What I’m not watching: classic comedies on streaming servicesDate: 2/7/2022 I’m not sure if you were aware of who was born on Jan. 29, but if you travel in the social media circles I do, you would have been aware that William Claude Dunkenfield, known to the world as W.C. Fields, was celebrating a birthday.
At least the fans of the great American comedian would be celebrating. Fields was a master of both physical comedy – he was an acclaimed juggler on stage – as well as a master of the English language. Some people think he just played drunks, but this is far from the truth. His most repeated characterization was that of an average man whose skills and knowledge were frequently doubted by those around him.
He was also a rascal, a ne’er-do-well and a rapscallion in several of his films.
Feeling in a mood to note the natal anniversary of The Great Man, I did a quick search through my Roku. To my amazement, there were only two or three of his films – and not the best ones – available through the myriad of streaming services at my fingertips.
Now, I have many of Fields’ movies on DVD, but I thought it was odd that such a seminal figure in movie comedy, as well as a prolific one, wouldn’t have greater representation on the internet.
Doing a YouTube search yielded disappointing results, as well. There are plenty of clips but few complete films. The site that does have complete films is a Russian one (ok.ru) that thumbs its nose at copyright law. These days I’m cautious about what website I wish to visit.
This is an ongoing issue with classic cinema. Many of the films that were either playing on TV regularly from the 1950s through ’70s – and were available on VHS and DVD – have been left out of streaming packages.
With the death of video rental outlets these films are not technically “lost” – meaning they have been preserved someplace – but they are unavailable to new generations of film fans, as well as geezers such as myself. Some of the films are on Prime, which, of course, charges a fee to see them on top of the Prime subscription you are already paying. One would think that Paramount+ would have the films – most of his films were made by Paramount – but the corporate entity known as Paramount sold many of their films to MCA in the 1950s. MCA controlled Universal Studios.
Okay, so now that would mean that the Peacock streaming service – which is owned by NBC and Universal – should have them. I imagine they do, but the programmers there don’t include them in the package.
By the way, trying finding the Marx Brothers, also Paramount stars, who later went to MGM, too is not as easy as it should be. I found one of their films, “Monkey Business” on YouTube and the print is blurry. Some YouTube prints are great, but many are beat up old duplicate prints. Again, Prime has several titles, but there is that double fee you have to pay.
Here is my point. Technical progress in communication has given us a bountiful assortment of movies, books, TV shows, podcasts at our fingertips. One needs to be aware, though, with the decline of easily accessible physical media the programmers of streaming services determine what we should like. We have little to no control today, unlike those halcyon days of video stores, when shop owners, determined to keep their customers, would stock as many titles as possible; even of films that were “classic.”
Thank goodness, libraries still have physical media.
I’ve been thinking about this gap in the availability since the release last month of not one but two new books about Buster Keaton: “Camera Man” by Slate critic Dana Stevens and “Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life” by author James Curtis.
There has been, thanks to the positive reviews for both books, an increased attention in Keaton and his work.
In my cinematic universe, Keaton is one of the biggest and brightest stars. Although the height of his filmmaking was almost a century ago, his films remain astonishingly modern. In his heyday, his box office was often running third to Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, but in the 1960s when his silent films were rediscovered, modern audiences embraced him and his work.
Thanks to the efforts of the companies that bought the rights to Keaton’s films, his best work is readily available for your collection. There are some great DVD and Blu-ray presentations. Check out the ones from Cohen Media.
One streaming service, perhaps my favorite, Tubi, has a number of Keaton’s classic films, including the recent documentary “The Great Buster: A Celebration,” made by the late director Peter Bogdanovich. Start with that one. By the way, Tubi is a free service that inserts commercials into films.
At this time, with the effects of the pandemic still affecting the movie industry, especially the exhibition end, it’s safe to say that more people are watching both new and “older” films through streaming services. It’s just a shame that so much of the very rich heritage of the American film industry is not readily available through streaming.
If you’re curious, though, about Keaton with all of the publicity about the two new books, you are in luck. Go to Tubi and enjoy the man’s work that is available there. If you like it, buy some Blu-rays so no nameless programmer can control what you watch.
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