Run Time: 25 minutes. Studio: Vitagraph. Directors: Larry Semon, Norman Taurog. Writers: Larry Semon, Norman Taurog. Main Cast: Larry Semon, Oliver Hardy, Frank Alexander, Kathleen O'Connor, Ann Hastings, Al Thompson. Cinematographer: Hans F. Koenekamp.
When Larry Semon is thought of today, often times it is either for his less than beloved feature film "adaption" of Wizard of OZ (1925) or for having had (at separate times) Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (who appears in this movie) as supporting players in his comedies. While his comedies never reached the level of Charlie Chaplin's or Buster Keaton's best films, he did make some very enjoyable films that do not deserve to be treated as only footnotes in movie history. One Larry Semon short I especially love is The Sawmill, which puts a smile on my face each time I watch it.
Like many of the best silent comedies, this film has a very basic storyline. Larry Semon plays a bumbling sawmill worker who falls for the owner's daughter (Ann Hastings) and gets in trouble with the foreman (Oliver Hardy). This simple premise leads to lots of slapstick gags and fun stunts.
Part of the reason that Larry Semon is not as revered as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, is that his screen character is much less well defined as that of the actors I have just mentioned. What the character would do next was often times more defined by what the next gag was then who the character was. It is easy to simply focus on this criticism and write Larry Semon off as a lesser comedian. However this would be ignoring just how entertaining a lot of his films are. They are technically very well made (something that is even noticeable in cheap public domain prints), move at a fast pace, have great stunts and have fun and imaginative gags. All of these are wonderfully on display throughout The Sawmill. This short may have its flaws, but it is never once boring and when I watch this film there is never a second where I was not having a good time watching it. There are some truly delightful gags in this movie. The chase scenes involving Larry and Oliver Hardy are a lot of fun with a great sense of comic energy that doesn't let up. The chase in the two boats is laugh out loud funny. The only gag that really falls flat here is the final one.
Motion Picture News, 1921
The following is an exhibitor's review from Moving Picture News, "The Saw Mill (V.), With Larry Semon. - A riot from start to finish. Larry's the slap-stick king. - W. Ray Erne, Rialto Theatre, Charolotte, Mich." The following is an exhibitor's review from Exhibitors Herald, "The Sawmill (Vitagraph), with Larry Semon. - If you need a good slapstick comedy, you could not find a better. In fact, you can pick Semon comedies with your eyes closed; they are all good. Also Vitagraph is to complimented on the way they sell them. - J.J. Kuldacek, Swan theatre, Swanton, Neb."
Exhibitor's Herald, 1922
Around this time Larry Semon's films were becoming quite extravagant and not cheap to make. This film has often been called one of the most expensive silent comedy shorts. For this movie, Semon had a whole lumber camp built. This definitely shows on the screen and makes this an incredibly visually impressive film. However no matter how good this made the movie look, with this being a short subject instead of a feature length film, and no matter how successful it was this was (from a business stand point) too expensive for how much a short film could make back at this time. This naturally put Larry Semon at odds with Vitagraph, the studio that was releasing these films. Albert Smith, head of Vitagraph, tried to convince Semon to become his own producer but Larry Semon could not be convinced. Because of this Vitagraph let Semon go in 1923, leading him to make a series of shorts to be released through Educational Pictures.
Frank Alexander, who played the owner of the mill in this movie is said to have worked at the Keystone Studio starting around 1913. Starting in 1918, he would become a staple of Larry Semon's films. He would often play a boss or someone higher up who is made into the butt of slapstick gags in these movies. Sometimes he would even play a heavy or villain in these pictures. As well as shorts, Frank Alexander would also appear in the Larry Semon feature films, The Perfect Clown (1925) and The Wizard of Oz (1925). In The Wizard of Oz he would play Uncle Henry. In 1925, Alexander would become a part of the comedy team, A Ton of Fun. This team was comprised of three heavy set male comedians, that also included Hillard Karr and Kewpie Ross. To be used as a contrast to the size of these main comedians, comedian Slim Summerville would appear in a few of these comedies, and he would even direct the short, All Tied Up (1925). Alexander would work briefly in talkies, but his career wouldn't last long into the talkie era as he would pass away in 1933.
