Postby Gary Johnson » Sat Aug 03, 2013 2:16 pm
I think I'll break into this discussion on Family Ties by singing some praise over Mr. Robert's book.
First off, it is a rather large book. And quite thick too. I wouldn't recommend using the book to kill flies as the force from the blow may well spread the flying vermin's carcass throughout the house. Like triggering an IED. However, the book sits nicely on a coffee table -- taking up a lot of space to impress visitors that you read alot. And I have found it is very handy for resting one's feet atop it, should your horizontal incline be less than desired. Many of you gout-ridden patients know what I speak of.
But I have found that the best use of this book is by opening it up and reading it. The text is amusing but informative. The still's throughout are generously over-abundant. The Roach studio filmography alone, which takes up half of the book and was compiled by those erstwhile researchers messrs Rob Farr and Joe Moore, makes this a must-have as a reference source. And throughout there is the familar voice of the author himself, describing the films he deems important to describe while hopscotching about the history of this fabled studio. The book veers from the familiar Roach faces (Chase and Pollard) to the less so (Arthur Stone anyone??....), but even when the subject is well-known new info can come to light. Most books and articles about Mabel Normand speak of RAGGEDY ROSE and THE NICKEL-HOPPER as the two films she made at Roach before she up and died. But she also made three other shorts which rarely get mentioned. Here they get mentioned.
The Roach story is a simple one to tell. An ambitious young man gets a hankering to entering the motion picture industry back when one didn't need an MBA to do so. His goal was to be a top independent producer of feature film dramas. Instead, he happened to develop an unerring ability at hiring top comedy talent -- both in front of and behind the camera. Roberts shines a light on Roach's lesser known series which have not been the subjects of countless books and articles before. We read of Roach's penchant of delaying release dates on troubled series (which confused film historians to no end about when they were actually made) and of his constant early troubles at supplying enough product to fullfill his Pathe contract as the persnickery exhibitors would routinely reject product. How he ever got his studio out of the Teens financially intact is beyond me.
And like all good authors Roberts has his axes to grind and uses this forum to right some wrongs. One is to shine a light on performers that he feels have been too long neglected. Veteran supporting player Mark Jones is given a boost in these pages; as are the films of Max Davidson. While hardly a neglected name, Charley Chase is front and center throughout this book, as he well should be. Chase's handprints appear throughout the book as the architect of the Roach style and so his rather abrupt dismisal by the Boss in the mid-Thirties is looked upon by the author as a rather callous act; similar to the firing of loyal employee Snub Pollard a decade earlier. But Roach was always first and foremost a businessman, and he is treated even-handedly within these pages as the creator of some of the greatest comedy to have come out of the Hollywood studio system.
And this book is a fine achievement at filling in those holes of what took place at the Fun Factory.