Painted Faces (1929) Review

Is this not supposed to be terrifying?

“See you in jail!”

Painted Faces offers some surprising moral gray in a story that takes advantage of many tropes of the time. The familiarities of men arguing in suits, music numbers, circus shows, and more make for a nice backdrop for how weird this film can get at times. It comes off as being weird as it doesn’t know how else to be, instead of being a conscious choice. The issue is how sometimes that weirdness originates from poor storytelling, but this is still better than being bad and typical. The story focuses on Joe E. Brown as Hermann and his troubles. The nonlinear narrative reveals more and more about him. While his struggles are not terribly engaging, at least Brown himself gives him this humble outsider aesthetic, with him often being kicked to the side or mistreated. However, his mistreatment only pushes him to think that sometimes the common choice that will make you liked isn’t always the right one and that you might need to stand in defiance of others. Brown is very convincing as this incredibly shy and nervous fellow just trying to do the right thing.

Practically every character here is very bendable and dubious. This is handled with nuance, instead of just having people be pure good or pure evil. Many of the characters feel like they could be real. The first notable example of this is how the supposedly civilized jury pressures Hermann into voting guilty in a case where someone’s life is on the line just because they want to leave. When he refuses, they threaten, insult, and are violent to him. Before it’s revealed who didn’t think he was guilty, the foreman assumes it was one of the women, acting like they’re too stupid to know to go guilty. The jury are also portrayed as illiterate, racist when referring to the foreign-accented Hermann, and manipulative in how they used a woman’s crying to try to sway Hermann. This just goes to show the sort of issue with these sorts of systems. People wanting to go home and resume their lives could mean death for another. Admittedly, instead of it taking many days for the jury to resolve, it could have been much faster if everyone had the conversation they ultimately had at the end.

The pacing is extremely awkward, such as when Hermann waits to share important information or when there’s lots of setup for something that doesn’t matter just so we can have a bit more context or suspense. The movie is very blatant about often having nothing to say, with filler instead of plot progression. Hermann will be asked by the jury to provide evidence for his opinion, only for him to give non-answers. Some of this seems to come down to possibly having to fill a time quota or not knowing how to make a sound film. Note that 1929 was the second year to have all-talking pictures. In universe, Hermann comes off as really dumb for this. He does have many other negative traits, as well. A more minor example is when he’s so hurt by his love interest not giving him attention that he tries to distract her from what she’s focused on. More consequentially, that interest is his underage step daughter. Maybe that was okay at the time, but you at least can’t deny that him ever making a pass at her would be very manipulative inherently. There’s a point where he may have kissed her when unconscious, though it’s not really clear if she was. In a scene of him at a Chinese restaurant, he and the others with him are belittling and racist to Chinese people.

SPOILERS

Buddy, the man being accused of the murder, is a little funny in how one note and also idiotic he is. He’s a bit hot tempered and tries to attack someone in front of the jury for “lying” about him, which could not possibly have turned out well. Despite being about a murder, the tone is a bit light, with a musical number and some comedy, with that underage step daughter eventually getting with another man… then we find out that other man murdered her. That particular scene is about the most memorable and jarring one here for how suddenly pitch black it gets. This is spoiled by Brown delivering the reveal of this like it’s being told for dramatic effect instead of as just something he experienced. A real person wouldn’t include the theatrical pauses and other flourishes. For no apparent reason, Hermann continues to hold off important information until it’s dramatically convenient. The big twist comes when he ultimately confesses to being the killer himself. The scene features some nice angst on Brown’s face, though every line and motion from the cast feels staged. While it’s understandable that he wouldn’t want to confess until it’s his only choice, there’s not much buildup or tension for the reveal, so it feels like something that could have just been mentioned earlier. Wouldn’t Hermann have understood that his story wouldn’t sway anyone without that part at the end?

