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Silent Clowns
Topic Started: Oct 6 2012, 09:47 AM (2,472 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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Sunday Slapstick #13

Powder and Smoke (Roach, 1924) Dir. James Parrott

Jimmy Jump (Charley Chase) is a door-to-door lightning rod salesman given a new territory, the Old West. Naturally, he's going to run afoul of some deadly desperadoes and have to rescue the damsel in distress. Naturally. A pretty silly short, with little of interest and Charley still trying to find his way. In the commentary, David Kalat tells us that Chase filmed three complete shorts, including this one, and parts of three others, all in the month of October, 1923 - before any of the new Jimmy Jump series had even debuted in theatres. It was pretty hit 'n' miss so far. This one's a miss.

Fatty's Chance Acquaintance (Keystone, 1915) Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle

Oh, for the love of... Fatty, a girl, a park bench, a cop... AGAIN? I was absolutely positive I'd seen this thing before (I hadn't, but it's pretty much a remake of Mabel & Fatty's Wash Day). Fatty and awful wife Billie Bennett head down to that lovely park we've seen so often, and tangle with Minta Durfee's boyfriend, who likes to steal purses. Much of the 1-reeler's running time concerns itself with Fatty soaking himself while trying to get a drink from the fountain (his rotten wife wouldn't let him buy a bottle of pop). I just noticed that the Arbuckle boxed set pretty much only goes up to 1916; where are his 1917-1921 films? Lost? Stolen? Missing? Hmmm.

An Eastern Westerner (Rolin, 1920) Dir. Hal Roach

Harold Lloyd is a wild young man, even dancing the Shimmie in a public ballroom. Horrors! As punishment, his grumpy father sends him Way Out West, to learn to be a REAL man. Why, the town is so rough, they even have an ordinance making it a crime to shoot a man twice on the same day! Harold discovers beautiful Mildred Davis and her not-so-beautiful father; he's being held hostage to force Millie to marry ugly, nasty brute Noah Young. Well, Lloyd to the rescue! Sort of. The bad guys actually bring in what looks like the KKK to bully Harold out of town; the Boy ain't leavin' without the Girl, naturally. A so-so short; again, Harold Lloyd is still trying to nail down a successful character, and this guy may look like the Harold Lloyd who will climb up the side of buildings, but he's not that guy yet. In this one, Harold's rather an unlikeable, gruff character, turning a hose on some people, pulling the rug out from under others. I don't care for him in this film, although there are two funny sequences: in one, he demonstrates Will Rogers-style rope tricks; in the other, trying to better a guy who can roll a cigaret with one hand, Harold rolls a whole PACK of 'em (you gotta see it; it may be the biggest laugh-out-loud moment over the past 13 weeks of me watchin' these films).

The Non-Skid Kid (Rolin, 1922) Dir. Hal Roach

Eddie Boland is the star of this thing, supposedly; he's so nondescript, I actually didn't realize he was the star of the film until more than halfway through. Several young women run over the proprietor of a garage (they were reading a glamour magazine while driving) and make amends by offering to work his shop for him ("I know all about cars - I've been run over twice!"). Boland comes in and they proceed to wreck his car and sully his clean, white suit. Meanwhile, Sunshine Sammy Morrison is up to some tricks. Yet another short that was only okay; thank heavens for Sunshine Sammy, who's wonderful, as always, in this one.

Plain Clothes
(Sennett, 1925) Dir. Harry Edwards

Another winner for Langdon; for the first time, Frank Capra's name appears in the credits, as co-writer. Harry's a detective, on the trail of a stolen necklace, the reward money of which will enable him to marry his sweetie, cute Claire Cushman, not realizing that the crooks are living in Miss Cushman's boarding house. The gang mistakes him for a crook and, because of his "honest face", gives him the hot necklace to fence. He needs to play keep-away after that, until the cops can get there.

It's impossible to describe the humor of a Langdon film from the plot; what's funny has nothing to do with the story. For example, Claire invites Harry to join her on the love seat. He sits in a chair all the way across the room. She coaxes him to come join her. He moves to the piano bench in the middle of the room and looks at her for approval. She again summons him, so he moves to the side of the piano bench nearest her and looks at her hopefully. It takes a while for him to get to that love seat, let me tell you.

