Harlequin's Stick—Charlie's Cane is a playful instrument, an academic toy. This is not to say the work is unimportant. The movie industry was based upon scientific, optical toys, such as the zoetrope. What David Madden has given us is a gift in the form of a scholarly peepshow…. (p. 285)
Mr. Madden's volume comes at a good time. It seems obvious, and appropriate to his [subjects, Commedia dell'Arte and the silent movie], that Mr. Madden has a great sense of fun and entertainment. In his fear of boring his audience with scholarly detail, he has edited his work to a very fast-moving form. In the chapter, The Body, Language of Gesture, for instance, he has allowed only six pages to cover this complex area. Of these, three are devoted to eight pictures. Of the remaining three, there are four short paragraphs totalling thirty-four lines—not much more than a respectable footnote for many scholarly works. Mr. Madden does not give a full-bodied text, but rather a preview or scenario. Its value is experiential. In lieu of a long, profound, scholarly work, Mr. Madden has created a little thing of delight, a peepshow volume. (p. 286)
Bob Fleshman, "Reviews: 'Harlequin's Stick-Charlie's Cane'," in The New Orleans Review (© 1977 by Loyola University, New Orleans), Vol. 5, No. 3, 1977, pp. 285-86.
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