The jury suddenly turns over to Hermann’s side and hard defends him after he confesses, which breaks from how they were before. You’d think they would still be mad at him for taking up so much time, but they act like he’s a swell guy now. “Oh, well now that we know you murdered someone…” It’s like they’re all so proud of him for his vigilante justice. Their bold appreciation for Hermann comes across as a parody of media in favor of said vigilantes. Wisely, they don’t seem to act like they’ve been unfair to him, such as by apologizing, showing how selfish people can be. Maybe Hermann doing clown tricks for the others was supposed to be them softening to him, but that doesn’t come across as they go back to being really mean to him right after?

In a movie about seemingly noble people who really have a dark side, it is telling that Hermann, who was portrayed as the most noble, would really be one of the creepiest. He starts laughing at the end of it all and asks the others why they aren’t laughing now that they “know the story about the funny clown”. His face is also particularly frightening. The movie ends with him walking out the court covered in some darkness saddened by the fellow jurors having something to look forward to, while poor Hermann is still fragile, probably unhealed, and primed to do something emotional and regrettable because of all that he’s experienced.

OVERVIEW

Don’t confuse Painted Faces with Twelve Angry Men. As a jury story or a lost love story, it’s a bit weak, but there’s a few tricks and interesting blends of the concepts that makes for a shaky film that can about manage at such a short runtime. The lead character here being less confident and more prone to negative behavior is a fun difference.

The Unholy Three (1925) Review

Lon Chaney in the film

The Unholy Three doesn’t relent with captivating performances and interesting drama. Despite this, there are some issues with both. Lon Chaney is consistently intimidating, but sympathetic as “Professor Echo”, a wonderful name. This is exemplified by how masculine and dominating he looks normally, as opposed to when he’s dressed as and pretending to be an old woman. Chaney really sells it as “Mrs. O’Grady”. If he had played an actual old lady, you could imagine no one knowing it was him. As is common for the time, some of the negatives he does are not forgivable, like how little he respects Mae Busch as Rosie O’Grady. Still, the movie could’ve been a lot worse at getting you to root for a villainous person. Chaney’s low moments are humbling to the character and relatable, with the exception of things like the misogyny. His treatment of some, like Rosie, make him impossible to like or support. Echo is colored in interesting ways where in some regards he’s very moral, being against killing people, but in others he’s not.

Rosie’s goals are a little narrow minded and typical of what you’d expect from a woman in a movie written by and about men. There were plenty of opportunities to show her emotions that weren’t taken, though Busch does serviceably with what she has to work with. Harry Earles as Tweedledee is the other really great performance here. He is someone you love to hate and has this sense of bitter energy, like his appearance contrasts or causes a hateful and selfish person. Even in Harry’s earliest scene, his explosive temperament is on display.

Victor McLaglen as Hercules comes off as disappointing in how he is less distinguished and noticeable than the other members of the “Unholy Three”. A few more moments to shine definitely should’ve been given to him, though this element of his character is used as a strength later in the story. He laments how the flexibility of the others, who both use disguises drastically different to how they really are. That makes it easier to escape situations. He is just a normal person and is at a greater risk. Some of his behavior later could be read as a response to this attitude, though this isn’t delved into directly or anymore. For the most part, Hercules just plays off of the more energetic and interesting Echo and Tweedledee. Matt Moore as Hector McDonald is the weakest prominent character, just being a little nervous and awkward.

Despite being a drama, the movie finds time to let our characters have a little fun. It understands that a lot of stuff here, such as Earles dressing like a baby, is entertaining and we want to see him do things. There’s one point where he grabs onto a necklace and doesn’t want to give it back. It’s funny to think Tweedledee was hoping they’d let him keep it. There’s some fun lines like, “If you tip that boob off to who we are, I’ll lay some lilies under your chin!”