I continue to find the Langdon films a revelation; I'm enjoying them very much. Oh, and look for Claire's mother in this one; the actress is Jean Hathaway, mother of director Henry.

"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Laughing Gravy
Jan 13 2013, 10:50 PM
I just noticed that the Arbuckle boxed set pretty much only goes up to 1916; where are his 1917-1921 films? Lost? Stolen? Missing? Hmmm.

I just remembered - they'd be on the Arbuckle & Keaton DVDs. Silly me. I haven't gotten to those yet.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Laughing Gravy
Dec 31 2012, 10:21 AM
Say, where were the sets from, anyway? I have doubts Roach built all the impressive sets for a 2-reeler. I guess if could check my history of the Hal Roach studio books, huh?
It seems a lot of Roach shorts involved mansion with outsized front halls; perhaps they had a particularly well-stocked warehouse of pieces to fit together those locales, the way Universal kept a superior supply of woodwork and walls for haunted houses and dungeons. And maybe Roach had access to MGM's backlot and other sets.

Maybe it WAS cost effective to spend big money on shorts in those days. Larry Semon's spending was legendary; Chaplin took his sweet (and expensive) time fine-tuning; and Keaton's two-reelers include some surprisingly huge stuff (surprising because you don't really think about it because Keaton is taking it so calmly).
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Sunday Slapstick #14

That Little Band of Gold (Keystone, 1915) Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle

Hmmm… Some growth in Fatty’s character, at last? (No pun intended.) Maybe. The beginning of the film, with Fatty and Mabel Normand on their way to the Court House to marry, is actually very sweet and Arbuckle shows a sweet and tender side that’s nice to see. AFTER the wedding, suddenly he turns into one of his most obnoxious stock characters, the drunken, cigar-smoking philanderer. Horrifying, and if audiences of 1915 thought this was funny, I have just lost all respect for them. I DID like a very nice pan across the entire audience of an opera house, including the mezzanine. But that aside, the Arbuckle character is so loathsome here, had they shown this film at one of his trials, he’d have been convicted for sure.

High and Dizzy (Rolin, 1920) Dir. Hal Roach

Harold Lloyd is an unsuccessful young doctor; after trying various disguises to lure prospective patients into his office(!), he finally gets a client, Mildred Davis, who sleepwalks. On his way over to observe her nocturnal misadventures, he runs into a friend who’s a bootlegger, and has to help him dispose of some exploding beer(!!) by drinking it. He then staggers over to Mildred’s house and follows her onto a narrow ledge near the top of a very tall apartment building, which sobers him up REAL quick.

Not for the last time in Lloyd’s canon we’ll have to be patient through a lot of silly, boring stuff to get to the good part, and only then does the film spring to life. (See also Safety Last.) That said, it’s a delight to see Lloyd up there, and the effect is very well photographed. Mildred looks very lovely, too, in her nightie, if I may say so.

Sold at Auction (Roach, 1923) Dir. Charles Parrott (Charley Chase)

One of my all-time favorite silent comedies, just non-stop laughs and inventive gags.

Baby ‘Snub’ Pollard is abandoned by his mother in a basket on a doorstep. 25 years later, and he’s STILL sleeping in the basket on the doorstep in a GREAT gag. Taking a morning walk, he hurts himself in front of an auction house with unclaimed goods, leading to a big sale of first-aid kits. So they hire him to be the “test model” of their wares, most of which seem to be designed to inflict bodily damage, including knuckle-dusters and blackjacks. Meanwhile, in another part of the movie, Jimmy Finlayson’s gone off on a camping trip, leaving his home unguarded, and his stuff’s been accidentally acquired by the auction house and sold off. Well, Fin is the Chief of Police, and when he gets back, he wants his stuff back, PRONTO, so ‘Snub’ is charged with retrieving everything. A dizzy amount of silly gags ensue, including “riding” a piano down a busy street, skyjacking an airplane to retrieve Fin’s grandfather’s dentures, and Pollard getting hit on the head so hard that the FILM melts.

