#701) The Beau Brummels (1928)

#701) The Beau Brummels (1928)

OR “Two for the Show”

Written by Al Shaw & Sam Lee

Class of 2016

The Plot: The technological miracle of Vitaphone synchronized sound brings you the comedy stylings of Al Shaw & Sam Lee, aka Shaw & Lee! Straight from vaudeville, this comic duo performs a seemingly endless exchange of jokes and one-liners, as well as songs like “Don’t Forget to Breathe or You’ll Die”. Stick around at the end for a little soft-shoe, plus their famous hat swapping routine!

Why It Matters: The NFR gives a brief history of Shaw & Lee, stating “their brand of dry, offbeat humor is seen by some as well ahead of its time.” The write-up also includes a quote from critic Jim Knipfel: “If Samuel Beckett had written a vaudeville routine, he would have created Shaw and Lee.”

But Does It Really?: As much I enjoyed these two, I’m on the fence about this film’s historical significance. Don’t get me wrong, I laughed a lot at the unexpected absurdism of “The Beau Brummels”, but the NFR already has a Vitaphone short with a comedy team doing their vaudeville act: 1929’s “Lambchops” with the significantly more famous Burns & Allen (in fact, I’m convinced both movies use the same set). But if I’m going to nitpick, it stands to reason that if the NFR has enough room for more than one Marx Brothers comedy or Astaire/Rogers musical, then I guess there’s enough room for a second Vitaphone short. A pass for “Beau Brummels”: It’s not the most important film on the list, but it’s funny (and short) enough to warrant a viewing for the curious.

Everybody Gets One: Most of my information on Shaw & Lee comes from this very insightful article by historian Mary Mallory. Both Al Shaw & Sam Lee started in show business at a young age; Shaw in the music halls of his native England, Lee on the streets of his native New Jersey. Although stories differ on how Shaw & Lee met, we know that Shaw emigrated to America in 1907, and by 1911 the two were performing as a duo in vaudeville and burlesque. Originally, Shaw & Lee were a dance team, but over time they started adding their off-beat jokes into the act. By the early 1920s, Shaw & Lee were promoted to headliners, starring in several revues, including a few big ones on Broadway. When Warner Bros. started making sound shorts out of their recently purchased Vitagraph studio in Brooklyn, any famous stage performers with a ready-to-go act were brought in to film their routines, and Shaw & Lee got the call in early 1928. And for any future historians confused by which is which: Shaw is the shorter, clean-shaven one on the left side of the screen, Lee is the taller one on the right with the mustache.

Title Track: Much like the unrelated ’60s rock group of the same name, this film got its title from George Bryan “Beau” Brummel, a Regency-era Englishman who has become the cultural shorthand for high fashion. Shaw & Lee were known for performing on stage in nice suits, and advertisements for the two started referring to them as “The Beau Brummels” (although that was never officially the name of their act).

Seriously, Oscars?: No nominations from the newly formed Academy for “The Beau Brummels”. Create a shorts category, you cowards!

Other notes

Aside from Shaw & Lee themselves, there is no credit for any of the creative team on this film. I gave Shaw & Lee a writing credit at the top of this post based on my own assumption, but as is often the case with vaudeville, some of these jokes are older than the hills.
Right off the bat, you know these two aren’t your typical “take my wife, please” comedians. We begin with their rendition of “The Fountain in the Park” that rhymes “strolling through the park one day” with “the merry merry month of June”. The song then segues into a semi-stream of consciousness, including a verse in Yiddish!
I love that this is clearly just a filmed version of their vaudeville routine with no attempt to adapt it for this new medium. For example: Shaw & Lee always pause for laughs, which if you’re watching this in a movie theater with a big audience makes sense, and if you’re watching it by yourself on a TV or computer just adds to the overall absurdity.
Wow, these two were doing risqué updates on the “Jack and Jill” nursery rhyme long before Andrew “Dice” Clay.
Shaw & Lee’s presentation of their routine is fascinating. Except for their dance at the end, the two stand perfectly still, facing the camera/audience, delivering their jokes in a dry, wooden tone. It starts to feel like the kind of anti-comedy routine Andy Kaufman would perfect 50 years later: It’s so stilted it must deliberate.
The first true groaner of the jokes was the one about the 30,000 geese Lee has on his porch. Shaw: “Must be Portuguese.”
My favorite exchange is Lee saying he works for his father. What does his father do? “He’s laid off.”
In a short that has already challenged my preconceptions of vaudeville-era humor, things get meta at the end with the song “This is the Chorus”, with lyrics that state which part of the song they are singing. It reminded me a lot of the theme song from “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”. Finally, an excuse to mention Garry Shandling on this blog, because “What Planet are You From?” sure ain’t making the list anytime soon.
Another sign of a cut-and-pasted vaudeville routine: Shaw & Lee bow to house right and house left at the end of the act.

Legacy

“The Beau Brummels” was released in January 1928, playing in Los Angeles before screenings of the crime drama “Lights of New York”, Warner Bros.’ first “all-talking” picture. Funnily enough, “Beau” seems to have gotten the better reviews of the two. The short was successful enough that in 1930 the two filmed another Vitaphone short based on their routine: “Going Places”.
As the 20^th century went on and vaudeville continued to go the way of…well, vaudeville, work for Shaw & Lee started to wane (though allegedly Burns & Allen assisted in getting them gigs in the later years). The duo continued to make appearances in film, on stage, and eventually on television, making their final appearance together playing two repairmen in the 1958 George Gobel comedy “I Married a Woman”. Sadly, this appearance would be a posthumous one for Al Shaw, who died in 1957 at age 66; Sam Lee followed in 1980 at age 88.

“The Beau Brummels” got a restoration in the early 2000s from the UCLA Film and Television Archive, with funding from the Vitaphone Project. While Shaw & Lee didn’t leave behind much of a legacy, “Beau Brummels” – along with “Going Places” – continues to be seen online and shared by new generations caught completely off-guard by their avant-garde style of humor.