The opening of the film is reminiscent of director Tod Browning’s later work Freaks. It features similarly abled people. Browning’s direction is beautiful in many shots, like when the main trio come together to become “The Unholy Three”. Focus on their shadows shows how nefarious what they’re doing is. It is a little silly they’d name themselves at all, as that makes them seem like comic book villains. That name also overemphasizes how bad they are. “Look at us, we’re sooo against God!”

SPOILERS

Echo stopping Hercules from letting a detective in because Tweedledee is smoking while dressed as a baby is a funny bit. There’s really great suspense when everyone is really nervous about whether the detective will discover the necklace they stole. You do genuinely feel for Hector when Rosie says she doesn’t love him, and later when she says she actually does. Why would Rosie tell the Unholy Three she has a plan for them? Obviously they would try to stop her. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see much of how Rosie feels about being kidnapped and essentially forced to leave her boyfriend. She takes it all lighter than you’d think.

Echo giving his voice to Hector in the courtroom is pretty silly, but such a well filmed and interesting idea as to be an enjoyable sequence and not sink the movie’s engagement. Hercules and Tweedledee’s fates are far too predictable. They turn on each other, then get killed for being so evil. Boring! It’s a shame this wasn’t tied to Hercules’ resentment at not having a disguise. It is good that he strangles Tweedledee to death. He utilizes his two main attributes, lacking the morals of Echo and the obvious brute strength over Tweedledee. The most interesting part of this scene, though not for the right reason, is Hercules’ ridiculous and comical facial expression. Busch’s face watching this is even more over the top and seems destined to be featured in a gif. Outside of this scene, we get Echo’s look of shame, sadness, and contentment around the end. They are strong highlights here, letting you read so much of the character off of Chaney’s face. The music and cinematic lighting make for a powerful climax in the courtroom.

Echo basically did whatever he could to stop Rosie from being with Hector, being willing to ruin Hector’s life, then we’re supposed to feel sorry for Echo when Rosie leaves him? Why would Rosie have any fondness for Echo? At the end, she seems really happy with him and a little content with potentially spending her life with him, though the reason Hector got arrested in the first place was because of Echo. She should hate him. If the movie wanted him to be likable, why not have him be unknowing of Hector getting framed, then against the plan when he finds out? If they wanted to keep Echo gray, why not have it so he’s very reluctant to this idea being proposed by his accomplices, but he’s threatened by them in some way, so he decides to go with this instead of taking personal risk?

OVERVIEW

This movie would make more sense in sound, so you could better appreciate things like the ventriloquism. Appropriately, this movie was remade in sound and is Lon Chaney’s only talkie. The Unholy Three successfully balances many tones, from comedy to drama to tragedy. The ending wraps this all up nicely and emphasizes the whole flick as a powerful and moving experience, despite some issues. “That’s all there is to life, friends… a little laughter… a little tear~”

Mexicali Rose (1929) Review

Mexicali Rose will please some for being a “naughty” role for Barbara Stanwyck, more about getting ahead in life. In some later 30s cinema, such as the Stanwyck film Night Nurse, dishonesty is treated as being done for a good reason, namely to succeed in life. While her character of Rose probably would say she just wants to get by if you asked her, some of her actions are slimy and the actual protagonist wouldn’t say differently.

Sam Hardy as Happy Manning is written and performed without much to define him. He seems to have this eternal good nature that feels fake. You could believe that Hardy wanted a role to make him look good. This gets a little ridiculous when he seems to have no life other than to assist William Janney as Bob Manning. There are a few moments where Happy gets a little aggressive, but little develops from that. Still, Hardy’s performance is a lot better when he can get a little mean. Bob is essentially just a good natured guy that doesn’t need or get any character. It is a little funny as usually the main character’s wife is the overly innocent one, but here it’s his brother.

Especially in the beginning, the movie is painfully slow and uneventful. Perhaps it’s intended for those that like late 20s excess, parties and drinking, but it’s hard to believe it couldn’t really be trimmed down and the story could still get where it’s going? Possibly because of the poor quality print, it all becomes a bit difficult to follow. Around halfway through there’s a nice twist that causes things to improve, but it’s all still relatively too slow and doesn’t come to much. There’s a few intense moments, but they seem like they were intended to give something good for the actors to say and the people to watch, but not for the story itself to prosper.

