Marcel Perez

Born in Madrid, Spain, Perez began his professional career by working as a circus clown in Paris.{{cite book|author=Richard Abel|title=Encyclopedia of Early Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hFxwX-dM008C&pg=PA225|year=2005|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-23440-5|page=225}} His film career started with comedy films of the production companies Pathé Frères and Éclair. In 1910, Arturo Ambrosio signed him for his production company, Ambrosio Films. Perez directed several comedies while working for the production company.{{cite book|author=Georges Sadoul|title=Dictionary of Film Makers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvsZikRu-hAC&pg=PA6|date=1972|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02151-8|page=6}}

He had directed and acted in the sci-fi film Le avventure straordinarissime di Saturnino Farandola, a series of 18 episodes{{cite book|author1=Mark Dorrian|author2=Frederic Pousin|title=Seeing From Above: The Aerial View in Visual Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeT4AAAAQBAJ&pg=PR10|date=2013|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-78076-461-0|page=120}}{{cite web|title=Marcel Fabre|url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b9efca0af|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714202705/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b9efca0af|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 July 2014|publisher=British Film Institute|access-date=4 July 2014}} released on the eve of first World War and based on a science fiction novel by Albert Robida.{{cite book|author=Martin Lefebvre|title=Landscape and Film|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VMA4ITTPrGkC&pg=PT295|year=2006|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-97555-1|page=295}} He had played the character of Saturnino Farandola in the film, which explored the idea of a voyage around the world.{{cite book|author=Matthew Solomon|title=Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination: Georges Méliès's Trip to the Moon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YNQ0-MPMzG0C&pg=PA194|date=2011|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-3582-4|pages=193–194}} Perez had directed and played the character of Robinet in more than 150 films produced by Ambrosio films{{cite book|author=Gino Moliterno|title=Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0dUgcYI8B0C&pg=PA7|date= 2008|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6254-8|page=7}}{{cite book|author1=Luigi Malerba|author2=Herman G. Weinberg|author2-link=Herman G. Weinberg|title=Fifty years of Italian cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zndZAAAAMAAJ|year=1955|publisher=C. Bestetti|page={{page needed|date=July 2014}}}} and was thus popularly called Robinet in Italy.{{cite book|author=Gian Piero Brunetta|title=The History of Italian Cinema: A Guide to Italian Film from Its Origins to the Twenty-first Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-Q9Qec7c7oC&pg=PA41|year=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-11988-5|pages=40–41}} He had directed the 1914 melodrama film Amor Pedestre (translation Pedestrian Love), which did not show any body part of the lead actor or actress except their feet.{{cite book|author=Michael O'Pray|title=Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes, and Passions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VZjv5eODuIwC&pg=PT24|date=2013|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-85000-1|page=24}}{{cite book|author1=Timothy Stroud|author2=Emanuela Di Lallo|title=Art of the Twentieth Century: 1900–1919, the avant-garde movements|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XInrAAAAMAAJ|date=2006|publisher=Skira|isbn=978-88-7624-604-3|page=270}}

During the First World War, Perez left Italy and went to the United States. In America, he was popularly called Tweedle-Dum, Twede-Dan and Tweedy, but among his earliest American movies were a series of four Bungles comedies: Bungles' Rainy Day, Bungles Enforces the Law, Bungles' Elopement and Bungles Lands a Job. The Bungles shorts co-starred Oliver Hardy and were produced by Jacksonville's Vim Comedy Company.{{cite book|author1=Mark Potts|author2=Dave Shephard|title=What Was The Film When? The Movies of Laurel and Hardy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jLS9ht9bWPkC&pg=PA206|year=2007|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-0-9555318-3-5|page=206}} Perez began his decade-long occasional collaborations with William A. Seiter on the 1918 military comedy film The Recruit.{{cite book|author=Hal Erickson|title=Military Comedy Films: A Critical Survey and Filmography of Hollywood Releases Since 1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NE7DPJWdXd4C&pg=PA17|date=2012|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-6290-2|page=17}}

Concurrent with his early-1920s short subject work, Perez directed Rubye De Remer in three features; what might have become a more extensive teaming was ended, in part, by her early retirement. Following a cancer-related leg amputation in 1923, his film work was confined almost exclusively to writing and directing, most notably the Alyce Ardell comedies for producer Joe Rock.Massa, pp. 109–133. By early 1924, Perez was reportedly earning $400 weekly as a Jimmy Aubrey gagman.Willis, pp. 28, 29, 92, 99.

He was married to the actress Dorothy Earle (1892–1958).