As said, I love this 2-reeler, one of the all-time classics.

Hard Knocks (Roach, 1924) Dir. James Parrott

Charley Chase as Jimmy Jump, timid clerk in love with the boss’s daughter, who likes him too but wants him to be more assertive. He wins her love by thwarting a burglary in the office.

An okay 1-reeler with one great scene: Charley, who had dressed inappropriately for a party at the boss’ house, borrows evening clothes from butler Noah Young, and the suit falls apart while Charley performs at the party. Funny sequence, but the only really memorable thing about this one.

Remember When (Sennett, 1925) Dir. Harry Edwards

Harry Langdon and Natalie Kingston are separated at the orphanage while children; many years later, Harry roams the countryside trying to find her. He’s never seemed to get more than a half-mile from the orphanage frankly, easily distracted by chickens, bees, and a picnic table. Eventually, he is hired by cranky circus master Vernon Dent for a traveling show, not realizing that the long-lost Miss Kingston has been looking for him, too – and she’s the Bearded Lady.

I love, love, love the thought that Harry has spent his entire life simply wandering around a small piece of ground dealing with various tiny bits of business that pop up around every tree and corner. A very sweet and funny short. I’m turning into quite the Langdon fan.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Sunday Slapstick #15

Fatty's Faithful Fido (Keystone 1915) Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle

Fatty works out in the gym next to a dance hall, and wants to take lovely Minta Durfee to the big dance, but rival Al St. John is trying to gum up the works, so they fight by tossing bricks at each other, destroying the front of a Chinese laundry. Fatty sics his dog on Al, and the dog gives chase down the alley, up a ladder, and across the rooftops. The night of the dance, fisticuffs ensue.

Well, it's a 1915 Keystone, what can you say? The dog is excellent in this film, by the way. If I were Minta, I'd go with Al. Just sayin'.

Get Out and Get Under
(Rolin, 1920) Dir. Hal Roach

Harold Lloyd gets a call from his girlfriend - he's late for the romantic play they're both starring in. He rushes down the middle of a busy city highway (in a wide-angle shot, apparently from the top of a building - a really marvelous shot) to get to his car, which he keeps in a locked garage that he's practically turned into a vault. The rest of the film is more than two reels of Harold trying to get to that play in a car that keeps breaking down, including dealing with pesky li'l Sunshine Sammy Morrison and a dog that won't leave him alone as he tries to repair the vehicle. In one amazing sequence, he sees a junkie giving himself a shot with a needle; Harold steals the needle, injects the car's engine, and then has to chase it as it takes off like a rocket!

Not a great short, but a pretty good one, with some good gags. In one scene, Harold actually climbs under the hood and disappears into the motor to repair it. Good stuff.

Don't Forget (Roach, 1924) Dir. James Parrott
The Fraidy Cat (Roach, 1924) Dir. James Parrott

In the former, Charley is a forgetful man (with strings tied onto all his fingers) who rushes to church via cab when he forgets his wedding day. Only the final few minutes of this film survive. Too bad, it looks pretty good, with Charley in fine form.

In the other one, Charley's a coward (the neighborhood kids threaten to sic bunny rabbits on him) who is terrorized by everybody in the neighborhood, including Earl Moham, who is after Charley's girl, Beth Darlington. Mostly, though, Charley is picked on by (yep) the Our Gang kids, moonlighting on the other side of the Hal Roach lot. When you can get your ass kicked by 7-year-old Joe Cobb, you're in BIG trouble with women. Charley's mom has to keep coming out and chasing the Gang away with a broom, leaving Charley to stand in his front yard and taunt the fleeing children to come back and "start something!" When Charley thinks he has a fatal disease, though, he decides to go out in style and rebuke all the toughies who've been picking on him.

Very good one-reeler; it left me wishing it had been twice as long to enable Chase to do more with it.

