I never thought I’d get to see any of The Chimney Sweeps, a rare non-sexploitation vehicle for Harrison Marks and Stuart Samuels, that played for about a week as a second feature in 1963, so was pleasantly surprised to see that a ‘live’ screening of a short version of the film has made it onto Youtube. Sightings of The Chimney Sweeps after its brief theatrical run have been few and far between, although the film appears to have turned up in Turkey at some point as the second feature to an old Laurel and Hardy film (see poster below) and presumably was released onto the 8mm market in a condensed version, which appears to be what has surfaced on Youtube.
The original version of the film ran 43 minutes and included a subplot about ‘two comic burglars’ and a cameo from Pamela Green, nether of which made it into this seven minute version. Still this nevertheless gives you an idea of the favour of this slapstick silent comedy throwback with Marks and Stuart Samuels (looking like he has just come back from an audition for Carnival of Souls) hamming it up as the titular pair of accident prone workmen. So who knows, maybe there still is a chance that Marks' 'lost' 1967 film Pattern of Evil/Fornicon might turn up one day as well.
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