Early British Comedy

International Competition

Despite sterling inroads made by these music hall performers, the British film industry between 1900 and 1912 became stale and impassive especially compared to the creative explosion in America and Europe.

Europe already had the likes of Max Linder (1883-1825), born Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle in Cavenne, Bordeaux, France who played a dapper and debonair playboy. France also had Ferdinand Guillaume and Andree Deed.

Deed (1884-1938) born Andre Chapuis at Le Havre, France, was a music hall singer and acrobat and the first comic movie star. He was there from the beginning making films with George Melies and Charles Pathe. Pathe who, after seeing Deed on stage, used him in his chase film La Course A La Perruque (1905). Almost immediately he was an international success and the first comedian to be given his own name by each country, in Britain he was known as ‘Foolshead’. His style of humour was the type that influenced Mack Sennett, Deed was destructive, bizarre and leant toward the idiotic but his films were imaginative and funny. Melies and Pathes’ influence can be seen in the in camera effects and tricks he used in much of his work. Deeds also worked in Italy. Deeds ended his life working at menial tasks for the Pathe Studio where he had once been its star.

America had John Bunny, (1863-1916) a Brooklyn, NY native and son of a British naval officer. He was a large comedian weighing over twenty-one stone, but he still performed with elegance and grace. Bunny was on stage and in vaudeville from 1883 and signed to make comedies with Vitagraph in 1910, he also made several Vitagraph films in the UK in 1912, one of which was Pickwick Papers made in Kent. Once back in the US, Bunny made a few more shorts and then embarked on a tour of his live show, Bunny In Funnyland. This took a great toll on Bunny’s frail health and he died of Brights Disease on April 26th 1915 without making another film. During his brief career Bunny was hailed as the most famous comedian in the world.

America also gave us Mr and Mrs Sidney Drew who made a series of domestic comedies. Sidney Drew (1864-1919) was not only a distinguished New York actor, he was also the uncle to John, Ethel and Lionel Barrymore. Initially Drew made films for Kalem, then from 1913 he moved to Vitagraph for whom he starred in the first three reel comedy to be shown on Broadway, Goodness Gracious (1914). Together with his second wife, Jane Morrow (nee Lucile McVey), he made the Mr and Mrs Sidney Drew series. In 1916 the Drews moved to Metro, returned to the stage and then produced their own shorts which were released through Paramount. Only a few of these were completed before Drew’s sad and somewhat suspicious death. His son, Sidney Rankin Drew had been killed in action near the end of WW1, Drew Sr. never got over the tragedy and while appearing in a stage show with his wife in Detroit, suffered a nervous breakdown. The immediate cause of death on Drew’s death certificate was Uraemia.