Keystone Cops

{{Infobox media franchise

| image = Keystone-Cops-1912.jpg

| caption = The Keystone Cops in The Stolen Purse (1913). Pictured (left to right): Robert Z. Leonard, Mack Sennett, Bill Haber, Henry Lehrman, ⸻ McAlley, Chester Franklin, Ford Sterling, Fred Mace, and Arthur Tavares

| creator = Mack Sennett

| owner = Mack Sennett

| studio = Keystone Studios

| country = United States

}}

The Keystone Cops (often spelled "Keystone Kops") are fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent film slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917.

History

File:KeystoneKops.jpg (1914). The chief (using the telephone) is Ford Sterling. The policeman directly behind Sterling (extreme background, left) is Edgar Kennedy. The young cop to Kennedy's left is a then-unknown William Frawley. The hefty policeman at extreme right is Fatty Arbuckle. The young constable with bulging eyes (fourth from right) is Arbuckle's nephew Al St. John. The casting of the Keystone police force changed from one film to the next; many of the members were per diem actors who remain unidentifiable.]]

Hank Mann created the Keystone Cops, and they were named for the Keystone studio, the film production company founded in 1912 by Sennett.{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/culture-magazines/keystone-kops|title=Keystone Kops|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=2020-12-15}} Their first film was Hoffmeyer's Legacy (1912), with Mann playing the part of police chief Tehiezel, but their popularity stemmed from the 1913 short The Bangville Police starring Mabel Normand.

File:A Thief Catcher.jpg

{{multiple image

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| image1 = Heinie Conklin - Jun 1921 EH.jpg

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| caption1 = Heinie Conklin

| image2 = Hank Mann, film comedian (SAYRE 6588).jpg

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As early as 1914, Sennett shifted the Keystone Cops from starring roles to background ensemble in support of comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle.

The Keystone Cops served as supporting players for Chaplin, Marie Dressler and Mabel Normand in the first full-length Sennett comedy feature Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914); Mabel's New Hero (1913) with Normand and Arbuckle; Making a Living (1914) with Chaplin in his first pre-Tramp screen appearance; In the Clutches of the Gang (1914) with Normand, Arbuckle, and Al St. John; and Wished on Mabel (1915) with Arbuckle and Normand, among others.

Comic actors Chester Conklin,{{Cite web|url=https://www.goldensilents.com/comedy/chesterconklin.html|title=© Chester Conklin - Silent and Sound Movie Star - goldensilents.com|last=goldensilents.com|website=www.goldensilents.com|access-date=2018-08-08}} Jimmy Finlayson,{{Cite web|url=https://www.wayoutwest.org/finlayson/bio.html|title=James Finlayson - Here's to Fin!|last=Wiley|first=Jim|website=www.wayoutwest.org|access-date=2018-08-08}} and Ford Sterling{{Cite web|url=https://www.goldensilents.com/comedy/fordsterling.html|title=Ford Sterling - Silent Film Star - goldensilents.com|last=goldensilents.com|website=www.goldensilents.com|access-date=2018-08-08}} were also Keystone Cops, as was director Del Lord.{{Cite web|url=https://the-legion-of-decency.blogspot.com/2011/08/canadian-who-created-comedy-legends.html|title=The Legion of Decency: The Canadian Who Created Comedy Legends|last=Jimhenshaw|date=2011-08-26|website=The Legion of Decency|access-date=2018-08-08}}

The original Keystone Cops were George Jeske, Bobby Dunn, Mack Riley, Charles Avery, Slim Summerville, Edgar Kennedy, and Hank Mann.Lahue, Kalton (1971); Mack Sennett's Keystone: The man, the myth and the comedies; New York: Barnes; {{ISBN|978-0-498-07461-5}}; p. 194 In 2010, the lost short A Thief Catcher was discovered at an antique sale in Michigan. It was filmed in 1914 and stars Ford Sterling, Mack Swain, Edgar Kennedy, and Al St. John and includes a previously unknown appearance of Charlie Chaplin as a Keystone Cop.{{cite news|title=The 'Thief' in festival's lineup is famous face, indeed: Chaplin's |last=Trescott |first=Jaqueline |date=June 13, 2010 |newspaper=Washington Post |page=E7 }}

Revivals

Mack Sennett continued to use the Keystone Cops intermittently through the 1920s, but their popularity had waned by the time that sound films arrived. In 1935, director Ralph Staub staged a revival of the Sennett gang for his Warner Brothers short subject Keystone Hotel, featuring a re-creation of the Kops clutching at their hats, leaping in the air in surprise, running energetically in any direction, and taking extreme pratfalls. The Staub version of the Keystone Cops became a template for later re-creations. 20th Century Fox's 1939 film Hollywood Cavalcade had Buster Keaton in a Keystone chase scene. Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955) included a lengthy chase scene, showcasing a group of stuntmen dressed as Sennett's squad. (Two original Keystone Cops in this film were Heinie Conklin as an elderly studio guard and Hank Mann as a prop man. Sennett also starred in a cameo appearance as himself).

Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night (1964) has a scene in which the Beatles are chased around the streets by police in the manner of the Keystone Cops{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/07/a-hard-days-night-making-of|title=Making Beatlemania: A Hard Day's Night at 50|last=Kashner|first=Sam|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=2 July 2014|language=en|access-date=2020-02-17}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/499141/index.html|title=A Hard Day's Night (1964)|website=BFI Screen Online|access-date=2020-02-17}} to the tune of "Can't Buy Me Love".

In Sydney, Australia, in the 1960s, Rod Hull, Desmond Tester and Penny Spence featured in a local homage series of TV comedy shorts, Caper Cops. "It’s a direct steal of the American Keystone Kops [sic], but this is Sydney, Australia, in the late 1960s and who cares..." said creator/star Hull.{{Cite web|url=https://stefansargent.com/2017/03/05/emu-killed-the-video-star/|title=Emu killed the video star, {{!}} Digital Video|website=stefansargent.com|access-date=2020-12-18}}

Mel Brooks directed a car chase scene in the Keystone Cops' style in his comedy film Silent Movie (1976).{{Cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/news/celebrity-deaths/mack-sennett-the-father-of-slapstick-cinema/|title=Mack Sennett: The Father of Slapstick Cinema|website=Legacy.com|date=5 November 2010}}

= Canceled cartoon shorts =

In the late 1960s, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts pitched to create a series of animated cartoon short films based on the Keystone Cops, before being scrapped permanently following the closure of Warner’s original animation studio in 1969.{{Cite web|url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-last-warner-bros-cartoons/|title=The Last Warner Bros. Cartoons|website=CartoonResearch.com}}

In popular culture

The name has since been used to criticize any group for its mistakes and lack of coordination, particularly if either trait was exhibited after a great deal of energy and activity. For example, in criticizing the Department of Homeland Security's response to Hurricane Katrina, Senator Joseph Lieberman claimed that emergency workers under DHS chief Michael Chertoff "ran around like Keystone Kops, uncertain about what they were supposed to do or uncertain how to do it."{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4717916.stm |title=Americas | Chertoff castigated over Katrina |work=BBC News |date=2006-02-15 |access-date=2009-09-26}}

In sport, the term has come into common usage by television commentators, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The rugby commentator Liam Toland uses the term to describe a team's incompetent performance on the pitch. The phrase "Keystone Cops defending" has become a catchphrase for describing a situation in an English football match where a defensive error or a series of defensive errors leads to a goal.{{cite web|url=https://angleofpostandbar.blogspot.com/2007/03/art-of-defending.html |title=The Angle of Post and Bar: The Art of Defending |publisher=Angleofpostandbar.blogspot.com |date=2007-03-26 |access-date=2009-09-26}} The term was also used in American Football commentary to describe the play of the New York Jets against the New England Patriots in the 2012 Butt Fumble game, with sportscaster Cris Collinsworth declaring "This is the Keystone Cops", after the Jets gave up 21 points in 51 seconds.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/raissman-michaels-collinsworth-provide-comic-relief-article-1.1207450|title=NBC duo of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth adds comic relief, perfect laugh track to NY Jets' follies during Thanksgiving blowout|first=Bob|last=Raissman|website=nydailynews.com|date=24 November 2012 }}

According to Dave Filoni, supervising director of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the look of the GU-series Guardian police droids is based on the appearance of the Keystone Cops.{{Cite web|url=https://www.starwars.com/video|title=Videos|website=StarWars.com}}

The 1983 video game Keystone Kapers, released for the Atari 2600, 5200, MSX and Colecovision, by Activision, featured Officer Keystone Kelly.{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/agm_Keystone_Kapers |title=Atari Game Manual: Keystone Kapers}}

The open-source 1987 video game NetHack features Keystone Cops as a type of enemy, appearing whenever a player steals from an in-game shop.{{cite book|title=Exploring Roguelike Games|last=Harris|first=John|chapter=A View of the Field|page=13|publisher=CRC Press|location=Boca Raton, Florida|date=2020|isbn=9781000169492}}

References

External links

; Feature films

[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0002251/ Hoffmeyer's Legacy] (1912)
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0002659/ The Bangville Police] (1913) with Mabel Normand
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0002894/ The Gangsters] (1913) with Roscoe Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, and Al St. John
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0002663/ Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life] (1913) with Mabel Normand
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0003106/ Mabel's New Hero] (1913) with Mabel Normand and Roscoe Arbuckle
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004288/ Making a Living] (1914) ([https://archive.org/details/CC_1914_02_02_MakingALiving Available to watch/download] from the Internet Archive) with Charles Chaplin
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004707/ Tillie's Punctured Romance] (1914) ([https://archive.org/details/CC_1914_11_14_TilliesPuncturedRomance Available to watch/download] from the Internet Archive) with Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, and Charles Chaplin
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004146/ In the Clutches of the Gang] (1914) with Roscoe Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, and Al St. John
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004408/ The Noise of Bombs] (1914) with Edgar Kennedy as police chief
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0005660/ Love, Loot and Crash] (1915) ([https://archive.org/details/love_loot_and_crash Available to watch/download] from the Internet Archive) with Charley Chase
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0006296/ Wished on Mabel] (1915) with Roscoe Arbuckle and Mabel Normand
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0005654/ Love, Speed and Thrills] (1915) ([https://archive.org/details/love_speed_and_thrills Available to watch/download] from the Internet Archive) with Mack Swain, Minta Durfee, and Chester Conklin