They learned to clog dance and tumble together, developing a mute act of intricate pratfalls involving chairs and tables. Accordingly, before we get to those films, we need to go way, way back…īoyhood friends, Bobby Clark (born 1888) and Paul McCullough (born 1883), met through a shared love of dancing, circus and acrobatics. Actually though, these came right at the end of the team’s career, and they themselves thought of them as only a minor addition to their body of work. Today, Clark and McCullough’s lasting legacy is a 5-year run of two-reelers for RKO between 19. What one can say with certainty is that they were the leaders of this type of comedy in the two-reel format. It is important to realise that Clark and McCullough were not Marx imitators per se, rather relatives from another branch of the same, richly fruiting comedic vine. The Marxes were the most successful of these, yes, but far from the only ones. Vaudeville and burlesque begat legions of comedy teams ploughing similar furrows of wild, racy, high-pressure humour. Yet, it does Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough a disservice to think of them as a watered-down version of the Marxes. It’s a valid comparison, both visually (Clark’s painted on glasses and cigar) and stylistically (anti-authoritarian mayhem).
If they are mentioned at all today, it is usually only in comparison to The Marx Brothers. In fact, their mad, leering grins made it clear that they loved it! In fact, this wasn’t far from the truth! One-time circus performers, they mixed visual humour and slapstick chaos with the erudite wit and lack of conformity of college humour. Clad in ill-fitting, mothball-stuffed overcoats, they accessorised with painted-on glasses and crepe hair moustaches, resembling nothing so much as a couple of circus clowns who’d bluffed their way to college. For a more accurate impression, perhaps nothing sums up their comedy better than their appearance. However, such words have become platitudinous clichés to describe anything vaguely unconventional, and scarcely do justice to their fresh and fiery comic approach. Words like ‘madcap’, ‘surreal’ and ‘zany’ are often bandied about when describing them. The title card, along with most of the episode is based around the famous 1954 film adaptation of the novel, with the Inventor's voice being inspired by James Mason's portrayal of Captain Nemo.Clark and McCullough were a mistral wind whirling through the world of two reel comedy in the 1930s.This episode is primarily based on the 1869 book by Jules Verne Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.In the original airing of the episode, when The Inventor saw that their scheduled break was over he originally called out "Break time up", for unknown reasons the line was re-dubbed to "Breaks over" in later airings.The scene where The Inventor smoked his pipe after telling the children to drip-dry to remove the smoking reference.The scene when Bubbie was being poked in the eye to eliminate the 'intense' violence, and.Two scenes in this episode were censored for Australian viewing, those being:.Flapjack learns his lesson about bragging and the episode ends with a robotic version with Captain K'nuckles appearing. In the end, Bubbie, Flapjack, and K'nuckles win the race. Flapjack, feeling guilty, goes back to save them, and Bubbie goes as fast as she can to the finish line. Flapjack brags that Bubbie is the fastest and accidentally gets her into a race with an inventor who uses boys to power his invention.
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