07 March 2013

1907: LAUGHING GAS


Director:  Edwin S. Porter
Starring:  Bertha Regustus
Length:  8:26 minutes

   Today I’m looking at another film by Edwin S. Porter, this one called “Laughing Gas” and HOLY SHIT it actually stars a real life black person!  That was pretty damn impressive for its day, especially considering some of the movies I’ll be watching in the next couple weeks.  Sure, there had been previous films starring black actors (ahem ahem...), but for a movie in 1907 to feature a black actress in an, uhh... normal... role must have made a few monocles hit the floor.

   Unfortunately that’s about the only impressive thing about this movie.  The plot of “Laughing Gas” is so simple as to be almost nonexistent, and now that I’ve moved out of the “Oh my god did that photo just move?!” era I no longer feel bad saying that.  The film opens with the protagonist visiting the dentist’s office on account of a toothache.  The dentists put her under and pull the tooth, but they give her too much nitrous, because she spends the rest of the day stumbling around laughing like an idiot.  And everywhere she goes, her laughter proves contagious.  And boy did somebody think that was hilarious...

   First it’s the subway, where she makes the passengers enter fits of laughter.  Then she bumps into the milkman, making him laugh so hard that he drop his bottles of milk.  The bobbies show up and they start laughing too.  Then the lady and the milkman are brought before a judge, who starts laughing.  Then... you get the idea. 

   I had originally wanted to watch Georges Méliès’ “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” for today, but I couldn’t find the full version on Youtube.  That’s very disappointing, because a movie by the famous filmagician of France would have certainly been preferable to this.  “Laughing Gas” beats its one and only joke to death longer than Seth MacFarlane performing to a laugh track on loop.  Oh well.  Next week I start getting into the feature-length pictures, which hopefully have a bit more thought put into them.

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