Post by Kaz ~;~ on May 15, 2011 14:35:01 GMT -5
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Keystone Kops
The casting of the Keystone police force changed from one film to the next; many of the individual members were per diem actors who remain unidentifiable.The Keystone Kops featured in a series of silent film comedies about a completely incompetent group of policemen. The movies were produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917. The idea came from Hank Mann who also played police chief Tehiezel in the first film before being replaced by Ford Sterling. Their first film was Hoffmeyer's Legacy (1912) but their popularity stemmed from the 1913 short The Bangville Police starring Mabel Normand.
As early as 1914, Sennet shifted the Keystone Kops from starring roles to background ensemble, in support of comedians like Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle. The Keystone Kops serve as supporting players for Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, and Chaplin in the first full-length Sennett comedy feature, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), as well as in Mabel's New Hero (1913) with Normand and Arbuckle, Making a Living (1914) with Chaplin in his first screen appearance (pre-Tramp), In the Clutches of the Gang (1914) with Normand, Arbuckle, and Al St. John, and Wished on Mabel (1915) with Arbuckle and Normand, among others.
Two Keystone Kop players who starred in the Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (which starred Sennett in a cameo role-as himself) were Heinie Conklin as an elderly studio Guard; and Hank Mann as a prop man. Comedian/actors Chester Conklin; Jimmy Finlayson; Ford Sterling and director Del Lord were also Keystone Kops.
In 2010, the previously lost short A Thief Catcher was rediscovered at an antique sale in Michigan. The short, filmed in 1914, stars Ford Sterling, Mack Swain, Edgar Kennedy, and Al St. John and includes a previously unknown cameo with Charlie Chaplin as a Keystone Kop.
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Revivals::
Mack Sennett continued to use the Keystone Kops intermittently through the 1920s. By the time sound movies arrived, the Keystone Kops' popularity had waned. In 1935, director Ralph Staub staged a revival of the Sennett gang for his Warner Brothers short subject Keystone Hotel, featuring a re-creation of the Kops clutching at their hats, leaping in the air in surprise, running energetically in any direction, and taking extreme pratfalls. This footage has been used countless times in later productions purporting to use silent-era material.
The Staub version of the Keystone Kops became a template for later re-creations. 20th Century Fox's 1939 feature Hollywood Cavalcade had Buster Keaton in a Keystone chase scene. However, during his own silent film career, the nearest Keaton had appeared in a "police comedy" was The Goat (1921) and Cops (1922). Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955) included a lengthy chase scene, showcasing a group of stuntmen dressed as Sennett's squad. (An original Keystone Kop in this movie was Heinie Conklin.) Mel Brooks directed a Keystone Kops-type car chase in his comedy film Silent Movie.
By the 1950s surviving silent movie comedians could be pressed into service as Keystone Kops regardless of whether they appeared with the troupe authentically. In the This Is Your Life TV tribute to Mack Sennett several Sennett alumni ran on stage dressed as Keystone Kops.
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In popular culture::
The term has since come to be used to criticize any group for its mistakes, particularly if the mistakes happened after a great deal of energy and activity, or if there was a lack of coordination among the members of the group. For example, the June 2004 election campaign of the Liberal Party of Canada was compared with "the Keystone Kops running around" by one of its parliamentary members, Carolyn Parrish. In criticizing the Department of Homeland Security's response to Hurricane Katrina, Senator Joseph Lieberman claimed that emergency workers under DHS chief Michael Chertoff "ran around like Keystone Kops, uncertain about what they were supposed to do or uncertain how to do it". Another example is a statement by Peter Beattie, Premier of the Australian state of Queensland, on the counter-terrorism investigation into Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef in July 2007. After the Australian Federal Police committed a series of blunders, the Premier likened their actions to those of the "Keystone Kops".
The Keystone Kops re-emerge every year in the town of Cedar Springs, Michigan during their Red Flannel Festival, and also in Sitka, Alaska during the annual Alaska Day festival.
The Police Academy movies that began in 1984 are frequently considered a modern day version of the Keystone Kops.
In sport, the term has come into common usage by television commentators, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The rugby commentator Liam Toland uses the term to describe a team's incompetent performance on the pitch. The phrase 'Keystone cops defending' has become a favourite catchphrase for describing a situation in an English soccer match where a defensive error or a series of defensive errors leads to a goal.
According to Dave Filoni, supervising director of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the look of the Police droid is based on the appearance of the Keystone Kops.
