Free The Grin of the Dark by Ramsey Campbell Page B

blinded Curly,' Smilemime claims to know. In 1935 Hart
attempted to revive Charley Chase's reputation or his own with his
second full-length feature, Fool for a Day . 'Screwball so screwy it
screwed his career,' Smilemime somewhat imprecisely sums it up.
'Ahead of its time or out of its head? You deccide if you can find it.' The
studio may not have had a chance to judge the reaction of the public
when Hart began shooting his next film, Ticklin' Feather . This was
apparently to be the first in a series of comedy Westerns about a
Cherokee of that name. 'Beggins with him riding into the little town of
Bedlam on a donkey called Neddy Canter,' Smilemime reports. 'Sound
fammiliar?' I'm not sure which reference this means, nor where the
pseudonymous commentator obtained the information, because the
film was never released.
    That's the oddity. Both Orville Hart and Tubby Thackeray ended
their careers with unreleased films. It isn't surprising that they weren't
hired after that, but why would two studios suppress completed
films? The question can't distract me from wondering what Natalie
has to tell me. I was hoping that she would last night while Mark
stayed downstairs to watch the film again, but she dropped me at the
house and kept him in the car. 'I'll be in touch,' she said. I stayed up
for a while, searching the Internet for Clowns Unlimited or any
variant spelling, but even the site from which I bought the tickets was
unavailable; perhaps the performers have alienated so many
spectators that they can't obtain any more bookings. Eventually I
went to bed, only to imagine on the way to sleep that if I opened my
eyes I would see clowns' faces poking up all around me. Between
dozes I wondered if Natalie wanted to discuss some situation first
with Mark.
    It's almost noon on Sunday morning. I could phone her, but I
don't want to be told she can't talk. Surely she would have called by
now if it was serious. I do my best to believe that while I finish
reading about Orville Hart, the grandfather of 'adult filmmaker Willie
Hart'. When I reach the page for that name, having been warned
about adult content, I see that Willie Hart's films include a hardcore
comedy called Dopius, Gropius and Copious . I return to Orville's
page and click on Tubby Thackeray in case it takes me anywhere I
haven't been. As I expected, it brings up the comedian's listing, but
that has changed. All the titles are live, linked to pages of their own.
    Could they have been last time I looked? It hardly matters, since
there's so little information. Each individual page lists the film as a
Keystone comedy starring Tubby Thackeray and directed by Orville
Hart. Just one is briefly reviewed: Tubby's Tiny Tubbies . 'Tubby and
his little nephews create chaos in a snooty store.' I'd take that to be
accurate if the commentator Smilemime didn't add 'Nearly complete
in Those Golden Years of Fun – the only known survivving Tubby footage.'
    Are all Smilemime's comments as unreliable as this? Is he (I'm
certain it's a man) remembering a different film, and is it one of
Thackeray's? The site doesn't let you contact other users directly, but
I can start a message board. First I have to register. As long as I'm
addressing a pseudonym I don't see why I shouldn't use one. I sign in
as Leslie Stone and head my message QUESTIONABLE ATTRIBUTION .
    I'm afraid the reviewer is mixing up two films. The one in Those Golden Years of Fun is surely Tubby's Terrible Triplets . None of
them is little, they're all the same size. Can anyone identify the
film Smilemime describes and say if it's still available?
    I send the message and return to Tubby's main page. I was hoping
to open up his biography, but now even the sentence about music-hall
and the next two tantalising words have gone. Why would they have
been deleted? I search for an address for Variety Video in case they
can put me in touch with the source of their footage, but there's no
trace of the distributors in the list the phrase calls