Full Movie:
Though controversial nowadays, I happen to enjoy the humor of blackface comedians George Moran and Charles Mack, known collectively as "The Two Black Crows," and have listened to their classic recordings during many a rainy day. Given the nature of the act, not too many of their films are currently in circulation [their two features for Paramount,
Why Bring That Up and
Anybody's War, are likely never to see the light of day], so as a fan, I enjoy whatever I have access to, which includes four of their two-reelers for Educational Pictures as well as the feature film,
Hypnotized.
Hypnotized, the last feature film directed by Mack Sennett, has gained an unfair negative reputation throughout the years, mostly because George Moran disappears after the first two reels of the longest-known surviving seven reel version of the movie [It was initially released in 12 reels, later edited to eight]. Critics have also noted the disjointed nature of the film's story, owing to the fact that there were a purported twenty writers who worked on the picture's screenplay.
I personally enjoy
Hypnotized, and find it to be quite a funny movie, mostly due to the presence of Moran and Mack. There are some great one-liners delivered by the pair, with George Moran having the best line of the film, when he feeds champagne to Anna May the elephant he tells her, "Drink up Anna May, I always did wanna see a pickled elephant." In truth, I find the first half of the film, taking place at the O'Brien and Shapiro circus, to be the funnier part of the film, but the section onboard the S.S. Austrilich is fantastic due to the wonderfully hammy acting of Ernest Torrence, who would die within a year of the film's production.
The movie, a poverty row production for World-Wide Pictures (yes, that World Wide with the lady with the globes logo), is also chock full of great character actors and actresses, not the least of which is Wallace Ford, fresh off of making
Freaks for Tod Browning and Universal. Also in the cast are Charlie Murray, Herman Bing, Luis Alberni and Marjorie Beebe, a little-known comedianne who was romantically involved with Sennett at the time and is in many ways a forerunner to Martha Raye and Lucille Ball.
I think most of the criticism comes from modern critics' disdain for blackface, but if you look past that and enjoy the comedy of Moran and Mack [like I do], you will have a great time and it's only about 65 minutes in change.
I would like to mention that I have written an article for the film for it's upcoming Blu-Ray premiere as part of the Mack Sennett volume two collection from Cinemuseum and I have also recorded a podcast with film critic Phil Hall, discussing the film.
https://soundcloud.com/onlinemovieshow/hypnotized