Smithy (Roach, 1924) Dir. George Jeske

I'm not a big fan of the solo Stan Laurel shorts, but this one's actually good - and he's pretty darn close to the type of guy he'd be when he teams with Oliver Hardy. And by the way, his NAME is Smithy, he's not a blacksmith, I was surprised to discover.

He's been discharged from the Army (they have a shortage of beans). He gets a job on a construction site, building a house, which he does in that inimitable Stan Laurel way of his, dropping things, hurting people, wrestling with a hat, destroying the roof, and making James Finlayson's life miserable. I'm so glad Laurel would get to fulfill the promise he shows in this fine short subject.

Lucky Stars (Sennett, 1925) Dir. Harry Edwards

A fortune-teller tells Harry Langdon to follow his "lucky star" and take a long trip, where he'll become a doctor and fall in love with a dark, beautiful woman. Well, Harry hops a train and meets Professor Vernon Dent, a snake oil salesman, and the two of them head down to Mexico to fleece the populace. While there, Harry finds the lovely (and VERY sexy) Natalie Kingston, not knowing she plans ill for him.

One needs no plot with Harry, particularly because he's never on the same page as anyone else anyway. His character is what is funny. And his character is very funny indeed, seeming to mimic being a human being without having quite mastered the art of it. I am looking forward to getting to his feature films, which I'll do pretty soon, alternating them with Lloyd and Chaplin features.

"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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panzer the great & terrible
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Sounds like a great idea. How many of the Langdon features have you got?

BTW, I watched Lucky Stars last night. Love the beer scene.
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Sunday Slapstick #16

When Love Took Wings (Keystone, 1915) Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle

Lovely Ollie Carlyle (who's built like you wouldn't believe) is engaged, but Fatty comes along with a better offer, so Daddy gives her to him, until Al. St John pops up with an even BETTER offer, and Ollie has to juggle three intendeds, eventually fleeing with Fatty in a bi-plane while the other two suitors and daddy give chase in cars and on a bicycle - and they're all followed by the Keystone Kops.

I continue to be impressed by just how unimpressed I am with Fatty Arbuckle and his films. Still, a bi-plane in 1915 is a fairly interesting idea for a slapstick comedy, although nothing is done with it.

Number, Please? (Rolin, 1920) Dir. Hal Roach

VERY interesting comedy short; lotsa heart in this one, and it's leisurely paced, which works in its favor.

We open with scenes of nameless men coping with heartbreak in several ways; becoming a sailor, heading out west, etc. Then, we're told, there's the guy who simply courts death, not caring if he lives or not - cut to Harold Lloyd on a roller coaster. Mildred Davis has shown up at the amusement park with her new flame (and her doggy, General Pershing) and Harold attempts to woo her back the best he can. When a pickpocket steals her purse, Harold retrieves it - but is then followed around by the cops, who think he's up to something. Mildred wants to go on a balloon ride, but needs mother's permission, so she and her boyfriend drive off to get it; Harold heads for a bank of pay phones, and spends several minutes trying to get one, get a nickel, get the right number for her mom, and get rid of the baby somebody gave him to hold.

It all works out in the end, with the help of little Sunshine Sammy Morrison.

A highly enjoyable Roach short.

Dodge Your Debts (Roach, 1921) Dir. Erle C. Kenton

Gaylord Lloyd is a bill collector in the roughest part of town (the bar gives "free black eyes with every beer") who needs to recover some dough from colossal William Gillespie, who "wouldn't intentionally try to kill a bill collector - he cripples them," his lovely daughter explains to Gaylord. So romance is intertwined with beatings for a reel or so, followed by a brick fight.

It's an okay film, I guess, but nothing in it that's not done better elsewhere by others.

Publicity Pays (Roach, 1924) Dir. Leo McCarey

Charley Chase is married to Beth Darlington, a would-be film star who is really full of herself. When her publicity agent, Mr. Fiasco, insists she get a pet monkey, all hell breaks loose, and Charley ends up dangling from atop a hotel flagpole. When the agent suggests she get a pet elephant, she comes to her senses and settles for being Mrs. Jimmy Jump.

