After buying and watching the new DVD set of Harry Langdon’s talkie shorts for the Hal Roach Studios, I was impressed with just how much I enjoyed them. After all these films have a horrible reputation and many film historians have had little nice to say about them. Leonard Maltin even called them “undeniably the worst two-reelers ever made.” As much as I respect and appreciate Leonard (I am a huge fan of Leonard and he was a huge influence on me creating this blog) I couldn’t disagree with him more on this. Not only do I think these are not “the worst two-reelers ever made” but I think the best of them are pretty darn good. There are many moments that are completely delightful. For instance his energetic performance of Frankie and Johnny in
The Fighting Parson (1930) or his brave capturing of dummies in
The Big Kick (1930). A film like
The Shrimp (1930) (where a science experiment gives him the courage of a bulldog) is incredibly clever in both premise and execution. The very funny
The Big Kick has Harry remain silent for the first half of the movie, letting his beautiful pantomime skills shine. Even when the character first speaks, we can’t hear it as it is drowned out by a noisy car engine for the purpose of a great gag. In the films where Harry gets to speak a great deal of his dialogue will be very funny to some while alienating others (I personally find it very funny). The reason is that it is very rambling and repetitive showing how his character’s not too bright mind tries to make sense of the world around him (something he could never do). I can hardly think of another comedian who would dare to do this to the extent Harry does. This is as risky and experimental as you can get in a two-reel comedy. Not only does it make me laugh but I completely respect Harry for having the audacity to even attempt it. None of this is to any way suggest that these films are completely carried by Harry. The supporting casts are often excellent. Included in some of these movies are two actors who are rightfully treasured by many comedy fans, Thelma Todd and Edgar Kennedy. They are of course delightful here as always. Nancy Dover is however just as delightful. She proves to be the perfect co-star for Harry and the two are just a joy to watch together. Now keep in mind that these are still not perfect films and are not as great as his best work at Mack Sennett or First National, but they are certainly a lot better than they are often given credit for and are often pretty darn good on their own merits.
The DVD set includes two shorts in which the soundtrack was unfortunately lost to make up for this, the movies have subtitles. While this is certainly not the perfect way to watch them (
Too Hot To Handle (1929) is definitely too dialogue heavy to have a full effect without the sound of voices)), it makes you appreciate that you are able to see them at all. Also included are some commentaries by Richard M. Roberts and a Spanish language version of
The Big Kick. I highly recommend this set to all movie fans and remember to make up your own minds about these films instead of instantly buying into their bad reputation. You can purchase it
here.
-Michael J. Ruhland
No comments:
Post a Comment