Che T H 310

16th November 2017

A Short Review of Sidewalks of New York

On November 16th, 2017, I watched the second film that I wish I had never seen, which was Sidewalks Of New York. It is a sound comedy produced by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the same production company as Parlor, Bedroom, Bath. The film is directed by Jules White and Zion Myersin in 1931, and it has six writers: the story by Paul Girard Smith and George Landy; Eric S. Hatch, Willard Mack, Robert Hopkins worked together on the script.

Base on Tim Halloran, Sidewalks Of New York is an iron film of Buster Keaton's work. Although Keaton himself and some of the audiences in Armer Theater hate this film. I think Sidewalks of New York is not Keaton's worst feature. His worst film is definitely Parlor, Bedroom, and Bath. There are three reasons why Sidewalks of New York is a better work than Parlor, Bedroom, and Bath: the improved sound mixing; the better conflict and story idea; the better characterization.

The Sidewalks Of New York has a decent sound mixing. For example, at the climax of the movie, the big crowd of kids is running to Haman's house to rescue him from the gang. The sound of the scene in the film includes a clearly street environment sound background, and the shout of the big crowd of kids, and the sound of those kid's running feet. The sound mixing of such this big scene was a challenging work in the 30s of the last century, but The Sidewalks Of New York made it happened.

Although The Sidewalks Of New York still has a sluggish pace and chaotic plot like the Parlor, Bedroom, Bath. The story idea and the characterization in this film are much better than Parlor, Bedroom, Bath. For instance, the better portrait of the lead woman character, Margie. Unlike those pretty faces and walking barbies, female characters in Parlor, Bedroom, Bath. Margie is an independent, single, and strong lady who raises her little brother alone. She is always tough and protects his little brother when her brother is in trouble.

Last but not least, I like the chasing scene of the big crowd of kids and the play scene. They reminded me of The Seven Chances and Sherlock. Jr. Overall. Base on Keaton’s autobiography and Professor Tim Halloran's lecture, some audiences in Armer Theater dislike the film The Sidewalk of New York because of the pre-conditioning. Parlor, Bedroom, Bath may be appraised unfairly. I don't really like this film either. However, I would not say that it‘s Keaton's worst work. His worst tragic work is Parlor, Bedroom, Bath for sure.