Keystone Kops
The casting of the Keystone police force changed from one film to the next; many of the individual members were per diem actors who remain unidentifiable.The Keystone Kops featured in a series of silent film comedies about a completely incompetent group of policemen. The movies were produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917. The idea came from Hank Mann who also played police chief Tehiezel in the first film before being replaced by Ford Sterling. Their first film was Hoffmeyer's Legacy (1912) but their popularity stemmed from the 1913 short The Bangville Police starring Mabel Normand.
As early as 1914, Sennet shifted the Keystone Kops from starring roles to background ensemble, in support of comedians like Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle. The Keystone Kops serve as supporting players for Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, and Chaplin in the first full-length Sennett comedy feature, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), as well as in Mabel's New Hero (1913) with Normand and Arbuckle, Making a Living (1914) with Chaplin in his first screen appearance (pre-Tramp), In the Clutches of the Gang (1914) with Normand, Arbuckle, and Al St. John, and Wished on Mabel (1915) with Arbuckle and Normand, among others.
Two Keystone Kop players who starred in the Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (which starred Sennett in a cameo role-as himself) were Heinie Conklin as an elderly studio Guard; and Hank Mann as a prop man. Comedian/actors Chester Conklin; Jimmy Finlayson; Ford Sterling and director Del Lord were also Keystone Kops.
In 2010, the previously lost short A Thief Catcher was rediscovered at an antique sale in Michigan. The short, filmed in 1914, stars Ford Sterling, Mack Swain, Edgar Kennedy, and Al St. John and includes a previously unknown cameo with Charlie Chaplin as a Keystone Kop.
---------------------
Revivals::
Mack Sennett continued to use the Keystone Kops intermittently through the 1920s. By the time sound movies arrived, the Keystone Kops' popularity had waned. In 1935, director Ralph Staub staged a revival of the Sennett gang for his Warner Brothers short subject Keystone Hotel, featuring a re-creation of the Kops clutching at their hats, leaping in the air in surprise, running energetically in any direction, and taking extreme pratfalls. This footage has been used countless times in later productions purporting to use silent-era material.
The Staub version of the Keystone Kops became a template for later re-creations. 20th Century Fox's 1939 feature Hollywood Cavalcade had Buster Keaton in a Keystone chase scene. However, during his own silent film career, the nearest Keaton had appeared in a "police comedy" was The Goat (1921) and Cops (1922). Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955) included a lengthy chase scene, showcasing a group of stuntmen dressed as Sennett's squad. (An original Keystone Kop in this movie was Heinie Conklin.) Mel Brooks directed a Keystone Kops-type car chase in his comedy film Silent Movie.
By the 1950s surviving silent movie comedians could be pressed into service as Keystone Kops regardless of whether they appeared with the troupe authentically. In the This Is Your Life TV tribute to Mack Sennett several Sennett alumni ran on stage dressed as Keystone Kops.
-----------------------
In popular culture::
The term has since come to be used to criticize any group for its mistakes, particularly if the mistakes happened after a great deal of energy and activity, or if there was a lack of coordination among the members of the group. For example, the June 2004 election campaign of the Liberal Party of Canada was compared with "the Keystone Kops running around" by one of its parliamentary members, Carolyn Parrish. In criticizing the Department of Homeland Security's response to Hurricane Katrina, Senator Joseph Lieberman claimed that emergency workers under DHS chief Michael Chertoff "ran around like Keystone Kops, uncertain about what they were supposed to do or uncertain how to do it". Another example is a statement by Peter Beattie, Premier of the Australian state of Queensland, on the counter-terrorism investigation into Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef in July 2007. After the Australian Federal Police committed a series of blunders, the Premier likened their actions to those of the "Keystone Kops".
The Keystone Kops re-emerge every year in the town of Cedar Springs, Michigan during their Red Flannel Festival, and also in Sitka, Alaska during the annual Alaska Day festival.
The Police Academy movies that began in 1984 are frequently considered a modern day version of the Keystone Kops.
In sport, the term has come into common usage by television commentators, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The rugby commentator Liam Toland uses the term to describe a team's incompetent performance on the pitch. The phrase 'Keystone cops defending' has become a favourite catchphrase for describing a situation in an English soccer match where a defensive error or a series of defensive errors leads to a goal.
According to Dave Filoni, supervising director of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the look of the Police droid is based on the appearance of the Keystone Kops.
