The Half-Back of Notre Dame (1924) User Reviews

Forward into the Past

[boblipton · 7/10 · 21 September 2012]

This Mack Sennett production from 1924 is a bit retro for him. The football squad wreaking havoc on a muddy field hearkens back to the Keystone Kops and the airplane theme back even further, to his Biograph comedies. All in all, it looks like the staff was checking out if the more sophisticated comedy of the 1920s was ready for a return to days of yore and Jack Cooper and Harry Gribbon are fine fighting for the elegant Madeline Hurlock, girl aviator.

Apparently they were not. Sennett's future would lay, for the next few years, with Harry Langdon and the Smith family comedies. Even so, it's good to see the technical advances of 1924 applied to the subjects of 1914. The result is a very funny movie.

Two One-Reelers Smashed Together Into Nothing Unique

[alonzoiii-1 · 5/10 · 22 September 2012]

An average compilation of Sennett randomness -- this one offers two complete one-reelers under one title, and a single cast for both comedies. The first one is a football game done keystone style (with watermelons, beehives, and other implements periodically substituting for the football.) It all feels like a rather bad cartoon, and the nondescript lead comics do not help here.

The second reel joins our heroes after graduation, and contains some very funny blacksmith gags. (The idea that a magnet and a horseshoe look an awful lot alike gets a lot of play here.) After that, the heroine, after wearing a bathing suit to entertain the gentlemen in the audience for a moment, goes up in an airplane but can't control it, causing our hero blacksmith (who is an inventor -- who knew) to chase her using his bicycle/airplane invention. Crude animation is used to simulate Larry Semon style heroics, and serves as a reminder how amazing some of Semon's stunts can be.

All in all. Average product by nondescript comics, smoothly directed, but likely promptly forgotten.

Insane--the gags come at you so fast you barely have time to breath.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 23 September 2012]

The film begins at Castoria College. Harry Gribbon is on the football team along with lots of other players who all look way too old to be in college. During the entire first half of the film, it's all about the game and the gags come one after another after another. There is barely any time to breath and if you don't like one, another is sure to follow quickly! Some of them (such as the kicking scene) are insane...but I did find myself laughing.

Later, the folks have graduated and it's like an entirely different film. This portion starts off slowly but soon gets even more insane than the football game. A few of the stunts (the diving board and propeller gags) are even more insane than the kicking scene early in the film. And, when a lady's plane is out of control, Harry comes to the rescue.

The film is utterly ridiculous and almost plot less. BUT, it also has so many goofy stunts and laughs that I loved the film and recommend you see it.

By the way, look at the black man near the end of the film---he's clearly a white guy painted black! This sort of stuff wasn't uncommon in the really old silents (such as D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation") but by 1924 I thought (and hoped) it had gone out of style. Odd indeed!

Decent Sennett Short

[Michael_Elliott · 26 September 2012]

The Half-Back of Notre Dame (1924)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Charlie Horse (Harry Gribbon) and Phil McCavity (Jack Cooper) attend a football crazy school but after graduation the film turns to a lady who goes up in an airplane and loses control of it. I really didn't enjoy THE HALF-BACK OF NOTRE DAME as much as many other reviewers did but once again there are enough good moments to make it worth sitting through if you enjoy silent cinema. I think the best thing the film has going for it are the final five-minutes or so when we get some terrific stunt work dealing with the plane going out of control. I don't want to spoil everything that happens but it certainly makes the film end on a very high note and especially considering how well shot these scenes were. Another plus is that both Gribbon and Cooper are good in their roles but I do really wish they were given a bit more to do. Or, perhaps I should say something better to do. This is one of those Mack Sennett shorts that has very little brains but instead we're just given one wild scene after another. The opening section deals with a football game on a muddy field where all sorts of things happen but none of them made me laugh. The same is true for the second half of the film as there simply wasn't anything going on that made me laugh, although I will admit a chuckle came when the lady was "entertaining" the viewers by getting into a bathing suit.