Clearly an attempt by Hal Roach to move Charley Chase into the spot vacated by Harold Lloyd (atop a building), and it's a pretty good film, but I continue to find the 1-reel format too constricting for Chase. Note Noah Young as the desk clerk; he seems to be in nearly every Hal Roach film of the era.

Saturday Afternoon (Sennett, 1926) Dir. Harry Edwards

Harry Langdon has a viciously mean wife, so he's susceptible to pal Vernon Dent's entreaty that they go out with a couple of nice girls - and Harry's girl has "swell lamps"! After an hilarious sequence with Harry retrieving the pocket change he's hidden from the old battleaxe - mainly consisting of taking a certain number of steps around the living room carpeting - it's off in a roadster, which takes such a bumpy road that Harry's clothes are shredded. And up pops two rivals for the girls and a fist fight, with Harry doing his best.

A wonderful comedy with much that seems to have inspired Laurel & Hardy in some of their later films.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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panzer the great & terrible
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I'm sure that L&H were influenced by Langdon, but they were funnier.
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Sunday Slapstick #17

Wished on Mabel (Keystone, 1915) Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle

Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, a park, a park bench, a pickpocket, a cop.

A movie.

Man, how many of these things did they turn out at Keystone? The joy in watching it is Edgar Kennedy as the cop, looking pretty much exactly as he would at Roach in the early 1930s, only with more hair.

Looking for Trouble (Rolin, 1919) Dir. Hal E. Roach

'Snub' Pollard's fickle girlfriend throws him over for a boxer, so Snub gets in the ring to teach him a lesson, thinking that the fight's been fixed so that he can actually win.

An okay one-reeler, but I've seen Pollard work I liked much better. This one is rather nondescript. Biggest laugh: as Pollard climbs into the ring with the Champ, a guy hands him a card that reads, "M.T. Grave, Undertaker".

Now or Never (Roach, 1921) Dir. Fred C. Newmeyer

Lengthy, not-too-good Harold Lloyd comedy. An ignored little rich girl is taken on a day trip by governess Mildred Davis, unbeknownst to the girl's parents; when the daddy shows up on the train, Mildred deposits the child into the care of Harold, her childhood friend she hadn't seen in many years, who just happens to be on the train, too. Lots of train gags ensue.

The best part of this short is actually the beginning; Harold, racing to a rendezvous in his super-sleek roadster, destroys a town and a farm through his driving and the car's ultra-fast wake. I also enjoyed the stuntwork at the end, with (what else?) Harold trying to maintain his footing on top of the speeding train. But this short is nearly 40 minutes long, and there's simply not enough to maintain interest all that way.

Young Oldfield (Roach, 1924) Dir. Leo McCarey

Jimmy Jump beats the legendary driver Barney Oldfield in a race (and then assures him, "You're a good driver, too") but it's only Charley Chase's daydream. He's a soda jerk, and if he doesn't pay the mortgage by noon, his dear old blessed mama's gonna lose the store. Well, that's going to involve, as it turns out, some REAL fancy driving on Chase's part.

These 1-reelers continue to flounder around in search of a good character for Charley Chase. I know they'd eventually find one, so I'm being patient. Look for Our Gang's little fat kid, Joe Cobb, in a cameo.

Fiddlesticks (Sennett, 1926) Dir. Harry Edwards

Harry is the fourth brother in the Hogan Family, and Dad and his burly siblings are tired of Harry’s loafing about as a musician while they bring home the proverbial bacon. Harry’s music teacher, Prof. Von Tempo (Vernon Dent), receiving death threats from the neighbors, finally graduates Harry (“If I guess what you’re playing, you get a diploma”). Harry first tries to join the Professor’s All Nations Band (“Two Germans, an Italian, and a Democrat”) but eventually finds success as a street musician – irate listeners throw so many household items out of their tenement windows at him that the junkman (Dent again) is making a killing, and pays Harry accordingly. Langdon tries to augment his income by adding a piano to the act, but when he accidentally runs over it with a street paver the construction company – not following the plot and not knowing that Harry ran over the instrument himself – gives him $300 in restitution. Harry returns home a rich man and earns the respect of his father. (Hey, if I’d ever come home with $300 my dad would’ve respected ME, too. Well, he still would’ve called the cops, but he would’ve acknowledged my initiative in finding a trade, even a presumed illegal one.)

