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Vincent Alexander

Mar 21, 2020 • 11 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X

THREAD: Looking for some classic comedies to watch while quarantined? Here are some of my favorites.

You can't go wrong with the slapstick antics of Laurel & Hardy. They bounced off of each other beautifully. Here's a hysterical clip from their film BUSY BODIES. #LaurelAndHardy

@edgarwright

The Marx Brothers are my heroes. Their brand of anarchic surrealism inspired everything from the Looney Tunes cartoons to the movies of @edgarwright. Their masterpiece is the war satire DUCK SOUP, which includes this legendary sight gag:

Charlie Chaplin is the godfather of screen comedy. He could pull off hilarious silent slapstick with the grace of a great dancer. The food machine sequence from his masterpiece MODERN TIMES is funny every time.

Stone-faced silent comedian Buster Keaton was one of the true geniuses of film. He regularly performed literally death-defying stunts, all in the service of a laugh. Here's a brilliant chase from his endlessly inventive classic SHERLOCK JR.

Harold Lloyd, the likable go-getter with iconic glasses, was the mastermind behind some of the silent era's funniest comedies. As you can see in this clip from the wonderful 1925 film THE FRESHMAN, his expressions and movements are priceless.

@JohnCleese

I absolutely love W.C. Fields. He was a drunkard with the voice of a carnival barker, who hated kids, hated animals, and was constantly muttering ad libs under his breath. He was a big inspiration on @JohnCleese and he's in his prime in this sequence from YOU'RE TELLING ME.

The oft-imitated but never equaled Mae West was constantly baiting the censors with her innuendos, all of which she wrote herself. As you can see from this bit from I'M NO ANGEL, she was the best.

Olsen and Johnson are massively underrated. They used to perform stage shows where they would invade the audience and unleash chaos into the theater. Their movie HELLZAPOPPIN' (1941) is probably the wildest and zaniest comedy ever made. Just great.

Director Howard Hawks helped to invent the screwball comedy in the '30s, and directed the best examples of it: BRINGING UP BABY, HIS GIRL FRIDAY and BALL OF FIRE are must-sees. His movies are known for the rapid-fire dialogue and strong-willed female characters.

Ernst Lubitsch is one of my favorite directors, famed for his "Lubitsch Touch." He was known for off-kilter jokes and sophisticated suggestiveness, and his movies inspired the work of Wes Anderson. This Greta Garbo scene from the charming NINOTCHKA has the perfect punchline.

Abbott & Costello were one of the greatest comedy teams of all time. A lot of people know their incredible "Who's On First" routine and the great ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, but not as many know this hilarious bit from THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH.

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More from @NonsenseIsland

Vincent Alexander

@NonsenseIsland

Mar 7

THREAD: In 1937, the Nazis exhibited art they deemed “Degenerate” in order to mock it. I was looking through a list of these amazing artists the Nazis hated, and I was ashamed at how many of them I didn’t know, so let’s look at their work together! Here’s Alexej von Jawlensky.

All of these artists were targeted by the Nazis because they were "modernist." In other words, they were pushing boundaries and making experimental work that went beyond straight realism. These boldly colorful works by Arnold Topp are a good example.

César Klein's work is so cool. He was a German Expressionist painter, and designer of silent movies like GENUINE (1920).

Read 110 tweets

Vincent Alexander

@NonsenseIsland

Dec 31, 2023

I couldn't pick my favorite films from 2023, so instead, here are my favorites from 100 years ago!

Best movie of 1923: SAFETY LAST. Harold Lloyd's masterpiece is just as funny and thrilling as it was a century ago.

Best Animated Short of 1923: BEDTIME. These Ko-Ko the Clown cartoons from the Fleischer studio blow my mind whenever I watch them. So much creativity popping out all over the place. This print comes from @cartoonsonfilm.

Best Stop-Motion Short of 1923: VOICE OF THE NIGHTINGALE by Ladislas Starevich. The early use of color gives the short a dreamlike atmosphere. Incredible stuff.

Read 24 tweets

Vincent Alexander

@NonsenseIsland

Jul 14, 2023

I love old movie insults. 🧵

More old movie insults I compiled.

I was introduced to so many of these classics from Turner Classic Movies. #SaveTCM

More old movie insults, compiled by me. I love the unusual word choices and classy delivery in these.

Read 8 tweets

Vincent Alexander

@NonsenseIsland

Jan 27, 2022

THREAD: Anybody have a favorite bit of water animation?

The best for me might be Disney’s PINOCCHIO from back in 1940. Amazing mix of stunning realism and painterly abstraction. You could only get a look like this in animation.

Aleksandr Petrov’s paint-on-glass water in THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA is absolutely gorgeous.

Studio Ghibli is always good at water. I love those fish waves in PONYO.

Read 18 tweets

Vincent Alexander

@NonsenseIsland

Aug 20, 2021

THREAD: One of my favorite movie periods is the Pre-Code Era (1929-1934), the racy period before the Hays Code kept movies of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s under strict moral guidelines. Here are some of my favorite Pre-Code lines, like this one from 1933's MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM.

One of the harshest of all movie insults, delivered by Joan Blondell in the great 1933 musical FOOTLIGHT PARADE.

Another ace line reading from Joan Blondell, also from FOOTLIGHT PARADE.

Read 25 tweets

Vincent Alexander

@NonsenseIsland

May 27, 2021

THREAD: What’s the most bizarre entry in your favorite cartoon series? I thought I’d highlight shorts with popular characters that stand out as particularly weird.

For Bugs Bunny, it’s 1946’s THE BIG SNOOZE, where Bugs hops into Elmer Fudd's head to give him a surreal nightmare.

For Daffy Duck, it’s hard to get more nuts than this early entry - 1938’s THE DAFFY DOC - where Daffy goes ballistic at a hospital and chases Porky with a saw to perform surgery. The dialogue that doesn’t match with the mouth movements only strengthens the oddness.

Porky Pig starred in one of the wildest cartoons ever - 1938's PORKY IN WACKYLAND - where he chases a reality-bending do-do bird. This is director Bob Clampett at his most dizzyingly bonkers, and it was even preserved by the National Film Registry.