YUKON JAKE is a nice little comedy western from silent film comedian Ben Turpin, he of the wonky eyes. This one has a Jack London feel with lots of snowbound locations and characters chasing each other around in them. Turpin is great fun as the buffoonish hero of the piece and the genre tropes are handled pretty well; the special effects are also a delight, such as the black bear which becomes hand-drawn for a few seconds. The version I watched had been re-jigged by distributor E.J. Fancey, who cut out around ten minutes of the running time before adding in stupid 'comedy' sound effects.
3 Reviews
Entertaining Comic Western
Snow Leopard17 January 2003
The manic styles of Ben Turpin and Mack Sennett (not to mention director Del Lord) work pretty well in this comic Western, which parodies many of the conventions that were already commonplace even in the 1920's. While occasionally chaotic, most of it is pretty amusing, and it's an example in which Sennett's unrestrained approach comes across well.
Turpin plays a confident but somewhat disorganized sheriff who has to take on a gang led by the fancy shooting bad guy "Yukon Jake". Besides plenty of Western/outdoors action, Sennett's story even throws in a parody of his own bathing beauty features. It's all unrefined, and even some of the special visual effects seem to have been done in a deliberately haphazard fashion, for the sake of comic effect. But in any case, most of this is quite entertaining, and it's a good short feature to watch if you enjoy silent comedies.
Turpin plays a confident but somewhat disorganized sheriff who has to take on a gang led by the fancy shooting bad guy "Yukon Jake". Besides plenty of Western/outdoors action, Sennett's story even throws in a parody of his own bathing beauty features. It's all unrefined, and even some of the special visual effects seem to have been done in a deliberately haphazard fashion, for the sake of comic effect. But in any case, most of this is quite entertaining, and it's a good short feature to watch if you enjoy silent comedies.
Occasional spots of brilliance
planktonrules6 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
My first exposure to this film was in the compilation film WHEN COMEDY WAS KING (1960). This film used clips from a dozen or more old slapstick films and one of the films spliced into the film was YUKON JAKE. However, like all the other films, only a small portion of the entire short was used.
Now that I have seen both the abbreviated film and this one in its entirety, I would have to say that I preferred the shorter one, as it was well-paced and the full film was a bit dull in spots. In particular, the entire first half of the film BEFORE going to the Alaskan wilderness was pretty forgettable. I loved the scene when he left the town and went to the wilderness--as Ben Turpin literally walked across the screen from nice weather and dust to snow and wilderness! At this point, the film definitely picks up pace. I've shown the film to several audiences of 8th graders (yes, I know they are NOT the most demanding connoisseurs of entertainment) and they laughed long and hard at the second half. Particularly funny scenes were Turpin's sled team (you just need to see it to know what I mean) and the bathing beauty sequence.
Overall, it's a highly uneven film. Parts are admittedly dull, but when it was funny it was laugh out loud funny and that makes it well worth seeing. Great stuff!
Now that I have seen both the abbreviated film and this one in its entirety, I would have to say that I preferred the shorter one, as it was well-paced and the full film was a bit dull in spots. In particular, the entire first half of the film BEFORE going to the Alaskan wilderness was pretty forgettable. I loved the scene when he left the town and went to the wilderness--as Ben Turpin literally walked across the screen from nice weather and dust to snow and wilderness! At this point, the film definitely picks up pace. I've shown the film to several audiences of 8th graders (yes, I know they are NOT the most demanding connoisseurs of entertainment) and they laughed long and hard at the second half. Particularly funny scenes were Turpin's sled team (you just need to see it to know what I mean) and the bathing beauty sequence.
Overall, it's a highly uneven film. Parts are admittedly dull, but when it was funny it was laugh out loud funny and that makes it well worth seeing. Great stuff!
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