Where to find good Keystones?

Hey all,

I asked a simliar question before, but I'll try again. Where, besides the Madacy tapes/dvds, can I get good copies of the Chaplin Keystone films? I have the Madacy vhs box sets, as well as a couple other tapes, and the Tillie dvd. Is there anything else I should be looking for? Are there certain Keystone films that only have poor quality surviving prints? Thanks.

There are no readily accessible sources that you're overlooking, and, yes, there ARE some Keystones which only exist in inferior quality.

The problem with the Keystones is that they're also frequently incomplete - thus, you'll need to find several different versions of the same film to have all the available material.

Some instances of this are 'Kid's Auto Race' - where the Blackhawk print is missing the last minute or so (same with 'His Musical Career'. Various edits exist of 'Mabel At The Wheel' and 'The Fatal Mallet.' Until recently, I'd never seen a version of 'Mabels' Busy Day' where the heads weren't cut off, and the same probelm afflicts 'His New Profession.' Different sources exist for 'Laughing Gas,' 'Property Man,' 'Face on the Barroom Floor' and 'The Masquerader' as well. There are differences between prints of 'Dough and Dynamite' and 'His Trysting Place' and, finally, a number of Keystones have even been edited down to one reel, such as 'Caught in a Cabaret,' 'The Property Man' and 'His Prehistoric Past.'

And, of course, 'Tillie' exists in seemingly endless variations, all of which are incomplete.

Someday, when I have a DVD burner and telecine in hand, I'll begin putting the pieces back together (for my own benefit), simply because I don't see anyone else doing it (well, David Shepard's been talking about it for years, but talk is cheap, right, Mr. Totheroh? ).

The only versions of LAUGHING GAS and FACE ON THE BARROOM FLOOR I've ever been able to find are the Official Films ones.

I have the W.H. Productions version of 'Barroom Floor' - it has a shot of Charlie outside in the street once he's been kicked out of the bar that's missing from the Official Films version (and it's not been re-edited to death, of course).

I only have a poor source for the longer 'Laughing Gas.' This is about 10 seconds longer in the beginning than the Official Films print, and is also obviously incomplete. It begins with Charlie approaching the dentist's office, removing his hat, scratching his head, and then yawning a couple of times before heading on in. Some Official Films prints have a moment of this shot just as he walks in the door - other Official Films prints cut this out and start on the next shot, in the dentist's office.

Hope this helps,

Both Grapevine Video and Gerald Smith (who posts here regularly) sell the Keystones as a complete set...minus 'Bandit' of course. Print quality varies. If you want dazzling quality on a Keystone, Kino's 'Tillie's Punctured Romance/Mabel's Day Out' can't be beat. There's also a nice copy of 'The Rounders' on the Slapstick Encyclopedia tape of Chaplin's work.

Rob Farr

And one minor correction to myself, while I'm at it - I *do* have a non-Official Films version of 'Laughing Gas' but it's useless - starts even later than the Official Films.