#snitz edwards

[citizenscreen]

Snitz Edwards with Anna May Wong in THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924), directed by Raoul Walsh.

[hotvintagepoll]

Snits Edwards (The Thief of Bagdad, The Mark of Zorro, College, The Phantom of the Opera)—With his expressive, deeply lined face and a physique that made Buster Keaton look like Douglas Fairbanks, Hungarian character actor Snitz Edwards was one of the pre-eminent scrungly little guys of silent-era Hollywood and appeared in some of the biggest movies of that period, in roles like 'Short Innkeeper' and 'The Thief's Evil Associate'. Any character he played was automatically made scrungly by virtue of his unique looks, and he cheerfully leaned into it with a talent for mugging and willingness to be manhandled for comedic effect, whether by a musclebound bully or a troupe of ballet dancers. He injects a welcome bit of silliness whenever he pops up; a true cinematic delight.

The Three Stooges (Turn Back the Clock, Meet the Baron)—They. Were. The. Blueprint. All scrungly guys who came after owe their "whoop whoop whoop woop!" to the Stooges [editor's note: the Three Stooges were submitted as a group but two of their members were also submitted separately, so I've condensed them into a unit and included the propaganda submitted for Larry and Shemp below the cut.]

Who is the scrungliest little guy?

Snitz Edwards

The Three Stooges [scrungly unit]

Voting ended onOct 5, 2024

This is round 1 of the contest. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. If you're confused on what a scrungle is, or any of the rules of the contest, click here.

[additional submitted propaganda + scrungly videos under the cut]

Snitz Edwards:

If you needed an actor to play a scrungly little guy in your silent movie, you needed look no further than Snitz Edwards. Standing at about five foot nothing, with a face that was as expressive as it was wrinkly, Snitz was hand-picked by folks like Douglas Fairbanks and Buster Keaton to appear alongside them in their movies not just because basically everything he did was hilarious, but because he was also much loved among Hollywood at large. Tiny, perpetually elderly, and sporting a face only a mother could love--what else could you ask for? [editor's note: untrue. I love his face.]

The Three Stooges:

The rest of the Stooges can pass as normalish guys, (until they open their mouths,) but between his trademark hair, very distinctive voice, and ridiculously reactive face, Larry is the Scrungly Stooge. If he isn't taking a slap, poke, or yank to the hair, he's flinching and twitching to some cartoonish violence along with the audience. And occasionally being an absolute one-liner lunatic that reaffirms why he's one of the Three Stooges. He gives off strong "Possum Spotted By Neighbors' Trash Cans" energy, but a chill possum, not one that's going to hiss or run away. A friendly possum that perhaps has limited survival instinct, but you admire him for his optimism. (Worth mentioning: In real life, Larry let Moe Howard handle most of the business aspects of The Three Stooges, because the one time Larry signed a contract by himself, it was to a completely different studio than his partners. He was also absolutely devoted to his wife, Mabel, having met her in vaudeville as teenagers. It was said that if Mabel wanted Chinese food in the middle of the night, Larry would go out and find some. Due in part to Mabel's dislike of housekeeping, and Larry either having a penchant for gambling or having very poor money-management, the Fines tended to live out of hotels. Regardless, when partner Curly suffered a career-ending stroke in the 40s, Larry still contributed part of his paycheck towards Curly's care. Spendthrift or not, Larry was a very generous soul to the end.)

Shemp is just the best at playing the curmudgeonly jackass and come on, who has a scrunglier face than he does?

[cw for disability slur]

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

Have you seen The Thief of Bagdad (1924)?

Yes

No

Haven’t even heard of this movie

Voting ended onDec 17, 2024

[friendlessghoul]

Buster Keaton, Tom Wilson, and Snitz Edwards Battling Butler (1926)

[busterkeatonsociety]

This Day in Buster… January 5, 1926 The Santa Maria Times reports that F. E. Barnes, property man for the Buster Keaton Film company, is in Santa Ynez to secure filming for “Battling Butler.”

[bygone-hollywood]

BUSTER KEATON, SNITZ EDWARDS, and T. ROY BARNES in Seven Chances (1925), dir. Buster Keaton

[justbusterkeaton]

Alfred 💗 Martin

Battling Butler (1926)

Music: Cavalleria Rusticana Intermezzo by Pietro Mascagni

[nitrateglow]

Finally. It's done. My second commentary track. This is for Battling Butler, which gets my vote as Buster Keaton's most underrated movie.

Tbh, I'm not quite as satisfied with it as I was with the Wait Until Dark track I did in 2022 (probably because I had way more research material and on-set anecdotes to work with for that movie), but it turned out better than I thought it would while I was recording it.