Ten surviving Perez titles held by the EYE Film Institute Netherlands and the Library of Congress{{cite web|url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/silentfilm/the-marcel-perez-collection-silent-film-dvd |title=The Marcel Perez collection – silent film DVD by Ben Model—Kickstarter |publisher=Kickstarter.com |date=2014-06-25 |access-date=2014-06-30}} were restored and released on DVD on January 26, 2015,{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/The-Marcel-Perez-Collection/dp/B00SLWHGJC|title=The Marcel Perez Collection |website=Amazon |date=2015-01-26 |access-date=2014-02-14}} with another eight films released in February 2018 on The Marcel Pérez Collection, Volume Two.{{cite web|url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/silentfilm/the-marcel-perez-collection-volume-2 |title=The Marcel Perez Collection: volume 2 |publisher=Kickstarter.com |date=2017-05-30 |access-date=2017-08-24}}{{cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/4938?locale=en|title=MOMA Marcel Perez program|date=2018-11-25}} Material from 15 other Pérez "Robinet" short subjects was posted online by the EYE Film Institute Netherlands in the closing months of 2019.

File:Robinet aviatore (1911).webm

Including

• The Short-Sighted Cyclist (1907, actor)
• Gigetta si vendica di Robinet (1910, director and actor)
• Duel Robinet (1910, director and actor)
• Robinet vuol fare il jockey (1910, director and actor)
• Robinet aviatore/Tweedledum, Aviator (1911, director and actor)
• Robinet in Love with a Singer (1911, director and actor)
• Robinet's White Suit (1911, director and actor)
• Impossible Robinet Statement (1912, director and actor)
• Robinet troppo amato da sua moglie (Robinet Is Too Much Loved by His Wife) (1912, Italy, director and actor)
• Madamigella Robinet (Miss Tweedledum) (1912, Italy, director and actor)
• Le avventure straordinarissime di Saturnino Farandola/The Extraordinary Adventures of Saturnino Farandola (1913, director and actor)
• Robinet Boxeur (1913, director and actor)
• Amore Pedestre/Pedestrian Love (1914, director and actor)
• Robinet is Jealous (1914, director and actor)
• Robinet Fisherman (1915, director and actor)
• Bungles series (1916, director and actor): Bungles' Rainy Day; Bungles Enforces the Law; Bungles' Elopement; Bungles Lands a Job
• A Bathtub Elopement (1916, director and actor)
• Some Hero (1916, director and actor)
• Torpedoed by Cupid (director and actor)
• Lend Me Your Wife (1916, director and actor)
• A Scrambled Honeymoon (1916, director and actor)
• A Busy Night (1916, director and actor)
• The Recruit (1918, director and actor)
• Camouflage (1918, director and actor)
• Oh! What a Day (1918, director and actor)
• You're Next (1919, director and actor)
• Chickens in Turkey (1919, director and actor)
• Can You Beat It? (1919, USA, director and actor)
• The Way Women Love (1920, director)
• Week End (1921, director and actor)
• Sweet Daddy (1921, director and actor)
• Pinched (1921, director and actor)
• Wild (1921, director and actor)
• Luxury (1921, director)
• Unconquered Woman (1922, director)
• Friday the 13th (1923, director and actor).
• Peaceful Riot (1925, director)
• Hold Tight (1925, director)
• Vulgar Yachtsmen (1926, director)
• Lash of the Law (1926, director and actor)
• When East Meets West (1926, director and actor)
• His In-Laws (1928, director)

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{Cite book |last=Willis |first=H. B. K. |title=In the Temples of Tee-Hee |pages=28, 29, 92, 99|url=https://archive.org/stream/screenland08unse/screenland08unse_djvu.txt |publisher=Screenland|location=New York City|year=1924}}
• {{cite book |author=Massa, Steve|title=Lame Brains and Lunatics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x60_nAEACAAJ|publisher=BearManor Media|location=Albany, Georgia|year=2013|isbn=978-1593932688}}
• {{cite book |author=Massa, Steve|title=Marcel Perez: The International Mirth-Maker|location=Seattle|year=2014|isbn=978-1503038912}}

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category|Marcel Perez}}

• {{IMDb name|0264683}}
• {{YouTube|id=2W0lRsGJVG8|title=Marcel Perez- "The Extraordinary Adventures of Saturnino Farandola" (1913)}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Marcel}}

Category:1884 births

Category:1929 deaths

Category:20th-century Spanish male actors

Category:Articles containing video clips

Category:Deaths from cancer in California

Category:Male actors from Madrid

Category:Silent film comedians

Category:Silent film directors

Category:Spanish expatriates in France

Category:Spanish expatriates in the United States

Category:Spanish film directors

Category:Spanish male silent film actors