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Andy Clyde does the mirror routine in the rare 1937 Columbia short LODGE NIGHT.
It also has the similar ending to A NIGHT AT THE OPERA.

It is also done briefly in the 1953 Tom & Jerry MGM cartoon JERRY AND JUMBO.

Perhaps I should leave it to Chris to bring this up while he's in the process of becoming the English speaking world's leading Franco and Ciccio expert ... but Ciccio and Vincent Price do a brief version of this in Mario Bava's Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs - or at least in the original Italian version I've seen, now out in a restored (!), English subtitled DVD version in Italy. The resemblance between Ciccio and Price certainly helps ... but it doesn't help the film, which I'd say is rightfully considered Bava's worst!

Uli

The "Mirror Routine" is also done in the 1927 movie MY FRIEND FROM INDIA starring Franklin Pangborn.

I just watched the mirror routine in KRI-KRI DOMESTICO (1913)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSEalGPSqzc

Last night I watched Norman Wisdom's The Square Peg, and damned if the mirror routine didn't show up in that one, too.

What I found most interesting about it was that, whereas all other versions I've seen looked polished (pun intended), Wisdom looked like he and his stand-in (playing the double) were doing it after no more than one rehearsal. On one hand, it compared poorly to other renditions in not being smooth, perfectly synched, and fumble-free. On the other hand, it looked like how the routine might go in real life, when the copycat could have had no possibility of knowing in advance what the other guy was going to do: consistently slightly out of synch, costume not a perfect match, props not there, a look of sweaty panic on the face of the copycat, and the routine lasted only about 10 seconds (which is about how long any of us could keep it up in reality).

I rather suspect Wisdom took that approach deliberately. The whole film seems designed to put a unique twist on the old, worn-out tropes of the "you're in the army now" movie, and doing the mirror routine "sloppily" would have been in keeping with its overall approach.

Jim

I've always thought that the routine in DUCK SOUP could had used a few more rehearsals. The longer it goes on the more sloppy it gets. Harpo keeps anticipating moves that Groucho hasn't made yet.
I guess McCarey was busy noodling at the piano and didn't notice.......or found it funnier that way.

Gary Johnson wrote:I've always thought that the routine in DUCK SOUP could had used a few more rehearsals. The longer it goes on the more sloppy it gets. Harpo keeps anticipating moves that Groucho hasn't made yet.
I guess McCarey was busy noodling at the piano and didn't notice.......or found it funnier that way.

It was probably intentional. As it gets sloppier, you know it's only a matter of time before Harpo screws it up, and your anticipation builds for that moment. Classic comedy construction.

Jim

Ed Watz wrote: Has anybody identified the Harold Lloyd one reeler (excerpted anonymously IIRC in Brownlow's THE THIRD GENIUS) where Harold and Gaylord do their version?

Ed, I believe the Harold Lloyd one-reeler you mean is The Marathon (1918) which TCM screened earlier in May--here's my write up on it from the TCM blog, along with the clip in question so you can see for yourself if it's the same rendition:

http://moviemorlocks.com/2013/05/25/har ... -marathon/

Only, I don't think that's Gaylord. But my ability to recognize actors is so appallingly bad I wouldn't credit my opinion on that at all.

David Kalat wrote:

Ed Watz wrote: Has anybody identified the Harold Lloyd one reeler (excerpted anonymously IIRC in Brownlow's THE THIRD GENIUS) where Harold and Gaylord do their version?

Ed, I believe the Harold Lloyd one-reeler you mean is The Marathon (1918) which TCM screened earlier in May--here's my write up on it from the TCM blog, along with the clip in question so you can see for yourself if it's the same rendition:

http://moviemorlocks.com/2013/05/25/har ... -marathon/

Only, I don't think that's Gaylord. But my ability to recognize actors is so appallingly bad I wouldn't credit my opinion on that at all.

Thanks David, that's the clip alright, and since it's better represented here I can see it's not Harold's brother Gaylord. Looks a tad like a heavily made up Lew Harvey but I can't tell, either. Gaylord and Harold do a quick version of the mirror routine in HIS ROYAL SLYNESS and I was probably thinking of that film at the time. (And your article was excellent, thank you for sharing!)