What’s On

Event Information:

  • Comedy

    Event Information:

    • Sun
      16
      Apr
      2017

      Festival of Fun's "Film Frenzy"

      3:00 PMSt Austell Arts Theatre

      Charlie Chaplin "Gold Rush"Festival Of Fun's 'Film Frenzy'
      celebrates
      The Golden Age of Comedy!

      Starring

      Charlie Chaplin in 'The Gold Rush' (1925)

      and

      Laurel & Hardy in 'Way Out West' (1935)
      … and if that wasn't enough you get a Cornish Cream Tea too!

      A super-special, double-bill of classic comedy capers!
      All tickets £7.50, including a cream tea.

      Today, 16th April, marks two very special Anniversaries: it is the date of Charlie Chaplin's birthday and it also marks 80 years, to the day, of the first-ever public screening of Laurel & Hardy's classic comedy “Way Out West”, the film in which the loveable duo sing their Number One Hit Record “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine”

      Both films give their own unique take on the quest for Gold, in the old US West, with hilarious consequences!

      The Gold Rush (1925) is the quintessential Chaplin/Little Tramp film, with a balance of slapstick comedy and pantomime, social satire, and emotional and dramatic moments of tenderness. It was Chaplin's own personal favourite film, that showcases the classic Tramp character as a romantic idealist and lone gold prospector at the turn of the century, with his cane, derby, distinctive walk, tight shabby suit, and moustache.

      Classic scenes include the starvation scene of two cabin-marooned prospectors boiling and fastidiously eating a stewed shoe, the Tramp's cabin-mate deliriously imagining his companion as a large chicken, the teetering cabin on the edge of a cliff, and Chaplin's lonely fantasised New Year's Eve party (with the famous dancing dinner rolls routine) when he waits for a girl who never comes.

      In this world where shoe laces become spaghetti and bread rolls become ballet shoes, Chaplin, the alchemist, turns gold into poetry. Often named in polls, not only as Chaplin's finest comedy, but the finest silent comedy ever, the film is as fresh and as funny as it ever was.
      Way Out West (1935) has the added bonus of having the wonderful James Finlayson in the cast, as the appropriately named crooked saloonkeeper, Mickey Finn!

      Stan's daughter Lois Laurel and Ollie's daughter Lucille Hardy always insisted that Way Out West was the favourite film of both their fathers. In addition to the memorable Lonesome Pine song, the duo perform one of the most enchanting dances ever seen on film, to the song At The Ball, That's All.

      The typically strange and wonderful plot sees Easterners Laurel and Hardy travel via mule to the old western town of Brushwood Gulch. Their mission is to deliver a deed to a gold mine to one Mary Roberts, as bequeathed to her by her late father.

      Never having seen Mary Roberts, The Boys are duped by Mickey Finn, a shifty saloon owner, into thinking his wife Lola is Mary. They turn over the deed to the crooked couple, but realise their error when they encounter the real Mary.

      Breaking into the saloon at night to recover the deed, they make a shambles of the place, wind up with their mule on the roof, tie Finn up in a chandelier with bedsheets - and finally succeed in their mission!

      This really is a one-off opportunity to see these two fantastic films on the “Big Screen”

      Don't miss out!

      Click here to Book your Tickets Online in advance :
      Standard : £7.50  - including a Cream Tea

      Or Call Cornish Riviera Box Office on (01726) 879500
      Buy over the counter
      at Tourist Offices in St Ives, Penzance, Falmouth, Truro, St Mawes, Bodmin, St Austell, Looe, Liskeard & Launceston plus The Heartlands, Pool, Redruth and 'Bookends' Fowey

      Photo credit (r) Roy Export SAS

      This unique double-bill of two of the most-loved film comedies of all time has been made possible by the British Film Institue, Curzon Artifical Eye and the official Laurel & Hardy website; thanks go to them for granting permission for us to screen these films.