By 1916, with Chaplin now a global phenomenon, the comic genre as a whole looks tired. Had the numberless comic scenes produced in the previous years used up all jokes and gags? Or did the overwhelming success of Chaplin sap the strength out of his colleagues? And – wouldn’t it be great to discover some forgotten genius and a bunch of fabulous silent lm comedies, totally unknown? It a real feat to be as unknown as Jimmy Aubrey (Heinie) after having appeared in 468 films between 1915 and 1955. His comic partner Walter Kendig (Louie) died in October 1915, after two years of film acting, a good reason to be so very forgotten. Half of the fifty or so titles of the ‘Heinie and Louie’ series produced in 1915 by the Mittenthal Film Company were distributed in France in 1916 via Pathé Exchange, and if you start hunting, a few prints will turn up in the archives, in France, Belgium and Austria, usually unpreserved and with shaky identi cations. Heinie and Louie (called Fridolin and Otto in some countries) are a couple of loosers, always fighting, but never splitting up for good. These actors are not geniuses, however, their films have something endearing, and at best they reach the nice silly zest of the early scènes comiques.

Mariann Lewinsky