In 2010 film and theatre historian David Mayer urged researchers to look to early film for evidence of continuing traditions of Victorian pantomime, arguing its “audiences tolerated, even enjoyed, the same sight-gags and hackneyed routines that amused their Victorian ancestors.” This article is a response to his challenge and in the process explores wider interconnections. The harlequinade was the portion of the pantomime that occurred after key characters from the narrative pantomime opening are transformed into Clown, Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Columbine. These stock figures, originally derived from commedia dell'arte, perform a series of comic scenes via mime, dance, and physical action rather than dialogue. Having been an important feature of Regency and Victorian pantomimes, by the end of the nineteenth century the harlequinade had largely vanished (with certain exceptions such as the Britannia Theatre), causing Clement Scott to lament that it is “a pleasure lost for ever and denied to the generation of to-day.” My contention is that there is a direct line of inheritance from the harlequinade through stand-alone comic ballets to chase scenes in early film. All demand a particular type of physical performance, choreographed fast-paced action, and humor. Uncovering the tradition allows us better to understand this form of popular amusement and see how Harlequin's antics were reinterpreted for new audiences. Starting from a seemingly unremarkable comic entertainment produced in 1871 at a minor London theatre, the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton, and bearing the intriguing title of Ki-Ki-Ko-Ko-Oh-Ki-Key, I trace its heritage as embodied culture, establishing its links to early nineteenth-century pantomime harlequinade and to simian performance, tracking the appearance of comic or dumb ballets in theatres and music halls in Britain, France, and the United States through one family of performers, the Lauris, and finally identifying the legacy of the complex trap work in silent film of the early twentieth century by examining Lupino Lane's Joyland (1929).

2010 年，电影和戏剧历史学家大卫·梅耶 （David Mayer） 敦促研究人员从早期电影中寻找维多利亚时代哑剧延续传统的证据，他认为它“容忍，甚至享受，同样的视觉噱头和陈词滥调，这些都让他们的维多利亚时代的祖先感到高兴。本文是对他所面临的挑战的回应，并在此过程中探讨了更广泛的相互联系。丑角是哑剧的一部分，发生在叙事哑剧开场的关键人物变成小丑、丑角、潘塔隆和哥伦拜恩之后。这些库存人物最初源自 commedia dell'arte，通过哑剧、舞蹈和肢体动作而不是对话来表演一系列喜剧场景。丑角一直是摄政时期和维多利亚时代哑剧的一个重要特征，到 19 世纪末，丑角基本上已经消失了（除了某些例外，如不列颠尼亚剧院），导致克莱门特·斯科特 （Clement Scott） 感叹它是“永远失去的乐趣，被今天这一代人剥夺了”。我的观点是，在早期电影中，通过独立的喜剧芭蕾舞剧追逐场景，从丑角有一条直接的继承线。所有这些都需要特定类型的身体表演、精心编排的快节奏动作和幽默感。揭开传统的面纱，让我们更好地理解这种流行的娱乐形式，并了解丑角的滑稽动作是如何被重新诠释给新的观众的。 从 1871 年在伦敦一家小型剧院——霍克斯顿的不列颠尼亚剧院制作的看似不起眼的喜剧表演开始，并以 Ki-Ki-Ko-Ko-Oh-Ki-Key 的有趣标题开始，我追溯了它作为具体文化的遗产，建立了它与 19 世纪早期哑剧丑角和猿猴表演的联系，追踪了滑稽或哑巴芭蕾舞剧在英国剧院和音乐厅的出现， 法国和美国通过一个表演者家庭劳里斯，最终通过研究卢皮诺·莱恩 （Lupino Lane） 的《欢乐之地》（1929 年）确定了 20 世纪初无声电影中复杂陷阱工作的遗产。