Malcolm St. Clair (filmmaker)
Malcolm St. Clair | |
---|---|
Born | May 17, 1897 |
Died | June 1, 1952 | (aged 55)
Occupation(s) | Film director, writer, producer, and actor |
Notable work | Yankee Doodle in Berlin |
Malcolm St. Clair (May 17, 1897 – June 1, 1952) was a Hollywood film director, writer, producer and actor.[1]
St. Clair’s film career spanned the silent and sound era during the Hollywood Golden Age. His work is characterized by a “dynamic visual style” evident in all the genres he treated.[2]
The zenith of St. Clair’s filmmaking occurred during the silent film era, demonstrating his flexibility in wielding the medium as a director of comedies. His films included slapstick for Sennett, outrageous gag routines with Keaton and sophisticated comic-romances for Paramount.[3]
His performance as a director declined with the advent of sound, suffering from the increased censorship, and his difficulty adapting to a less mobile camera and studio editing of his work. His later films were often limited to B movie “family” comedies, such as the Jones Family series, Lum and Abner and the later Laurel and Hardy features.[4]
Most of St. Clair's silent films are lost or have limited access in archives.[5]
Career
Mack Sennett and Triangle studios: 1915-1921
“Malcolm St. Clair’s gift crossed many comedic styles, from broad slapstick to the most sophisticated romantic comedy: he was a comic actor, a comic writer and a comic director. [H]is best work was marked by a combination of brilliant visual style and ironic wit.” - Film historian Ruth Anne Dwyer in Malcolm St. Claire: His Films, 1915-1948 (1996)[6]
Malcolm St. Clair worked for a comedy movie producer Mack Sennett and Triangle-Keystone studio for five years “a period in which he established most of his basic film vocabulary he was to use throughout his entire career.”[7]
At age 17, St. Clair was hired by the Los Angeles Express to draw sports caricatures.[8] A former associate at the Express, Lige Conley, was performing as a Keystone Kop for Mack Sennett, and introduced St. Clair to actor Owen Moore who co-starred with Mabel Normand. Moore convinced producer Sennett that St. Clair, whose only demonstrable skill was drawing, would excel as a “gag” writer for the studio.[9]
Sennett, on this specious recommendation, engaged St. Clair, and was quickly disabused: the teen—“thin and spindly”—St. Clair was provided a bit part as a Keystone Kop.[10] Thus began his acting apprenticeship, performing often dangerous stunt work in the summer of 1915 during the filming of My Valet (1915), earning $3 per day. His fellow comedians included veteran actors Charlie Chaplin, Eddie Cline and Al St. John.[11] St. Clair left the Keystone Kops in early 1916 under the auspices of Mabel Normand, joining the company of players who performed comic roles at Triangle studios. St. Clair appeared in 13 of these Sennett films, nine of which he was credited.[12]
His first credited film was Dollars and Sense (1916), in which he was cast as “the Englishman.” His final role at Triangle was as “The Crown Prince" in Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919) and its associated release The Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties in Why Beaches Are Popular(1919), in which represents a post-World War I comic “Teutonic heavy.”[13] Between 1919 and 1921 St. Clair graduated to directing and made about two dozen 2-reel comedies for Sennett, inventing some of the characteristic gag routines.[14]
His first directing credit was “Rip & Stitch Tailors (1919).[15]
Keaton-St. Clair collaborations: 1921-1922
Near the end of his employment by Sennett, St. Clair co-directed two pictures with comic actor and filmmaker Buster Keaton: The Goat (1921) and The Blacksmith (1922). Keaton’s approach to cinematic comedy integrated the “gag” scenes with the thematic elements of the story. St. Clair adopted Keaton’s methods in his future films: “the humor in his work stems from well-constructed gags which are connected to each other and/or to the central plot line, a comic style refined while working with Buster Keaton.”[16]
Filmography[17]
Actor
Note: All films as actor were made at Triangle-Keystone studios.[18]
- My Valet (1915)
- Dollars and Sense (1916)
- A la Cabaret (1916)
- Her Circus Knight (1917)
- “The Camera Cure” (1917)
- His Perfect Day (1917)
- An Innocent Villain (1917)
- Their Domestic Deception (1917)
- His Baby Doll (1917)
- Lost - A Cook (1917)
- Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919)
Director
Film studios are listed next to each film title.[19]
Silent films
1919
- Rip & Stitch Tailors - Triangle-Keystone
- The Little Widow - Triangle-Keystone
- No Mother to Guide Him - Triangle-Keystone
1920
- He Loved Like He Lied - Rainbow/ Universal
- Young Man’s Fancy - Triangle-Keystone
- A Kitchen Cinderella - Triangle-Keystone
- Welcome Home - Reelcraft
1921
- Wedding Bells Out of Tune - Triangle-Sennett
- Sweetheart Days - Triangle-Sennett
- The Goat (1921) - Buster Keaton Productions
- The Night Before - Fox Film
- Call a Cop (1921) - Triangle-Keystone
1922
- Bright Eyes - Triangle-Keystone
- The Blacksmith - Comique Film Corporation/First National Pictures|
- Rice and Old Shoes - /Robertson-Cole Corp.