Stanwyck snags a few memorable moments. “Gee, I could go to the devil in your arms.” is a great line of hers. Rose looks so beautiful and seductive when she drapes herself in her marvelous outfit over a dresser. There’s a great scene around the end where Happy stands up firm and Rose lies back in a chair. Both project power to the other, unwilling to compromise to what the other wants. Based on what we know of these characters, they have seemingly gotten their way in life a lot, so it makes sense and makes for great acting moments to have them be so unwavering and fiery at each other.

SPOILERS

“I don’t need your money.” “Then give it to the starving Armenians.” Later there’s, “Oh forget it, I’ve been thrown out of better places than this.” Stanwyck does a great job of making her character feel like she’s hustled a lot of people and is used to everything that can happen, good and bad. She gets both sharp lines and actions that work as fun moments, while also showing her run through the routine, essentially of trying to manipulate people into giving her a break.

At one point, she throws money she’s handed on the ground and storms out. Later, she walks back in to collect the money, with the person she was talking to gone and another still there. She has no shame or self consciousness in what she’s doing. She earlier wanted to project power and not needing money and now that things have settled, there’s no reason not to get it. She also must not care about people seeing her, as long as they can’t negatively affect her.

Happy’s depressed face when he finds out Bob married Rose is great. Bob lets Happy kiss Rose. Was this normal at the time? One of the most interesting plot points is when Happy is unsure if Rose is telling the truth when she says she loves Bob. This would’ve been stronger if we had seen more scenes earlier of Happy and Rose married, so we could understand his perspective, and also have Rose not betray herself so soon. Afterwards, she’s simply known to be untrustworthy and Happy has to try to control her. His attempts to control her are another moment where the movie has the potential to get really interesting, but of course it goes nowhere. A missed opportunity would be to see Happy try to control Rose more and harder than he does. Maybe he gets in a toxic relationship with her, in an attempt to get her to pretend to be good for Bob?

Rose’s apparent suicide was seemingly supposed to be commentary of something, but what is anyone’s guess. There is a slight suggestion she isn’t dead, which does manage to create intrigue. “Was Rose so committed to keep hustling she faked her death?” If she decided to take herself out actually, that’s a little too silly, as if the movie didn’t want an antagonist to get away.

OVERVIEW

Likely the only thing to draw people to this movie is Barbara Stanwyck. She doesn’t betray that, turning in a decent, but not exceptional performance of a “bad girl”. She’s fun. Her scenes with Sam Hardy are the only real bright spots here. This sixty minute flick could’ve been edited down to thirty minutes, or made a feature again if you add in more development of ideas. Sadly, the best concepts here are way too underexplored.

The Locked Door (1929) Review

Stanny in the movie

The Locked Door fortunately has a little more to it than just being Barbara Stanwyck’s first starring role. Stanwyck as Ann Carter is very compelling, always being attacked. Her having to do things like keep her dress ripped and a little exposing in front of a bunch of men shows how pointlessly people can make her feel vulnerable. While she is pretty strong as her character, it’s not a role that’d be too hard to mess up. The energies she projects are generally about protecting a certain person from danger. That is something, though it would’ve been nicer if there was more to drive her, just so we can get more flavors for this pie.

Rod LaRocque as Frank Devereaux is a constant ball of slime that seems determined to be hated. He is effectively very creepy. Devereaux often says and does things to essentially gaslight Ann. Based on how he acts, you understand how people can be attracted and interested in him and how he really is a very nefarious person. William “Stage” Boyd as Lawrence Reagan doesn’t do much, but one highlight is his wonderful “I’m so sick of you” attitude towards Devereaux.