A good short, lots of funny pantomime bits from Harry, many involving one or more cockroaches in his pants.


"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Hey Gravy, I remember reading (years ago) S. J. Perelman writing about a Langdon film he had seen in his youth. As he described it, Langdon is walking down the aisle to get married (waitaminnit, the groom doesn't walk down the aisle. Somethin's wrong already).

At any rate, a guest in a black cape with crazy eyes stands up & starts gesturing hypnotically at Harry. Harry, of course, follows the stranger out of the church &, of course, none of the other attendees do anything to stop him. The stranger & Harry get into a car where the stranger drives them into all kinds of predicaments. He caps this by taking the steering wheel off the shaft & handing it to Harry.

Now, I have no idea if Sid made this up or what. If he actually saw something similar I don't think he would mess up the narrative as he had a terrific memory.

Have you seen anything of Langdon's that even approximates the above?
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Without question, and with allowances for memory, he was describing His Marriage Wow.

http://s13.zetaboards.com/In_The_Balcony/single/?p=8169392&t=6968576
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Thank you, sir!!
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Sunday Slapstick #18

Mabel's Wilful Way (Keystone, 1915) Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle

I know what you're thinkin'... Fatty, Mabel, a park, Edgar Kennedy as a cop... Well, you're WAY off base. It's an AMUSEMENT park, and Kennedy doesn't play the cop (somebody else does), he plays Fatty's best friend. So there. Don't jump to conclusions.

Mabel is unhappy with her parents (Mom's wearing a hat that looks like a picnic basket, for one thing) so she dumps them and wanders off into the park, where she meets Fatty and Edgar. Fatty tries to impress her by feeding a bear in the park's zoo by holding a cookie between his lips and letting the bear take it. Yes, really. Then they go down a sliding board. Eventually, the parents find Mabel, and give her a spanking for wandering off. She was 23 when this short was made. No comment.

Whirl o' the West
(Rolin, 1921) Dir. Nick Burrows

Snub Pollard loses the mustache and plays a Harold Lloyd-like fellow, not all that convincingly. He's a well-dressed guy who goes west and gets made fun of by cowboys, who stick him on a dangerous horse. Luckily he's got little Sunshine Sammy Morrison to give him pointers, but he still pisses everybody off (one gunfighter says, "I'm gonna kill him and then make him apologize"). Not too good a short.

Among Those Present
(Rolin, 1921) Dir. Fred C. Newmeyer

Pretty good Harold Lloyd 3-reeler; funny opening, with Harold a posh young rich man impressing everybody in the hotel lobby until a guest comes and takes his top hat and coat back and we discover Harold's just a bellboy. Well, he's impressed a crook who needs a rich decoy to impress a wealthy family; he's trying to pull off a scam with them. So he hires Harold to impersonate His Lordship, and since Mildred Davis is in the family, Harold takes to it with aplomb. Much of the film are silly imaginary sequences with His Lordship describing his hunting skills with foxes, bears, and lions. This short is kind of all over the place, but it's a quality film.

Stolen Goods (Hal Roach, 1924) Dir. Leo McCarey

Well, we go from a funny sequence with Charley Chase witnessing an auto accident that he didn't see to a not-so-funny sequence where he's a jelly bean salesman in a department store who catches a pretty shoplifter, the daughter of one of the auto accident guys. Another example of Chase trying to do too much in a 1-reeler, but some nice gags and Charley DOES end up with the girl.

Soldier Man (Mack Sennett, 1926) Dir. Harry Edwards

The Great War is long over, but nobody told Harry, who is still at his post, on guard. I thought Laurel & Hardy had ripped this off for Block-Heads a dozen years later, and they did, sort of, except I remembered that Harry was one of the writers on that film, so I guess it's okay. In any case, he's discovered by the local townspeople, including Vernon Dent, who is an aide to the drunken, selfish king of a mythical country - a king who looks just like Harry! Suddenly, the Prisoner of Zenda breaks out, as Harry is pressed into replacing the king so he can sign a peace treaty.

