Shoulder Arms Wasn't the First WWI Comedy

[Rob Farr]

Chaplin gets a lot of undeserved praise for his decision to make and release Shoulder Arms while soldiers were dying on the battlefield. Supposedly Cecil B. DeMille warned him against it. But Harold Lloyd released Kicking the Germ Out of Germany on July 21 1918 and Monty Banks was in the cast of Universal's The Geazer of Berlin (Aug. 10 1918). Shoulder Arms was a relative latecomer with its release on Oct. 20 1918, three weeks before the Armistice. Did any WWI battlefield comedies pre-date Lloyd's?

[Richard M Roberts]

Chaplin gets a lot of undeserved praise for his decision to make and release Shoulder Arms while soldiers were dying on the battlefield. Supposedly Cecil B. DeMille warned him against it. But Harold Lloyd released Kicking the Germ Out of Germany on July 21 1918 and Monty Banks was in the cast of Universal's The Geazer of Berlin (Aug. 10 1918). Shoulder Arms was a relative latecomer with its release on Oct. 20 1918, three weeks before the Armistice. Did any WWI battlefield comedies pre-date Lloyd's?

Yes actually, the then-Captain Bud Fisher began a series of Mutt and Jeff wartime cartoons in his Fox series, starting with THE SEVENTY-MILE GUN, which was released on June 30, 1918, and continued to have Mutt and Jeff fighting the Kaiser over the following months in cartoon like HUNTING THE U-BOATS (released July 21, 1918), JOINING THE TANKS (August 4, 1918), LANDING A SPY (August 18, 1918), AT THE FRONT (September 8, 1918), THE KAISER'S NEW DENTIST (September 22, 1918), TO THE RESCUE (September 15, 1918), OUR FOUR DAYS IN GERMANY (October 6, 1918), THE DOUGHBOY (November 17, 1918), and POT LUCK WITH THE ARMY (November 24, 1918). Apparenly these cartoons went over gangbusters with audiences, and Fox promoted them many mucho when they began to take off.

I'm sure Chaplin would have been aware of their success at the time, I also like the fact that apparently Chaplin was not really all that interested in doing a WW1 comedy, but was talked into and then badgered into completing SHOULDER ARMS by Brother Syd. It was only later that Chaplin was happy to take credit for being so daring and original at the time.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[Gary Johnson]

Chaplin never stated that he was the first to make the first WW1 comedy. He just happened to make the most popular WW1 comedy. Your beef must be with those errant historians who say otherwise. But beyond that, most people forget that despite the title of World War in it's moniker, this was a very short war. The US declared war on Germany in April of 1917, and the armistice was signed by the fall of 1918. That's a pretty short window for all film corporations to begin cranking out tons of propaganda films in a timely manner, considering that most of the first year was spend at mobilization (training). Check out how long it took the studios to get in line at the start of WW2, And that was a real global effort.

As you all well know Chaplin spent all of 1917 finishing off his Mutual contract, which was signed off for 2 reelers. Chaplin was already thinking of more expansive subjects at the time -- hence the need for a new deal with a new studio. If he was thinking of a war subject at the time he would had realized that he would need a bigger canvas (and bigger running time) than Mutual would give him. He also was spending his off hours working at raising war bonds (and fending off criticism of being a war slacker for his country of England). The other factor was that the majority of American's felt that there was no way this war would last beyond Thanksgiving of 1917. For a while this was universal thinking, It wasn't until early 1918 that the battles continued to rage and the body counts began climbing that people realized that this was no walk in the park. And it was at that time that Hollywood began taking the war seriously, with many top notch productions like Griffith's (Hey Jim! Did I punctuate that correctly?) HEARTS OF THE WORLD leading the way.

The point being that most film corporations jumped on the bandwagon in what we now consider late in the game, but at the time seemed rather timely. It you were making shorts and animation you had a tendency to beat the competition, but you also were not going to get as much publicity since you were working in shorts and animation. When an exploiter like Mack Sennett could not get his war comedy out in wide release until the spring of 1919, you have to admit that this was not a normal time for exhibitors. Chaplin was definitely not the first with his war comedy (more like one of the last) but his work was the most enduring.