Field (2001)

Recommended

UK

Short Film

Writer/Director: Duane Hopkins

Cinematographer: Lol Crawley

Cast: Kevin Firkins, Tim Dyer, James Peacey, Jim Gladwin, Paul Billing, The Staff and Pupils of Stour Valley Community School

Three boys – with a bottle of Coke, a bottle of booze, an aerosol, a lighter, and a BMX – spend a delinquential afternoon/evening in a farmer’s field, causing untold havoc, in Duane Hopkins’s enigmatic, understated, and poetically beautiful debut short. Iain.Stott

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Love Me or Leave Me Alone (2003)

Recommended

UK

Short Film

Writer/Director: Duane Hopkins

Cinematographer: Lol Crawley

Cast: Jay Firkins, Zoe Rietti

In Duane Hopkins’s poetic, beautifully photographed, and enigmatically moving short film, a young teenage couple argue strongly; she walks off determinedly; he sits and sulks for a while before realising his mistake; he searches for her, finds her, and pesters her until she relents; they have sex; he says I love you; she replies, “I’ll see you at school on Monday” – and we are left wanting for more. Iain.Stott

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Paintbrush (2008)

Recommended

UK

Short Film

Director: Alex Barrett

Writers: Alex Barrett, Rahim Moledina

Narrator: Sarah Louise Young

Cast: Alex Barrett, Joe Swanberg, Rachel Bright, Charlotte Coy, Sanj Surati, Vanessa Govinden, Peter Harmer, Jessica Hymas, Alex Adams, Lachlan McCall

Made-up entirely of still photographs with a deliciously cold voiceover from Young, Barrett’s very funny, spot-on satirical jab at online social networking presents a portrait of ten users of the fictional website, Paintbrush, highlighting the tenuous reasons behind their friendships, and poking at the truth behind their public personas. Iain.Stott

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Return to Glennascaul: A Story Told in Dublin (1951)

Not Recommended

Ireland

Short Film

Writer/Director: Hilton Edwards

Cinematographer: Georg Fleischmann

Composer: Hans Gunther Stumpf

Cast: Michael Laurence, Orson Welles, Shelah Richards, Helena Hughes, John Dunne, Isobel Couser, Ann Clery

Strikingly shot and gently humorous, this otherwise rather stilted ghost story – involving a pair of gentlewomanly hitchhikers, a great old house, and a beloved antique cigarette case – is perhaps most notable for its impeccably delivered narration from Orson Welles. Iain.Stott

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Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (1969)

Highly Recommended

UK

Short Film

Director: Douglas Hickox

Writers: Michael Newling, Bernie Cooper, Francis Megahy

Cinematographer: Wolfgang Suschitsky

Composers: Barry Mason, Les Reed

Cast: Anthony May, Judy Huxtable, Leslie Goddard, Barny Reisz

Directed with great flair and imagination, this hugely entertaining short musical – in which a dapper young gent, who falls in love with a fashion model, cycles through the streets of London, which are filled with custard pie throwing, raspberry blowing commuters – proves to be an irreverently bizarre, swooningly romantic, and really rather unique little gem. Iain.Stott

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Three Little Beers (1935)

Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Del Lord

Writer: Clyde Bruckman

Cinematographer: Benjamin Kline

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard

After finding out about the $100 first prize for the brewery employees’ golf tournament, three newly hired draymen take to “the golf place” with a “bag of bats” in order to get in some practice, much to the chagrin of the greenkeepers and other golfers, in this entertaining, action-packed Three Stooges short. Iain.Stott

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Restless Knights (1935)

Best Avoided

USA

Short Film

Director: Charles Lamont

Writer: Felix Adler

Cinematographer: Benjamin Kline

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Geneva Mitchell

When their father tells them of their noble heritage on his deathbed, the Count of Fife, the Duke of Durham, and the Baron of Graymatter set off for their homeland Anesthesia, in order to protect their under-threat queen, in this rather inept Three Stooges short, which barely raises a smile and is filled with numerous interminably long and dull slapstick sequences. Iain.Stott

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Pop Goes the Easel (1935)

Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Del Lord

Writer: Felix Adler

Cinematographer: Henry Freulich

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Louis Mason, Phyllis Crane, Leo White

Three down-on-their-luck jobseekers, who are (sort-of-)wrongly accused of theft and pursued by a plainclothes policeman, take shelter in an art school, where they are mistaken for new students, and precede to cause havoc, in this thoroughly entertaining Three Stooges short, which can boast of numerous memorable sequences. Iain.Stott

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Pardon My Scotch (1935)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Del Lord

Writer: Andrew Bennison

Cinematographer: George Meehan

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Nat Carr, James C. Morton

When Larry, Curley, and Moe – who are working as handymen – are left in charge of a drug store, a request from a customer leads them to concoct a potion which is mistaken for Scotch, and before you can say “It's a braw bricht moonlicht nicht the nicht” they are being passed off, in high society, as kilt-wearing Scotsmen, in this mildly diverting Three Stooges short. Iain.Stott

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Sprucin' Up (1935)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Gus Meins

Cinematographer: Art Lloyd

Cast: Our Gang, Marianne Edwards, Dick Elliott

When a truant officer moves in across the street with his young daughter, Spanky and Alfalfa, who have never been known to pay all that much attention to their personal hygiene, tidy themselves up and go a-courting, in this entertaining if mildly disturbing Our Gang short. Iain.Stott