With just a few scenes, ZaSu Pitts steals the show. “Mr. Devereaux won’t be back until midnight… Sorry.” Later she says “No message.” as if disappointed on Devereaux’s behalf. We get a nice touch when she wants to involve herself in what’s happening, characterizing her unnamed role as probably often bored. “Let me go up, I ain’t never seen [Redacted, due to spoilers].” When she actually is wanted, she seems to oversell how wanted she is, deviating to things like Devereaux apparently having made a pass at her.

There’s good drama in wondering what will be revealed, if, and how. However, most of that happens around the end. The movie takes way too long to get going, being very slow. Still, it’s good there’s something there if you can wait a little.

Still, the opening half isn’t all bad. The atmosphere is established well with a slow moving shot of a crowd of drunk people at a party. “For you, my favorite weakness.” is a weirdly romantic line. Later there’s, “Blow your brains out and if you still live, you become a waiter.” These movies sometimes act like things like men forcing a kiss on a woman is romantic. Fortunately, this one treats it as really problematic. The character of Helen gets a fun response with, “Well come on, who’s the lucky boy?” “Boy? Say, no beggar Romeo for little Helen. My man’s a man and so romantic!”

SPOILERS

When Ann starts to think Devereaux might be bad news, she develops a subtle discomfort and nervousness on her face. Later, it’s a shame Ann didn’t want to reveal to her husband or Helen how slimy Devereaux is. Devereaux acts like Helen has to uproot her life, or else she doesn’t love him. Ann’s husband Lawrence questions her about the nature of her history with Devereaux. His questions are too specific for someone that doesn’t know what’s going on. Ann seriously says, “You don’t realize it, but you’re behaving like a suspicious boy!”

My friend and I said Ann should rip up the photo of her that Devereaux has. She then does so, then he slyly reveals he has copies. My friend said, “We almost thought we had him.” Ann has a great look of horror and shock on her face as she hears the fight between Devereaux and Lawrence. After the gun goes off, there’s a very stylish and well directed shot that agonizes the audience by slowly revealing first that someone was hit and eventually who. When Lawrence leaves and unknowingly leaves Ann trapped in the dark room, we see some excellent imagery of her running around trying to figure out what to do. Things start to seem hopeless for her, with Stanwyck intensifying the film by crying.

Ann restaging the killing for Pitts’ character is quite clever. The man who runs the hotel tries to convince everyone the situation is a double suicide, even with Ann both alive and clearly not seriously injured. The third act has some other absurdities. The legal officials make a lot of brash decisions and assumptions, often with their voices raised. Seeing as they know there’s a lot of lying, it’s surprising that based on a confession, Ann and her relatives are let go, despite them not knowing the characters aren’t blatantly lying. One of the officials really pushes and yells so hard at a woman that just went through a traumatic experience. One of the other ones threatens her. She’s even made to stay in a room with Devereaux’s apparently dead body. Lawrence has a great look on his face when he sees Ann. Why would Ann give the picture she was hiding to Lawrence? That doesn’t really go well for her. When Ann reveals what happened between her and Devereaux, she sounds so broken and defeated. It’s depressing and you feel for the character.

OVERVIEW

A lot of this is pretty typical, but you get some decent performances and a story that isn’t a five-star filet mignon, but it’s not a roadkill hamburger either. Barbara Stanwyck brings more to it than you might expect from such an early role and cheesy movie, but ZaSu Pitts still walks away with the gold!

Raggedy Rose (1926) Review

Mabel watching me steal this image from Lord Heath

My hopes for Raggedy Rose weren’t high. After seeing all of Mabel Normand’s surviving outings with Charlie Chaplin at Keystone, plus a few other films not with Chaplin, I couldn’t call myself any kind of fan of hers. However, here she brings excellent charm and wit to her performance as the titular “Raggedy Rose”. Here, she isn’t just serviceable, but a sharp presence in her own right. This is topped off with a really fun introduction, where after a shot of fake cats in the dark, she nervously pokes her head up to see what’s going on. When Normand is hit with an object, she has a really funny fall that’s not too over the top and ridiculous, but also not too simple or boring. She later does a really adorable dance. Her worrisomely saying, “Is it a cop?” is another good moment.

