Episode Details

Paul Gagliardi, Teaching Associate Professor of English at Marquette University, selects almost entirely comedy shorts for his 1913 highlights, although they connect with his proto-expressionist feature pick in that they all contain morbid underbellies. And diving into the comic commentary of these works, intended or not, reflects a few things about audience reception to movies and politics of the time.

Paul is the author of All Play and No Work: The Comic Plays of the Federal Theatre Project. His website is paul-gagliardi.com.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1913!

Films and resources mentioned:

• A House Divided (1913) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Student of Prague (1913) - Stellan Rye
• Fatty Joins the Force (1913) - George Nichols
• Cohen Saves the Flag (1913) - Mack Sennett
• Mabel’s Dramatic Career (1913) - Mack Sennett
• The Brutalist (2024) - Brady Corbet
• The Jazz Singer (1927) - Alan Crosland
• Sherlock Jr. (1924) - Buster Keaton
• The Battle of Gettysburg (1913) - Charles Giblyn and Thomas Ince
• My Dinner with Andre (1981) - Louis Malle
• By the Sea (1915) - Charlie Chaplin
• The Cook (1918) - Roscoe Arbuckle
• Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco (1915) - Roscoe Arbuckle and Mabel Normand
• The Round-Up (1920) - George Melford
• Nosferatu (1922) - F.W. Murnau
• Faust (1926) - F.W. Murnau
• Grease (1978) - Randal Kleiser
• The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup - Jonathan Wilson