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One of the most versatile of directors in the late silent period, Adrian Brunel was perhaps best known for a series of witty and sophisticated short films which played with established forms of filmmaking, including the Monty Python-esque Crossing the Great Sagrada (1924), and Cut it Out (1926), which poked fun at film censorship.
The delightful Two-Chinned Chow (1923) parodies the silhouette films of the German celebrated animator Lotte Reiniger, such as The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), using live actors in place of Reiniger's cutout marionettes. As well as some dumb-but-great visual jokes - like the three executed men who thoughtfully collect their heads after the axeman is done with them - the film features beautiful design and framing.
It also features some daft punning on Chinese names - the three condemned men, who have been caught spying on the beautiful princess, are called Pee, Ping and Tom, while the Emperor's oracle, prone to looking through his telescope, is Hoo-Kan-See. Not exactly politically correct, but not really offensive either.
The title is a pun on a popular stage play Chu Chin Chow, by Oscar Asche and Frederick Norton, which was itself filmed twice, in 1923 and 1934.
Mark Duguid
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Extract (3:59)