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Uncivil Warriors (1935)

Not Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Del Lord

Writer: Felix Adler

Cinematographer: John Stumar

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Ted Lorch, Phyllis Crane, Bud Jamison

Operators 12, 14, and 15 – “the very brains of the entire secret service” – go undercover in the confederate army as Lieutenant Duck, Captain Dodge, and Major Hyde, in order to uncover the enemy’s plans, in this rather lacklustre and generally tedious Three Stooges short. Iain.Stott

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Paris Qui Dort (1925)

Recommended

France

Short Film

Original Title: Paris qui dort

Writer/Director: René Clair

Cinematographers: Maurice Desfassiaux, Paul Guichard

Cast: Henri Rollan, Charles Martinelli, Louis Pré Fils, Albert Préjean, Madeleine Rodrigue, Myla Seller, Antoine Stacquet, Marcel Vallée

The caretaker of The Eiffel Tower wakes one morning to discover that the entire population of Paris has fallen asleep (some mid-action), and sets off in search of answers, bumping into a group of similarly perplexed people who have just alighted from a plane; together, they attempt to find ways to mine the situation (and maybe remedy it, if they find the time), in this entertaining and influential piece of science fiction, which doesn’t quite make the most of its satirical potential. Iain.Stott

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Horses' Collars (1935)

Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Clyde Bruckman

Writer: Felix Adler

Cinematographer: John Boyle

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Dorothy Kent, Fred Kohler

The head of the Hyden Zeke Detective Agency – when faced with a potentially dangerous case that requires dicks with "courage, ingenuity, and above all things intelligence" – sends for Larry, Curley, and Moe, who head off to the old west in order to save a beautiful young woman from the nefarious attentions of “Double Deal” Decker, the gambling boss of Maverick Center, in this generally hilarious short from the Three Stooges. Iain.Stott

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Never Weaken (1921)

Highly Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Fred C. Newmeyer

Writers: H.M. Walker, Hal Roach, Sam Taylor

Cinematographer: Walter Lundin

Cast: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Roy Brooks, Mark Jones, Charles Stevenson, William Gillespie

When the job of his sweetheart, who works as a receptionist for an osteopath, is threatened due to a lack of patients, Harold sets out, rather unethically, in search of some, but when he returns, a misunderstanding involving the verb “to marry” leaves him determined upon ending his own life, in this brilliantly inventive, blackly comic, and absolutely hilarious action-packed short film. Iain.Stott

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One A.M. (1916)

Highly Recommended
USA

Short Film

Writer/Director: Charles Chaplin

Cinematographer: Roland Totheroh

Cast: Charles Chaplin

Click for review.

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The Pawnshop (1916)

Not Recommended

USA

Short Film

Writer/Director: Charles Chaplin

Cinematographer: Roland Totheroh

Cast: Charles Chaplin, Henry Bergman, Edna Purviance, John Rand, Albert Austin, Wesley Ruggles, Eric Campbell

Generally rather static and often quite tedious, Chaplin’s short film – in which a pawnshop worker causes havoc to all and sundry during the course of his working day – manages, never the less, to hold the attention thanks to a couple of humorously inventive gags (most notably, one involving the dismantling of an alarm clock). Iain.Stott

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The Cure (1917)

Recommended

USA

Short Film

Writer/Director: Charles Chaplin

Cinematographer: Roland Totheroh

Cast: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman, John Rand, James T. Kelley, Albert Austin, Frank J. Coleman

A drunk checks in to a health spa with a trunk full of alcohol, which manages to find its way, both intentionally and unintentionally, in to the systems of all of the other guests and workers; unsurprisingly, chaos ensues, in Chaplin’s generally very funny short film. Iain.Stott

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The Adventurer (1917)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Short Film

Writer/Director: Charles Chaplin

Cinematographer: Roland Totheroh

Cast: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman, Albert Austin

An escaped convict manages to swim to freedom, and along the way saves a beautiful, drowning heiress, her father, and her potential suitor, and succeeds in wangling himself an invitation to their swanky home, where love begins to blossom, much to the chagrin of her other admirer, in Chaplin’s mildly entertaining short film, which just about manages to survive a few tedious moments – but it’s generally (relatively) rather uninventive stuff. Iain.Stott

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Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life (1935)

Highly Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Fred Waller

Writers: Milton Hockey, Fred Rath

Cinematographer: William Steiner Jr.

Cast: Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Earl 'Snakehips' Tucker

Duke Ellington is sat at his piano composing; we enter his head and see both his vision of the final piece (with full orchestra) and also the everyday experiences and emotions of the ordinary black Americans that have inspired the work, in this highly stylised, beautifully photographed, and generally awe-inspiring short film. Iain.Stott

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Hoi Polloi (1935)

Recommended

USA

Short Film

Director: Del Lord

Writer: Felix Adler

Cinematographer: Benjamin Kline

Cast: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Robert Graves, Harry Holman

Two wealthy professors, one who thinks that heredity determines class, and the other that environment does, make a $10,000 dollar wager over whether three men, picked at random off the street, can be turned into gentlemen in just three months; at which point Larry, Curley, and Moe enter their sphere to predictably chaotic effect, in this thoroughly enjoyable Three Stooges short. Iain.Stott

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