Review: THE EXTRAORDINARY WORLD OF CHARLEY BOWERS

I'm a huge fan of old black-and-white silent comedies. In that world, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd cast such a large shadow that it can be almost impossible to notice anyone else. Nonetheless, I'm always open to discovering new gems, so I recently purchased and watched Flicker Alley's 2019 release, The Extraordinary World of Charley Bowers. These movies--a collection of short films, both animated and live-action and predominantly comedic--are a delight, and it's a shame that their star isn't more well-known.

Bowers--or Bricolo, as he is known in France and in the French-language intertitles included in this collection--had worked as an animator before becoming a screen comedian, and he continued to use his skills during his live-action career. He loved stop-motion the way Keaton loved stunts, and used it to create effects that hold up surprisingly well almost a hundred years later. Some of his earlier live-action shorts only make use of stop-motion animation near the end, often to introduce surreal gags. Over time, however, he'd begin to feature the stop-motion antics earlier and more frequently. If Ray Harryhausen made comedies, they'd look like Bowers'.

I watched the films in this collection in chronological order. The first few (a Mutt and Jeff cartoon set in a restaurant, and a cautionary tale about a soldier who goes AWOL) are made using hand-drawn animation, and don't include any live-action footage. They're followed by the live-action two-reeler Egged On, which seems like a fairly standard silent comedy short until near the end, when Bowers' character tries to steal eggs by hiding them inside of his car, only to watch as they hatch into baby vehicles! More shorts of this nature follow, becoming more fantastic as they go.

My favourite film in the collection is There It Is, in which Bowers plays a kilt-clad member of Scotland Yard who, with the help of his animated fly sidekick, MacGregor, investigates the Fuzz-Faced Phantom. I'm reluctant to call this movie a full-on horror-comedy, but there's certainly an unsettling quality that reminds me a little of the classic Disney cartoon Lonesome Ghosts. Egg yolks turn into full-grown chickens, goats are shot down like birds, and oceans overflow from paintings. Of all the films in this set, this is the one that best shows us who Charley Bowers is, and I expect to rewatch it the most.

The collection ends with a handful of stop-motion shorts; two staring a talking mouse family, and two that seem to be about original characters. I preferred his live-action films, but these shorts are still a nice addition. I've always liked stop-motion, and it's nice to see more of it.

If I have an issue with Bowers' style, it's the pacing. Bowers was more an animator than a comedian, and some of his animated scenes go on after they've stopped being funny. Whether this is a flaw or a creative choice is debatable (the animations may not be funny, but they're unquestionably impressive), but it's worth noting. If you're expecting the frantic pace of a Tex Avery cartoon, you'll be disappointed. In some ways, Bowers feels like a more magical predecessor to Jacques Tati--more impressive than many other comedians, but not always as funny. 

As a long-time fan and rewatcher of classic comedies, I can see myself revisiting Bowers frequently. He may not have Keaton's gift for stunts or Chaplin's for emotion, but he had a lot of imagination, and he had the skills to put his mind to celluloid. Bowers is a treasure, and his films are well worth viewing for any movie lover.