Unlike many other classic comedy teams, who had worked together elsewhere before starting their movie careers, Laurel and Hardy first worked together in the movies. Because of this both of them had already made a good body of films before they became a team. Oliver Hardy is said to have started at the Lubin studio as early as 1913. His first film was Outwitting Dad (1914). For the Lubin and Vim companies, Babe (as all his friends called him), made over 100 films. For the Vim Company Babe became part of the comedy team Plump and Runt, alongside Billy Ruge. However the actor often preferred to support a star comic rather than staring in a film himself. As such he would spend much of his early career playing villains for such screen comedians as Billy West (a Chaplin imitator), Jimmy Aubery and of course Larry Semon. In the years before teaming with Stan, Babe remained a very busy actor. Working for various movie companies, Babe appeared in films for quite a few different studios and the 100 films he made for Lubin and Vim were only the beginning of his solo career. Though Stan Laurel was often the star of his solo movies, Oliver Hardy easily made more solo films than Stan Laurel did. In fact Oliver Hardy made more solo films than Laurel and Hardy films.
This film was co-directed by Norman Taurog, who was a great and too often overlooked director. He would have a long career in the movie industry beginning in the silent era and working all the way into the late 1960's. His last film was the Elvis Presley vehicle, Live a Little Love a Little (1968). His filmography included such films as Huckleberry Finn (1931), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), Boy's Town (1938), Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940), Girl Crazy (1943) and Words and Music (1948). He also directed multiple vehicles for Martin and Lewis and Elvis Presley. Though his films with Elvis are not considered to be among the singer/actor's best, he had great respect for Elvis' talents, believing that if Elvis had been given better scripts he could have been considered a great actor. Despite working on multiple Larry Semon films, his opinion of Semon's comedic talents weren't as high. Leonard Maltin quotes him as saying, "He wasn't funny. That's honest. I loved the man but he wasn't funny. When we made a picture with Larry, he would go to New York, and we'd go out and make the picture. When he came back, we fitted him in all the closeups. That's the truth. Bill Haubor, who used to double for him and that that great and could do him that well. We would get as close as a full figure, and I defy anybody to pick it out." While I disagree with Taurog's opinion of Larry Semon not being funny, this is still a very insightful quote that gives a very good look at the relationship between the two men and the makes on appreciate the work of a great stunt man.
Though Larry Semon is not one of the most popular silent movie comedians, he played a huge role in me getting into silent movies. I was a kid who had just started getting into Laurel and Hardy, due to my grandpa buying me some Laurel and Hardy DVDs because of how much I enjoyed slapstick comedy. Once I ran into a Laurel and Hardy DVD collection in a store. This was one of those public domain Laurel and Hardy DVDs which included the Laurel and Hardy feature films, Atoll K. (1951) and Flying Deuces (1939) as well as many of the silent short films that featured Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy separately from each other before they teamed up. These included the Larry Semon shorts that featured Oliver Hardy in supporting roles (including this one). Though I am sure that many people ran across these sets and were disappointed by the fact that these were not actual Laurel and Hardy shorts, I was not one of those people. In fact I was delighted by these shorts. I had never seen a silent movie before and I was very intrigued by this unique art form. While I did not immediately start watching silent films regularly, I did realize that there was something about these silent films that really appealed to me. Perhaps that is one reason why I still have a real fondness for Larry Semon as both a comedian and a filmmaker.
Moving Picture World, 1916
Because of this film's public domain status, it can be found on many public domain Laurel and Hardy DVDs or the great box set The Laurel or Hardy Collection. A lower quality print of this film can be watched below on YouTube.
Resources Used
A-Z of Silent Film Comedy by Glenn Mitchell
Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies by Randy Skretvedt
The Great Movie Comedians by Leonard Maltin
https://mediahistoryproject.org/
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