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Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 25 Aug 2015, 18:15
by Kashgar
The Woody Allen fantasy film 'The Purple Rose of Cairo' breaks the fourth wall as does the forties madcap farce Hellzapoppin.
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 25 Aug 2015, 18:17
by abacus
The Burns and Allen show in the fifties always had moments talking to the camera I also saw them recently in a 1930s short film which I think was called lambchops doing the same and of course as already mentioned Oliver Hardy often showed his opinion to the camera.
Here is lambchops
https://youtu.be/6jUplYQo9Xg
A short comic routine with a certain amount of charm.
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 25 Aug 2015, 18:36
by Lew Stringer
Kashgar wrote:The Woody Allen fantasy film 'The Purple Rose of Cairo' breaks the fourth wall as does the forties madcap farce Hellzapoppin.
Hellzapoppin! Loved that film when it was shown on TV one night back in the 1980s.
A TV series that comes to mind is The Strange World of Gurney Slade.
Also, the black and white episodes of The Saint, where Simon Templar begins each episode by talking directly to the viewer, even though he's in a scene.
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 25 Aug 2015, 19:42
by Phoenix
abacus wrote:Oliver Hardy often showed his opinion to the camera.
Would that be with or without his trousers on?
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 26 Aug 2015, 10:24
by stevezodiac
I have most of the My World And Welcome To It episodes on VHS and have been transferring them to dvd. It was shown on BBC2 around 1969-1971 but was repeated on channel 4? in the 80s.
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 26 Aug 2015, 22:54
by dishes
stevezodiac wrote:I was more interested in examples from tv and film but I suppose I confused matters by puting this in the general comics thread. Its so common in comics it hardly warrants a mention but in films and tv its almost taboo. Of course in the theatre actors have recently been known to admonish audience members who's mobile phones ring but is that breaking the fourth wall?
I'm sure Buster Keaton did something like get up from his cinema seat and step into the film which sounds like the reverse of the subject matter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmfU6qbW-JA
about 14.27 in this one you'll see some more fourth wall breaking from Buster.
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 26 Aug 2015, 23:11
by Peter Gray
lol just seen it..
and watched the film...wow they are brave peopel doing those stunts..including the sweet girl..
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 27 Aug 2015, 10:00
by stevezodiac
Buster Keaton's most famous stunt was where the side of a building fell down on him - he had to stand in just the right spot so that the open window part of the building fell over him. Not sure which film but someone should know.
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 27 Aug 2015, 11:14
by philcom55
The window stunt appeared in the cyclone sequence of Steamboat Bill Jr. - if Keaton had misjudged it by a fraction of an inch it would have probably killed him!
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 28 Aug 2015, 23:46
by MadGaz
Kashgar wrote:Oor Wullie and his English counterpart Ginger both addressed the reader especially at the end of strips.
The Ken Harrison Wullie strips had him address the readers an awful lot in-story. Infact a few strips even made it clear he was famous and he was aware of it too
A recent Davidson strip also had him seeing a statue of Dudley D Watkins, referred to as the first man to draw the Broons. Bear in mind the Broons show up in Wullie's strips sometimes (and indeed, one of them showed up in the very next panel)!
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 29 Aug 2015, 09:03
by ISPYSHHHGUY
Wow I missed that story [the Watkins statue] Gaz---sounds right up my street!
My all-time ever favourite 'unusual' Ooor Wullie story is the Ken Harrison one which ends in Scotland of the far, far future, with advanced robo-bobbies still exhibiting arachnonistic 'Scottishisms'
Great stuff.
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 29 Aug 2015, 10:22
by Kashgar
I always enjoyed the way that Wullie and the Broons referenced other publications in the Thomson empire. The Broons would often be seen reading some suitable Thomson publication relative to their age and sex while Wullie, on a number of occasions, had adventures that spiralled out from some character that had impressed him from reading a Thomson comic or story paper in the first panel.
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 29 Aug 2015, 18:04
by ISPYSHHHGUY
well kash I loved the episode where the seated family [out in the back wash hoose area] are passing around a glued-together 'band' of D C T publications between them and Daphne says:
'where's that Romeo?'
Re: Breaking the fourth wall
Posted: 30 Aug 2015, 14:15
by MadGaz
Kashgar wrote:I always enjoyed the way that Wullie and the Broons referenced other publications in the Thomson empire. The Broons would often be seen reading some suitable Thomson publication relative to their age and sex while Wullie, on a number of occasions, had adventures that spiralled out from some character that had impressed him from reading a Thomson comic or story paper in the first panel.
I think he's tried to be Desperate Dan on several occasions!
Thinking back, and because I haven't a clue where I left the book it was in...the statue may have actually been RD Low.