horror of her father, amused herself with non-Jewish friends [...] constantly driven by the fear of losing their hard-earned standard of living , and always ready to defend traditional values ​​in a modern world that shapes his own children, Davidson was the ideal figure to identify with the army of immigrants in the United States. "

- artfilm.ch

William K. Everson contends that Davidson's comedies were of equal quality to those of Laurel and Hardy, but were passed over and ultimately forgotten because of objections raised against them by American Jews in the late 1930s.

"Davidson's character —that of the Jewish immigrant struggling to assimilate in his adopted country— is also one of the reasons why his work isn't more prominently placed in retrospect; though there was no malice in Max's characterizations (identified by his shaggy mop of hair and beard, clad in a derby hat and long coat) some of the stereotypical humor might not pass muster with the audiences of today. "

- Ivan G. Shreeve Jr.

“Playing an old world Jew adrift in a land of goyim , Davidson was a comedian whose stock-in-trade was the stereotypical European Jew. His full beard, shaggy hair, bowler hat, and dark clothes from an earlier century, marked him as an immigrant. His characterization was a catalog of hand gestures, winces, beard strokes, and shrugs. He played Ginsbergs, Cohens, Gimplewarts, and Weinbergs. He portrayed rag men, junk men, pawnbrokers, and most often, tailors. "

- Slapsticon.com

"Max Davidson (1875–1950) was a German actor whose stock in trade was playing the henpecked, just-off-the-boat Jewish father. At the peak of his career in the States in 1927 he was given his own series of comedies with Hal Roach studios, creating some of the funniest shorts they ever produced. His characters would be fish out of water men struggling to adjust to mainstream America (not to mention his goofy family), and his comedy grew out of the gulf between his old world manners and the new world that his children were born into. "

- G. Garden

“That his films parody ethnic particularities without even a tinge of racism is what bestows Davidson with greatness. As is the case with all truly intelligent film comedies, the parody also mocks cultural and ethnic prejudices. "

- Paolo Cherchi Usai

Pass the Gravy was proposed for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1998 .

The film was released on DVD by edition filmmuseum along with other short film comedies by Max Davidson. It was also screened at the International Silent Film Festival 2011 at the 27th Bonn Summer Cinema with piano accompaniment by Neil Brand.

The culture broadcaster Arte broadcast the film together with two other Max Davidson comedies on Monday, December 26, 2011 at 0.40 a.m. on German television in a version that was extensively restored by the Munich Film Museum.

literature

Illustrations

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ to be found in germanstories ; is curious that the quote only in the program of the City Museum in Munich will play correctly (2014, No. 26, p 23), write all other sources "And a proud rooster to ." (which refers to three would not rhyme).
  2. ↑ cf. Max Davidson
  3. ↑ cf. artfilm.ch
  4. ↑ see Erens pp. 92–93.
  5. ↑ cf. watershed.co.uk
  6. ↑ quoted by Richard W. Bann: Max Davidson - Blow by blow on laurel-and-hardy.com (English).
  7. ↑ cf. Infoplease.com
  8. ↑ cf. edition-filmmuseum.com ; The double CD contains the films Why Girls Say No (Leo McCarey 1927, 3 '), Jewish Prudence (Leo McCarey 1927, 21'), Don't Tell Everything (Leo McCarey 1927, 23 '), Should Second Husbands Come First ? (Leo McCarey 1927, 21 '), Flaming Fathers (Leo McCarey 1927, 25'), Hurdy Gurdy (Hal Roach 1929, 10 '), Call of the Cuckoo (Clyde Bruckman 1927, 19'), Love 'Em and Feed' Em (Clyde Bruckmann 1927, 9 '), Pass the Gravy (Fred Guiol 1928, 25'), Dumb Daddies (Hal Yates 1928, 15 '), Came the Dawn (Arch Heath 1928, 17'), The Boy Friend (Fred Guiol 1928, 20 ') and The Itching Hour (Lewis R. Foster 1931, 19'). The films have English and German subtitles.
  9. ↑ cf. bonn.de ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Program p. 9-10) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lebenskunst-bonn.de
  10. ↑ cf. arte.tv