Rare comedies get an airing

Rare silent comedies from the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are to get an airing as part of a London film season.

The Curzon Mayfair is showing a season of burlesque films next month as part of the London comedy festival.

A tribute to Mack Stennett, co-founder of the Keystone Film Company famed for the Keystone Cops comedies and an early champion of Charlie Chaplin opens the season on May 1.

Films include the seven-minute 1914 short Kid Auto Races In Venice; the first in which Chaplin appeared in his world-famous suit, assembled impromptu from what he found around him: including Fatty Arbuckle's oversize trousers.

May 9 is dedicated to Marx Brothers director Sam Wood, with screenings of Night At The Opera and A Day At The Races.

Harold Lloyd and his Twenties contemporary Charley Chase are featured on May 15, and May 22 features the screening a number of Laurel and Hardy shorts.

A spokesman for the cinema said: "We don't know much about the Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy careers before they met. Here is the opportunity to see great and very rare shorts. "

Their 1939 classic The Flying Deuces, pictured, is screened on May 29 and the season closes on May 30 with a double act of Jacques Tati's slapstick Mon Oncle with Peter Sellers' 1968 hit The Party.

Chortle has two passes to give away, giving the winner and a guest free entry to all the films in the Burlesque Matinee season.

To enter, just answer the question below by 10am on Monday April 26. Winners will be notified soon afterwards.

Good luck!

Published: 14 Apr 2004