It would be fun to find out what is the earliest film to use this particular gag...
Mask of Zorro has used it, but of course that came a lot later and certainly owes many things to the Musketeer films (yes, I watched that. I like Catherine Zeta-Jones.). Given that it is a very slapsticky gag, I would suspect it's origin somewhere in the early funny silent movies, unless it has been used in plays as well. I would think it is rather too visual to come from prose, though.
It's one of the most glaring differences to, say, him being played by Richard Chamberlain, where he's also meant to be sympathetic by the script but it just doesn't come across that way.
I've never seen that version, admittedly, but I find the archetype so annoying, I'd usually be biased against any version.
(Not a fan.)
I strongly suspect that I'm the only person who actually likes Hardy. I love his style! Well, I am not that enarmoured with his tendency to have all his hapless, adorable characters suffer fates worse than death, but I always put that down to him being a Late Victorian... (The film, btw, is pretty interesting, since Winterbottom goes for realism as opposed to the usual frilly period elements. Not exactly a jolly film, though, and at over three hours a bit of a masochistic endeavour.)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-03-12 07:51 pm (UTC)Mask of Zorro has used it, but of course that came a lot later and certainly owes many things to the Musketeer films (yes, I watched that. I like Catherine Zeta-Jones.). Given that it is a very slapsticky gag, I would suspect it's origin somewhere in the early funny silent movies, unless it has been used in plays as well. I would think it is rather too visual to come from prose, though.
It's one of the most glaring differences to, say, him being played by Richard Chamberlain, where he's also meant to be sympathetic by the script but it just doesn't come across that way.
I've never seen that version, admittedly, but I find the archetype so annoying, I'd usually be biased against any version.
(Not a fan.)
I strongly suspect that I'm the only person who actually likes Hardy. I love his style! Well, I am not that enarmoured with his tendency to have all his hapless, adorable characters suffer fates worse than death, but I always put that down to him being a Late Victorian...
(The film, btw, is pretty interesting, since Winterbottom goes for realism as opposed to the usual frilly period elements. Not exactly a jolly film, though, and at over three hours a bit of a masochistic endeavour.)