Malcolm St. Clair (filmmaker)

Malcolm St. Clair
St. Clair, circa 1940, 20th Century Fox
Born(1897-05-17)May 17, 1897
DiedJune 1, 1952(1952-06-01) (aged 55)
Occupation(s)Film director, writer, producer, and actor
Notable workYankee Doodle in Berlin

Malcolm St. Clair (May 17, 1897 – June 1, 1952) was a Hollywood film director, writer, producer and actor.[1]

St. Clair’s film career spanned the silent and sound era during the Hollywood Golden Age. His work is characterized by a “dynamic visual style” evident in all the genres he treated.[2]

The zenith of St. Clair’s filmmaking occurred during the silent film era, demonstrating his flexibility in wielding the medium as a director of comedies. His films included slapstick for Sennett, outrageous gag routines with Keaton and sophisticated comic-romances for Paramount.[3]

His performance as a director declined with the advent of sound, suffering from the increased censorship, and his difficulty adapting to a less mobile camera and studio editing of his work. His later films were often limited to B movie “family” comedies, such as the Jones Family series, Lum and Abner and the later Laurel and Hardy features.[4]

Most of St. Clair's silent films are lost or have limited access in archives.[5]

Career

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Mack Sennett and Triangle studios: 1915-1921

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“Malcolm St. Clair’s gift crossed many comedic styles, from broad slapstick to the most sophisticated romantic comedy: he was a comic actor, a comic writer and a comic director. [H]is best work was marked by a combination of brilliant visual style and ironic wit.” - Film historian Ruth Anne Dwyer in Malcolm St. Claire: His Films, 1915-1948 (1996)[6]

Malcolm St. Clair worked for a comedy movie producer Mack Sennett and Triangle-Keystone studio for five years “a period in which he established most of his basic film vocabulary he was to use throughout his entire career.”[7]

At age 17, St. Clair was hired by the Los Angeles Express to draw sports caricatures.[8] A former associate at the Express, Lige Conley, was performing as a Keystone Kop for Mack Sennett, and introduced St. Clair to actor Owen Moore who co-starred with Mabel Normand. Moore convinced producer Sennett that St. Clair, whose only demonstrable skill was drawing, would excel as a “gag” writer for the studio.[9]

Sennett, on this specious recommendation, engaged St. Clair, and was quickly disabused: the teen—“thin and spindly”—St. Clair was provided a bit part as a Keystone Kop.[10] Thus began his acting apprenticeship, performing often dangerous stunt work in the summer of 1915 during the filming of My Valet (1915), earning $3 per day. His fellow comedians included veteran actors Charlie Chaplin, Eddie Cline and Al St. John.[11] St. Clair left the Keystone Kops in early 1916 under the auspices of Mabel Normand, joining the company of players who performed comic roles at Triangle studios. St. Clair appeared in 13 of these Sennett films, nine of which he was credited.[12]

His first credited film was Dollars and Sense (1916), in which he was cast as “the Englishman.” His final role at Triangle was as “The Crown Prince" in Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919) and its associated release The Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties in Why Beaches Are Popular(1919), in which represents a post-World War I comic “Teutonic heavy.”[13] Between 1919 and 1921 St. Clair graduated to directing and made about two dozen 2-reel comedies for Sennett, inventing some of the characteristic gag routines.[14]

His first directing credit was Rip & Stitch Tailors (1919).[15]

Keaton-St. Clair collaborations: 1921-1922

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Near the end of his employment by Sennett, St. Clair co-directed two pictures with comic actor and filmmaker Buster Keaton: The Goat (1921) and The Blacksmith (1922). Keaton’s approach to cinematic comedy integrated the “gag” scenes with the thematic elements of the story. St. Clair adopted Keaton’s methods in his future films: “the humor in his work stems from well-constructed gags which are connected to each other and/or to the central plot line, a comic style refined while working with Buster Keaton.”[16]

St. Clair joined 20th Century-Fox in 1936 and directed an assortment of comedies and dramas, including the Jones Family series of domestic comedies and a Milton Berle feature. He also accepted freelance assignments, including two Lum and Abner features. Mal St. Clair is perhaps best known as the director of four Laurel and Hardy comedies, released by Fox between June 1943 and May 1945.

Fox closed its B unit in December 1944,[17] leaving St. Clair inactive unt il 1948, when he directed two low-budget features for Fox release. In 1950, he wanted to direct Buster Keaton in a television series, but ill health prevented him from directing again.[18]

He died on June 1, 1952, at age 55.

Filmography[19]

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Actor

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Triangle Keystone

Note: All films as actor were made at Triangle-Keystone studios.[20]

  • My Valet (1915)
  • Dollars and Sense (1916)
  • A la Cabaret (1916)
  • Her Circus Knight (1917)
  • “The Camera Cure” (1917)
  • His Perfect Day (1917)
  • An Innocent Villain (1917)
  • Their Domestic Deception (1917)
  • His Baby Doll (1917)
  • Lost - A Cook (1917)
  • Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919)

Director

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Film studios are listed next to each film title.[21]

Silent films

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1919

  • Rip & Stitch Tailors - Triangle-Keystone
  • The Little Widow - Triangle-Keystone
  • No Mother to Guide Him - Triangle-Keystone

1920

  • He Loved Like He Lied - Rainbow/ Universal
  • Young Man’s Fancy - Triangle-Keystone
  • A Kitchen Cinderella - Triangle-Keystone
  • Welcome Home - Reelcraft

1921

1922

1923

  • Fighting Blood - FBO

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

Sound films

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1929

1930

1931

1933

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

1942

1943

1944

1945

1948

References

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  1. ^ Dwyer, Rauth Anne (March 20, 1997). Malcolm St. Clair: His Films 1915–1948. The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-2709-7.
  2. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p 1, p. 2: “...the peak of his career in 1926…” And p. 5: On Keaton
  3. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p 1, p. 2: “...the peak of his career in 1926…” And p. 5: On Keaton
  4. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 2: “...his career as a ‘B’ director in the 1930s at 20th Century Fox…” And p. 160-161
  5. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 2: “many films are lost, and some, surviving only on delicate nitrate stock, are unavailable for viewing.” And p. 160
  6. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 1: Composite quote, slight edits for brevity, comprehension: meaning unaltered.
  7. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 7: With Sennett for “five years, from 1915-1921…”
  8. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 7: “...the 17-year-old St. Clair had been drawing sport caricatures for the Los Angeles Express.”
  9. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 8
  10. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 2, p. 8, both pages report 6’3”
  11. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 9-10
  12. ^ Dwyer, 1996 pp. 177-241: Filmography.
  13. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 11: See here for kindness Normand towards St. Clair and career support And p. 13: On credited, uncredited roles. And p. 177-183: Filmography
  14. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 7: With Sennett for “five years, from 1915-1921…”
  15. ^ Dwyer, 1996 pp. xiii-xviii: List of Film Titles, chronological
  16. ^ Dwyer, 1996 p. 5
  17. ^ Scott MacGillivray, Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward, Second Edition, iUniverse, 2009, p. 160. ISBN 978-1-4401-7237-3
  18. ^ Erickson, Hal (2014). "Malcolm St Clair". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  19. ^ Dwyer, 1996 pp. xiii-xviii: List of Film Titles, studio, chronological
  20. ^ Dwyer, 1996 pp. xiii-xviii: List of Film Titles, chronological
  21. ^ Dwyer, 1996 pp. xiii-xviii: List of Film Titles and studios, chronological
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