Monty Banks

Monty Banks was a short stocky but somehow debonair Italianborn comic actor later also writer and director In the US from 1914 he first appeared on stage in musical comedy and cabaret By 1917 he was working as a dancer in New Yorks Dominguez Cafe After this he turned to films acting and doing stunt work at Keystone Universal and for Al Christie Changing his name from Mario Bianchi to Monty Banks may have been prompted by Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle as a passing reference to his playing montebanks By 1919 Banks had moved to Vitagraph to play a villain in The Grocery Clerk 1919 foil to star comic Larry Semon Banks first came to the fore in his own right as star of the Welcome Comedies made by Warner Brothers He spent the early 1920s at Fox and Grand Asher graduating to writing and directing tworeel comedies with himself as the star Most noteworthy entries in regard to inventive sight gags and Mack Sennettstyle madcap plots are Pay or Move 1924 and The Golf Bug 1924 The success of this series prompted Banks to create an independent production company the Monty Banks Pictures Corporation in conjunction with writerdirector Howard Estabrook He made several featurelength films for Pathe including Play Safe 1927 generally considered his best work which featured a climactic runaway train sequence This style of fastaction slapstick made it inevitable that Banks suffered more than his fair share of injuries especially since he continued to do many of his own stunts From the late 1920s Banks worked in England and made several appearances in sound films However his accent proved to be something of an obstacle He therefore decided after 1930 to concentrate on directing and producing He helmed four features starring the popular entertainer Gracie Fields who became his second wife in 1940 In 1935 he directed a wellreceived George Formby comedy No Limit 1935 about the TT motorcycle races on the Isle of Man which were shot on location there With the outbreak of World War II Banksbeing an Italian citizenwould have faced internment in England as an enemy alien He therefore deemed it necessary to flee to Canada and from there to the neutral United States He eventually obtained American citizenship for which he had applied years earlier but had forgotten to submit the necessary paperwork Back in Hollywood he ended up at 20th CenturyFox directing Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Great Guns 1941 arguably one of their lesser efforts Banks died of a heart attack during a trip through Italy in January 1950 aged just 52 Sadly the majority of his one and tworeelers are now considered lost films As a result his status as a leading comic of the silent screen may have somewhat diminishedexcept perhaps in his home town of Cesena where a foundation was established in his honor the Aula Didattica Monty Banks offering students practical courses on experimental aspects of video production