Sidney Drew — Film Humor More Than Making Funny Faces (1918) 🇺🇸

Film humor more than making faces? Why, of course it is! All genuine humor on the screen, as well as on the stage, is due not so much to violent action or extravagant facial expression as it is to inference. The fun of the thing is the result of the situation itself, and the situation can be neither expressed nor understood without a certain amount of intelligence. A monkey’s face may be funny, but it means nothing; consequently, it is not humorous.

by Sidney Drew

My own view of film humor, naturally, is that of the wholesome, cleanly public I try to interest. And I contend that the general public is wholesome and cleanly, and that it is not necessary to hit people with a metaphorical brick in order to make them laugh. They will laugh at the whimsical foibles of themselves and their neighbors as shown in kindly, friendly guise on the screen. They will laugh the more sincerely at something that is real than at something that is plainly a figment of the imagination.

I want to acknowledge right here that the reason for any success I may have achieved in this line is due solely to the cleanly mind that did me the honor, about four years ago, to become part of my business as well as of my social life. Being trained in the tradition of the theater, I probably, if left to myself, should have thought along theatric lines in my screen work; in other words, I might have drawn upon my imagination. Mrs. Drew, having lived a non-theatric life, saw things in their real relationships and convinced me that, as screen material, real life itself is much more human and appealing than any fiction could possibly be. It is upon that assumption, that belief, that the Metro-Drew comedies have been built and to which any success they may have had is due.

Film humor of the sort I am discussing, the kind that springs from the oddities of family life and real human nature, may not be as profitable as some others, but at least the producers of it can look themselves in the face and retain their self-respect. And as self-respect seems to me the primary consideration in ife, I hope to continue to present the style of comedy or humor or film fun that I have been, through the courtesy of Metro, permitted to portray.

Anyone who has at heart the best interests of his profession, art or business — whichever he chooses to call it — does not care to make the injudicious laugh and the judicious grieve. Film humor will not be the less genuine because it keeps its standards high. Those who attend performances of this brand of humor can refer without shame to the foolish but cleanly traits they may have seen sketched upon the screen the night before.

After all, we can’t escape the fact that we’re all human, and it is the humanity of us, rather than the monkey-shines, that makes the most lasting appeal. The best humor, like the best art in all other forms, gives the keenest pleasure. Film humor means life in its quainter aspects translated in terms of the screen. Humor, we are told, is distinguished from wit by greater sympathy, geniality and pleasantry. Therefore, we must laugh together, not at each other, to obtain the humor that is a balm to the heart and not a hurt. Not only is film humor more than making faces; from my point of view it does not consist at all in making faces. Humor, like other forms of art, consists in holding the mirror up to Nature, the only difference being that we do not always allow Nature to dress for dinner; we sometimes catch her with kimono on and hair in curl papers, when she expects to see no one more important than the iceman. On the other hand, some people are just as funny in evening clothes as others are before breakfast. The principal thing, after all, about film humor is to recognize it when you see it. You must have a sense of humor before you can have a sense of film humor. The producer must recognize a humorous idea in a manuscript or in real life, must know how to develop it after having seen it, and must be capable of registering that humor on the screen. And sometimes he also needs a sense of humor when he watches his finished product on the screen. There are many humorous angles to film humor, and no one needs a sense of humor to appreciate all these angles more than the film humorist himself.

Corinne Grant and Hillarie Stephanie, crystal gazing, are astounded when the magic glass reveals the deluge of gold at their benefit performance at Long Beach for the English ambulance fund.

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“A Close Resemblance” afforded Mr. and Mrs. Drew the best possible opportunity for working out their theory that we must laugh together, not at each other, to obtain the humor that is a balm to the heart, and not a hurt. — Photo by: Metro

Sidney Drew “as is.” — Photo by: Metro

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The supporting cast in late Drew comedies includes Bobby Connolly [Bobby Connelly], juvenile star. — Photo by: Metro

If this scene between Clara Kimball Young and Captain Robert Warwick occurred in “A House of Glass,” it undoubtedly caused comment in the neighborhood. — Photo by: Select

Collection: Film Fun Magazine, March/April 1918