MANY MINUTES OF MIRTH: JOKER COMEDIES [2 Blu-Ray set]
Joker Comedies: They were Universal’s answer to the stunning popularity of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Comedies, introduced in late 1912 to enthusiastic audience acceptance.
The Joker Comedies were good – really good – and it didn’t take long before Sennett noticed. Louise Fazenda, Bobby Vernon, and Harry McCoy, three of Joker’s most popular comedians, were all lured away within a year of Joker’s inception. Unfazed by this loss, Universal regrouped and formed a talented new stock company every bit as good as their predecessors. Headlined by Gale Henry and Billy Franey, with support from Milburn Morante, Lillian Peacock, and Charles “Heinie” Conklin, the new Jokers would soldier on with their delightfully unhinged antics.
This two disc Blu-Ray set presents a few of the very few Joker Comedies that survive. All with new high def transfers of 35mm prints, and new musical scores written and performed by Andrew E. Simpson, and six page booklet with an essay by Thomas Reeder, author of TEN MINUTES OF MIRTH: Allen Curtis and His Joker Comedies 1913-1917.
UPC 00860013718626.