A Sauerkraut Symphony

At this stage in their careers, Lloyd Hamilton and Bud Duncan were a comedy team for Kalem, Ham and Bud. Playing two vicious tramps, they wandered into depressing situations, created some chaos and left. This was supposed to be funny. Usually it wasn't.

According to stories, the two men hated each other and the team broke up in 1917 when Kalem starting closing up with the ending of the Patents Trust. Hamilton developed into one of the most respected performers of silent comedy in the 1920s and drank himself to death in the 1930s. Duncan inexplicably kept working for another thirty years.

Surprisingly this is actually a watchable comedy from this period. Although, like most of their films, it is composed of simple variations on a single theme, watching the pair of them make and toss around sauerkraut, wrecking everything in the process, is actually fairly amusing. I see that Hamilton is credited as director on this one, and assume that he was able to impose some humor into the situation that I can enjoy without being able to understand. Maybe they were having fun trying to kill each other. I certainly appreciate the attempt.