Curses! (1925) User Reviews

A decent old comedy that has aged well

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 7 January 2008]

Al St. John and a group of assorted "baddies" are out to kidnap a beautiful young lady as well as steal her father's valuable papers. First, St. John pelts the old man with flapjacks (knocking him unconscious) and they they drag off the girl--tying her to a log and pushing it through the saw mill. Will the hero rescue her in time or will this good (but dumb) girl be sliced in two?!?!

Al St. John was an old-time comedian who was famous for being the foil in dozens of Fatty Arbuckle movies. After the scandalous trial involving Fatty hit the headlines, his career was in shambles so he changed his name and directed films--and many starred St. John since he was Arbuckle's nephew.

This is a nice old silent comedy that is still funny after more than 80 years. This film is a parody of old Western serials, though the different segments are much shorter and have all been stuck into one film. Each segment is introduced as a separate chapter in this Western adventure. The overall product is very silly but cute and watchable. Not as exciting or funny as many of Arbuckle's own films, but still worth a peek.

Decent Parody Feature

[Snow Leopard · 5 December 2005]

This decent parody feature is one of the movies written and directed by Roscoe Arbuckle (under a pseudonym) after he was blacklisted. Al St. John stars in a send-up of the kind of serial melodramas that had become so common at the time. It sorely misses Arbuckle's talent on the screen, but it has enough to make for some entertaining moments.

St. John plays a villainous gang leader who steals some papers, abducts a young woman, and then tries to do away with her and with the hero who comes to save her. St. John was a good supporting player in slapstick comedies, always willing to go over-the-top in his portrayals of heavies, romantic rivals, or whatever else Arbuckle, Keaton, or some other star needed. He gives the same energy to the villain here, but it's not quite as effective because there's no one else to balance it out.

Arbuckle's story has some clever satirical ideas. The title cards present the story as a mock serial, with numerous contrived cliffhangers, and the story makes use of numerous clichés from the genre, even including a scene in which the villains try to do away with the heroine in a sawmill. It's certainly not on the level of Arbuckle's classic on-screen comedies, but it's entertaining enough to be worth seeing.

A lot goes wrong here

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 31 March 2016]

"Curses!" is an over 90-year-old black-and-white silent short film that features two of the biggest stars of the early days of filmmaking: Al St. John in front of the camera and Roscoe Arbuckle as writer and director. Sadly, this is a constellation I am not too fond of as I am not the biggest St. John fan, but I find Arbuckle as an actor always a welcome presence. These 18 minutes include elements of crime, western and drama, but overall, it is certainly a comedy most of all, especially with all the plays on words in the intertitles. I also wish the intertitles could have told us more about the story instead of going for cheap laughs. Unfortunately, it was rarely funny only and not an entertaining watch from start to finish. I hoped this would be better . Not recommended.

Dirty work at the crossroads.

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 10/10 · 25 April 2006]

I've viewed the reconstructed print of 'Curses!'. It's a brilliant effort of reconstitution and detective work, a true labour of love. Still, I wish I'd seen an original print of this film, with its original titles. Why? Because 'Curses!', filmed in 1925, is a parody of those old-style curses-foiled-again melodramas that were lampooned so brilliantly (40 years later) by Dudley Do-Right and his friends. There's a modern tendency to regard the films of the 1920s as hopelessly old-fashioned and clichéd. But 'Curses!' proves that those mossy clichés were already ripe enough to be lampooned in 1925, which makes me wonder precisely how far back they originated.

Al St John (brilliant!) is the Snidely Whiplash-style lip-curling villain who is determined to steal 'the papers' (says an intertitle) from the fair heroine and her elderly father. A handsome swashbuckling hero, who rejoices in the name Rodney Hemingway, is determined to stop him. I regret that I can't identify the actor who plays the hero, whose original billing appears to be lost. He's very nearly as good as St John. At one point, St John calmly ties Rodney to a tree at the bottom of a hill, then gleefully rushes uphill to pester the heroine. No problem: Rodney manfully uproots the tree, then (still tied to it), he calmly trudges uphill, bringing the tree with him!

Of course the villains bring the fair damsel to a sawmill, and tie her to a log on the conveyor belt. 'Now we'll find out what little girls are made of,' cackles St John gleefully. The only surprise here is that they tie her crosswise, when the cliché leads us to expect her to be tied longitudinally. Rodney Hemingway, of course, shows up in the nick of time ... and he manages to free her by a genuinely intelligent ploy.

SPOILER COMING. After such a great build-up, the payoff gag is weak, so I'll give it away. Hero and heroine confront the defeated villain, demanding that he hand over 'the papers'. Reluctantly, he concedes ... and gives them a packet of Rizla cigarette papers! This is likely to elicit a big laugh from any audience members left over from the last 'Reefer Madness' matinée. However, the next shot establishes that St John uses the rolling papers for TOBACCO. Sorry if that disappoints anyone.

The rebuilt version of 'Curses!' is brilliantly funny, and I congratulate the old-time movie lovers who worked so long and hard to fix it up for us. Well done, all! Ten out of 10!

Curses!

[Michael_Elliott · 25 February 2008]

Curses (1925)

*** (out of 4)

Unique short that spoofs the cliffhanger serials of the silent era. The villain (Al St. John) kidnaps a beauty and the hero must try to save her without getting killed himself.

This is actually a very smart little film that does a great job at making fun of serials with everything from over-dramatic endings to outrageous and impossible stunts. If you're a fan of the silent serials or the Westerns from this era then you should have a good time with this two-reeler. The film is certainly clever enough to know what it's spoofing and for the most part it's entertaining from start to finish. This was directed by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and he brings some nice style to the picture. I will say that the movie needed more laughs but it's still worth watching.