Two Laughing Men | 1900 | Comedy, Short

Title: Two Laughing Men | 1900 | Comedy, Short Director: Walter Gibbons Starring: Walter Gibbons Release Date: 1900 Runtime: 1 minute Format: Silent, black-and-white Country: United Kingdom Language: Silent Genres: Comedy, Short --- Chapters: 00:00:00 Magazine discovered 00:00:12 First chuckles 00:00:30 Hysterics escalate 00:00:45 Falling about 00:00:58 Composure returns --- Summary: Two Laughing Men depicts two Victorian-era gentlemen reading a magazine and succumbing to uncontrollable laughter at what they see on the page. The film presents no intertitles or dialogue; the humor is conveyed entirely through performance and timing. As an example of the early British “facial” comedy, the short focuses on exaggerated expressions and gurning designed to amuse audiences through the sheer spectacle of laughter. The setup is simple by design, prioritizing the immediacy of reaction over narrative complexity. --- Background: Directed by entertainer and impresario Walter Gibbons, the film belongs to a cycle of turn‑of‑the‑century British comic views that showcased performers’ expressiveness for the camera. Gibbons was active in both music halls and early filmmaking around 1900, when he also produced the Phono‑Bio‑Tableaux series; the emphasis on facial performance here reflects that era’s interest in close, frontal presentation of variety acts on screen. --- Trivia: The British Film Institute presents a one‑minute version of the film for free on BFI Player, crediting Walter Gibbons as director and performer. BFI groups the title within its Victorian Entertainment selections, underscoring its place in late‑Victorian popular cinema. Gibbons later became a leading music‑hall impresario and opened the London Palladium in 1910, long after his early experiments in film. BFI describes the piece as a classic Victorian “facial,” highlighting exaggerated expressions rather than plot or intertitles. Because it was first released in 1900, the film’s original publication places it in the public domain in the United States under current rules for published works. --- Public Domain / Rights: Original Release: 1900 Copyright Status: Public Domain Renewal: No --- Hashtags: TwoLaughingMen WalterGibbons SilentFilm BritishCinema VictorianCinema PublicDomain 1900sCinema BFI This video was sourced from Internet Archive. Originally uploaded by cringeape20@gmail.com. https://archive.org/details/two-laughing-men-1900-directed-by-walter-gibbons