You know the famous quote from John Ford’s
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
(1962): “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” The legend goes that up-and-coming movie mirthmaker
Mario Bianchi was inspired to adopt the
nom
de screen of “Monty Banks” (also spelled “Monte Banks”) when the legendary Roscoe
“Fatty” Arbuckle, his employer, told him in 1917: “You can't play another
'montebank' [mountebank] with a difficult name like Bianchi!” It makes for an amusing story…except that in
a 1918 two-reeler,
The Geezer of Berlin,
“Banks” was still billed as “Bianchi.”
What we
can be certain of is
that despite his popularity in the 1920s as a comedy star in various shorts and
features, Monte’s mostly remembered today (if at all) as the husband of British
entertainer Gracie Fields (he directed her in four feature films during the
1930s).
Banks’ enduring contribution to silent comedy is featured in
the Robert Youngson compilation
Days
of Thrills and Laughter (1961): the laugh-a-minute, thrill-a-second,
runaway train climax from his 1927 feature
Play
Safe. This sequence was later
recycled for a two-reeler released that same year entitled
Chasing Choo Choos (
Play
Safe didn’t do well at the box office)—and this engaging short is one of
five comedies featured on a new DVD release from Alpha Video,
Monty Banks: Hollywood’s
Forgotten Comic Genius.
Choo Choos is an entertaining cutdown
(the eye-popping stunt work is courtesy of Harvey Parry), though to be honest I
think you’re better off watching this material in
Thrills and Laughter…only because that movie concentrates on
nothing but the chase, whereas
Choo
Choos contains a little bit of the backstory that might be confusing if
you’re not familiar with the plot of the full feature.
|
Monty Banks in Wedding Bells |
The wonderful thing about
Forgotten Comic Genius is
that
Chasing Choo Choos isn’t even
the
strongest short on the DVD; I really enjoyed
Wedding Bells (1924), in which Monty plays a would-be groom who
must deal with his jealous bride (Ena Gregory) the morning after his wild
bachelor party. Monty doesn’t know that
his neighbor (William Blaisdell) from across the hall is babysitting
his fiancée’s dog (she won’t marry him
unless she’s certain the dog is properly looked after), and Neighbor has
smuggled the mutt into Monty’s crib out of sight of the landlady (Louise
Carver). Ena thinks that Monty’s playing
around, and refuses to do the matrimonial sashay down the aisle unless Fido is
outta there. So Monty hilariously
attempts to shed himself of his new pet, with hilarious results…and then when
Ena gets everything straightened out with the neighbor, Monty must get the dog
back. The gags in
Wedding Bells are clever and the denouement is hilarious (I did see
this one coming, I must confess), making the overall effort a most delightful
two-reeler.
|
Banks in The Covered Schooner |
Pay or Move
(1924) is also a gem; Monty must protect the father of his girlfriend (Gregory
again) from a sinister outfit known as the Koo Koo Kans (my, that’s
subtle)—even though he’s in Dutch with the old man because he’s in arrears
where his rent is concerned (Papa is his landlord). There are good gags in this one, but what
makes them so engaging is that Monty’s character is shown to be a very
resourceful individual (he’s able to fool a couple of goons with some
mannequins dressed in police uniforms).
The Covered Schooner (1923—directed by Harry Edwards; the title is a
jokey reference to
The Covered Wagon) is just a slight slip in quality,
mostly because it starts out strong (Monty’s a florist who’s trying to close shop
so that he can rescue his girl (Lois Boyd) from the amorous clutches of Captain
Blaisdell) but peters out in the second half (Monty gets shanghaied aboard
Blaisdell’s ship). (Though one gag did
make me snort out loud: for some odd reason, there’s a gorilla among
Blaisdell’s cargo [and not a particularly convincing one], and Blaisdell and
his crew decide to throw Monty into the cage where the animal is certain to
make quick work of him. Then they look
inside…and both Monty and the gorilla are on the floor of the cage, shooting
craps.)
|
John Carpenter, Movie Man |
The weakest short on
Forgotten Comic Genius is
Paging Love (1923)—fortunately it’s
also the
first short, so it’s kind of
like eating your vegetables before you get to the dessert—and really, it
wouldn’t have been that bad if someone had just considered making a one-reeler
out of the material (the plot in this one, in which Monty must sell a copy of
his prospective father-in-law’s [busy Blaisdell] encyclopedia to win his
daughter’s [Boyd again] hand, is painfully thin). (The last five minutes has Banks channeling
his inner Harold Lloyd when the shenanigans go “high and dizzy.”) All five of these comedies come from the
collection of my Facebook chum John Carpenter (a.k.a. “The Movie Man”), whose
participation in Alpha’s
Blondes
and Redheads: Lost Comedy Classics was so essential to that DVD
release’s success.
As I was browsing the Internets looking for photos to
illustrate this essay, I laughed out loud at some of the search results because
a small group of people seem to have confused Monty Banks with Harold Peary,
radio’s The Great Gildersleeve—and because I knew you’d be saying right
now “Oh, come now, Ian” I grabbed
this screen shot for proof:
Yes, that is misidentified at
Getty Images. I would expect
something like that at eBay or even the (always reliable) IMDb…but Getty?
“It is almost impossible now to describe a once-popular
comedian like Monty Banks by speaking of his mannerisms; he doesn't seem to
have any,” observed Walter Kerr in
The
Silent Clowns. “He is short, on the
plump side, possessed of a miniature mustache that would seem suave on a head
waiter but it is somehow a badge of apprehension on him. He is likeable.” Kerr goes on to say that despite his
extensive comedy training Banks rode out his career in silents emulating Harold
Lloyd (while taking special pains to ensure that the “thrills” in those features
steered close of trickery). “The
stunting is impeccable, worth keeping in film anthologies; but we cannot quite
remember the man.” That’s why we’re
fortunate to have releases like
Monty Banks: Hollywood’s Forgotten Comic
Genius—they do so much to make certain we don’t forget. (Many thanks to my Alpha pal Brian Krey for
the screener.)
2 comments:
That's odd; I always confuse Monty Banks with Monte Blue.
Scott stepped into the confessional:
That's odd; I always confuse Monty Banks with Monte Blue.
An understandable mistake! (But seriously...mistaking Hal Peary as Monty Banks? Madness!)
Post a Comment