I continue to find the Langdon character appealing and the films very funny. Best sequence: the new "king" sees a lackey bowing and, thinking the guy is sick, takes off his crown and puts it on the ground in front of him for the guy to throw up in. Okay, that sounds gross, but it's very funny, trust me - particularly later, when Dent puts the crown back on his head, Harry does a start, rips it off, looks into it, sighs, and then puts it back on.

Good 3-reeler, one of Langdon's last for Sennett.




"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Sunday Slapstick #19

Fatty's Plucky Pup (Keystone, 1915) Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle

Ugh. Fatty's a fat, worthless kid who smokes in bed and nearly burns the house down; he saunters into the kitchen and gets teacups of water, walks back and forth between the kitchen and the bedroom casually tossing the cup of water on the bed; he stops to comb his hair as he passes the mirror... I don't see how anybody can find this guy funny. In any case, he loves the girl next door and he loves his dog (the same dog that keeps showing up over and over in Fatty's films, must've been his real-life poochie) and he takes his two loves to the amusement park. When a con man cheats him out of his money, he pulls a gun on the guy(!) and gets his money back, so the con man and his cronies kidnap the girl, who is rescued by Fatty and the dog. I really, really hate Fatty Arbuckle movies and I'll be glad when they're over. At nearly 30 min. long, this one is particularly insufferable. (You will enjoy the dog and the fat guy on the treadmill while the scenery rolls behind them, though.)

The Dippy Dentist (Rolin, 1920) Dir. Alf Goulding

'Snub' Pollard is a dentist who accidentally switches bags with a bootlegger, which is fine - his alcohol attracts more customers than his dental practice did. 'Snub's girlfriend comes in and he puts her to sleep with gas and then starts kissing her (ewww). It's okay, though, he falls out the window and runs away. Uh, okay. The only good part of this short is Sunshine Sammy Morrison as a street urchin; he really doesn't have much to do, but it's always good to see him.

Take a Chance (Rolin, 1918) Dir. Alf Goulding

One of the bonus films on the new Blu-ray of Safety Last, and a good one-reeler from the early Glasses Character period of Harold Lloyd. Harold is trying to impress lovely Bebe Daniels, hard to do when an escaped convict clobbers him and switches clothes; the police department is after him! Say, didn't Buster Keaton make this same movie?

Jeffries, Jr. (Hal Roach, 1924) Dir. Leo McCarey

Jimmy Jump is a loser, so he hires former World Heavyweight Champeen James J. Jeffries to teach him how to be a he-man. It works and Charley gets a wife - who henpecks him and chases him around with a rolling pin. As with all these early Charley Chase shorts, they defeat themselves by being too short and cramming too much into too little time. I can't wait for the two-reeler period to begin.

Catalina, Here I Come (Sennett, 1927) Dir. Earle Rodney

Oh. Well. It seems after Harry Langdon left Sennett, Mack tried to fill the void with... Eddie Quinlan? Really? Hmmm. Eddie's the cook in a diner, who has a crush on the waitress. She enters a swimming contest, and Eddie helps her. Diner owner Andy Clyde helps a floozy to cheat; Eddie runs on water and gets stabbed in the ass by a swordfish. The whole thing isn't bad, but more "odd" funny than "ha-ha" funny, that's for sure. Eddie is no Harry, THAT'S for sure, too. In fact, Andy Clyde steals the picture. Easily. With one hand.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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CliffClaven
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Laughing Gravy
Jul 14 2013, 06:15 PM
(You will enjoy the dog and the fat guy on the treadmill while the scenery rolls behind them, though.)
Don't know about this particular film, but Keystone had a sort of carousel with scenery in the middle and no horses -- the ancestor of the rear-projection screen. Driving an unsecured vehicle on it was probably more dangerous than the finished shot looked (or was intended to look).

As with bad rear projection, the first giveaway is the rock-steady camera keeping pace with cars, people, dogs, etc.
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