Keystone Hotel (film)

Keystone Hotel (1935) is a two-reel comedy short subject, directed by Ralph Staub and released by the Vitaphone Corporation through Warner Bros. Pictures. Inspired by the silent comedies produced by Mack Sennett, the film reunites many of Sennett's former stars.

See also Keystone Hotel (disambiguation)

Keystone Hotel
Directed byRalph Staub
Written byJoe Traub
Distributed byWarner Brothers
Release date
  • September 21, 1935 (1935-09-21)
Running time
15 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

The story follows the cross-eyed Count Drewa Blanc (Ben Turpin), who arrives at the busy Keystone Hotel to judge a fashion show.

In the hotel lobby, the chief of police (Ford Sterling), the mayor (Chester Conklin), and a gangster (Dewey Robinson) try to sway the Count's decision. Upstairs, the house detective (Hank Mann) investigates some marital shenanigans, some involving a vibrating exercise machine.

The fashion show is held in a banquet hall, where the hotel manager (Bert Roach) introduces the contestants. The winner is chosen, but the myopic Count awards the trophy to the wrong woman. The winner protests, "How dare you give it to her when I should get it!" She does—an airborne pie misses its target and hits her. This prompts a huge pie fight, and the hotel detective sends for the Keystone Kops. The Kops spring into action and encounter several detours and difficulties before crashing into the hotel.

Production and reception

In an interview with Leonard Maltin, director Ralph Staub recalled:

The picture, including all the chases, was made in seven days. I personally knew Ford Sterling, Ben Turpin, Chester Conklin, and others appearing in the film. I sold them on starting a new slapstick series. Jack Warner would only permit me to contract with the players for one picture. After the preview at Warner's Hollywood theater, Warner said "sign them for a series," but this was not possible. Their agents were there at the preview and when I approached them, they wanted triple the salary they received in Keystone Hotel. Jack Warner would not go for the hike in salary; I couldn't blame him.[1]

The studio went ahead with silent-comedy revivals anyway, consulting its backlog of Mack Sennett silent comedies and compiling them as new two-reel subjects with wisecracking narration. This series of six shorts ran from 1939 to 1945, beginning with a two-reel condensation of the Ben Turpin feature A Small Town Idol. The others were Love's Intrigue, Happy Faces, Wedding Yells, Happy Times and Jolly Moments, and Good Old Corn.[2] The series continued as "Vitaphone Novelties" (now one reel each, ending with Here We Go Again in 1952). Many of these Warner shorts included footage from Keystone Hotel, without the soundtrack, as exhibits of "authentic" Keystone comedy.

Warner Bros. reissued Keystone Hotel to theaters in 1947 with a new title sequence and an updated musical score. The 1947 edition was first reprinted for television in 1957, and was edited into a one-reel, silent 8mm home movie in 1967. The 1947 reissue is the version shown on Turner Classic Movies today.

Cast

References
  1. Ralph Staub to Leonard Maltin, The Great Movie Shorts, Crown, 1972, p. 25.
  2. Brent Walker, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland, 2010, p. 473.
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