- Their First Vacation - Robertson-Cole
- Entertaining the Boss - Robertson-Cole
- Christmas - Robertson-Cole
- Keep ‘em Home - Robertson-Cole
1923
- Fighting Blood - FBO
1924
- George Washington, Jr. - Warner Bros.
- The Telephone Girl - FBO
- Find Your Man - Warner Bros.
- The Lighthouse by the Sea - Warner Bros.
1925
- On Thin Ice - Warner Bros.
- After Business Hours - Columbia Pictures
- Are Parents People? - Famous Players-Lasky
- The Trouble with Wives - Famous Players-Lasky
- A Woman of the World - Famous Players-Lasky
1926
- The Grand Duchess and the Waiter - Paramount
- A Social Celebrity - Paramount
- Good and Naughty - Paramount
- The Show-Off - Paramount
- The Popular Sin - Paramount
1927
- Knockout Reilly - Paramount
- Breakfast at Sunrise - Paramount
1928
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Paramount
- Sporting Goods - Paramount
- Beau Broadway - Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer
- The Fleet's In - Paramount
1929
- The Canary Murder Case - Paramount
- Welcome Danger - RKO Pictures
- Side Street - RKO
Sound films
1929
- Night Parade - RKO
1930
- Montana Moon - Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer
- Dangerous Nan McGrew - Paramount
- Remote Control - Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer
1931
1933
- Olsen’s Night Out - Fox Film
- Goldie Gets Along - RKO
- Time Out for Romance - Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer
1936
1937
- Dangerously Yours - Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer
- She Had to Eat - 20th Century Fox
- Meet the Missus - Republic Pictures
- Born Reckless - 20th Century Fox
1938
- A Trip to Paris - 20th Century Fox
- Safety in Numbers - 20th Century Fox
- Down on the Farm - 20th Century Fox
- Everybody's Baby - 20th Century Fox
1939
- The Jones Family in Hollywood - 20th Century Fox
- Quick Millions - 20th Century Fox
- Hollywood Cavalcade - Paramount
1940
- Young as You Feel - 20th Century Fox
1942
- The Bashful Bachelor - RKO
- The Man in the Trunk - 20th Century Fox
- Over My Dead Body - 20th Century Fox
1943
- Two Weeks to Live - RKO
- Jitterbugs - 20th Century Fox
- The Dancing Masters - 20th Century Fox
1944
- Swing Out the Blues - Columbia Pictures
- The Big Noise - 20th Century Fox
1945
- The Bullfighters - 20th Century Fox
1948
- Arthur Takes Over - 20th Century Fox
- Fighting Back - 20th Century Fox
References
- ^ Dwyer, Rauth Anne (March 20, 1997). Malcolm St. Clair: His Films 1915–1948. The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-2709-7.
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p 1, p. 2: “...the peak of his career in 1926…” And p. 5: On Keaton
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p 1, p. 2: “...the peak of his career in 1926…” And p. 5: On Keaton
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 2: “...his career as a ‘B’ director in the 1930s at 20th Century Fox…” And p. 160-161
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 2: “many films are lost, and some, surviving only on delicate nitrate stock, are unavailable for viewing.” And p. 160
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 1: Composite quote, slight edits for brevity, comprehension: meaning unaltered.
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 7: With Sennett for “five years, from 1915-1921…”
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 7: “...the 17-year-old St. Clair had been drawing sport caricatures for the Los Angeles Express.”
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 8
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 2, p. 8, both pages report 6’3”
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 9-10
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 pp. 177-241: Filmography.
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 11: See here for kindness Normand towards St. Clair and career support And p. 13: On credited, uncredited roles. And p. 177-183: Filmography
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 7: With Sennett for “five years, from 1915-1921…”
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 pp. xiii-xviii: List of Film Titles, chronological
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 5
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 pp. xiii-xviii: List of Film Titles, studio, chronological
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 pp. xiii-xviii: List of Film Titles, chronological
- ^ Dwyer, 1996 pp. xiii-xviii: List of Film Titles and studios, chronological
External links
- Malcolm St. Clair at IMDb
- Malcolm St. Clair at Virtual History
- Photo of Mal St. Clair with writer Anita Loos and actress Ruth Taylor.
- Mal St. Clair photo gallery(ACertainCinema.com)