Anita Garvin also brings a glorious wickedness to her character. She has a dominating and powerful energy, aided by her tall stature. She is someone you love to hate and also to laugh at. It’s a shame she didn’t appear or have larger roles in more movies. Her outfit that makes her look like a pirate flapper is to die for. James Finlayson also brings lots of charm and class, though he does essentially do the same thing every role. Finlayson’s character is amusingly called a “crape-hanger”. Rose is later called “plumb goofy”.

The directing is surprisingly good. When we’re introduced to Rose’s job, we get a great moving shot of the scenery, with a mountain of objects and then Rose sorting through them. Rose seeing a nice dress and imagining herself dancing in it is a really stylistically pretty moment that does create real somber for our lead. There’s many inventive jokes and moments that again add to how poor off Rose is, while still bringing some fun and actual laughs. You understand that Rose is desperately in poverty while still being able to enjoy this as a light comedy. Normand herself is probably the most responsible for this success.

SPOILERS

Rose losing the coin she found is not only a funny scene, but it shows how often things don’t go her way, even because of her own mistakes. While the social critique may not be intended, there is a poignancy to Rose being jealous of people that go to the hospital, as they get free food and shelter. She then tries to fake an injury. If the movie wanted to be more satirical, she’d have actually injured herself to go to the hospital. Arguably she does do that, but it seems more likely that when she jumped in front of cars, she was hoping they’d stop, and she’d promptly simply pretend to be injured. What she did was of course very risky.

Rose being knocked out of the ambulance is quite funny. It’s also a big laugh when the woman in the car Rose jumped in front of hit her, which led others to believe that Rose was in the wrecked car, with her promptly being sent to the hospital. A gold digging character says, “I know all about these cases – I’ve been struck by several cars.” It makes no sense the doctor would let this woman claiming to be a professional treat a patient with no demonstrated qualifications.

Anita Garvin and Mabel Normand’s fight is hilariously absurd. In reference to the fight, Finlayson gets a great line with, “The big goofs are eating up the little goof!” Later there’s, “I threw that little ragmuffin out the window – She was a fraud!” The shot of Garvin and later her character’s mother fallen into the car is very funny, especially as it drives off, with no one seeming to care. Even more amusing is when we see the car go onto a busy road with the legs shaking out.

Finlayson and Normand have a hilarious fight scene where both bring a manic and clownish energy to their roles. This does a good job of erasing the awkwardness that’d come from watching a man chase and fight a woman. Garvin’s character and her mother also definitely were meaner with Normand than Finlayson is. The plot resolving, with Rose getting with a wealthy man, is so sudden and unexpected that it makes you wonder if there’s missing footage, as we get very little reason for them to want to be together.

OVERVIEW

Maybe it’s the fact that Raggedy Rose is a Hal Roach vehicle and not a Keystone one, but Mabel really shines here, helped out by the other cast members and a sharp script. I perhaps shall now go see if I can hunt down more of her films!

Laurel and Hardy’s Other 1929 Sound Films // #32, 33, 34, 36

Men O’ War

In this short and others, Hardy and especially Laurel don’t talk much. They probably were not used to sound. The short itself is quite quaint. While still once more a victim of predictability, this installment suffers less than Berth Marks because of the few good jokes being very good, but plot convenience and characters acting illogically still makes this tedious. So much time is dedicated to setting up a scene, like seeing everyone situate themselves on the boat instead of skipping over the time. There’s also some strange pauses, with everyone just looking around.

There’s a scene where Laurel and Hardy fight in a Three Stooges-esque manner. At one point, a random bicyclist falls in the water, which seems like it may not have been intentionally shown. That’s still a highlight.

This is another Roach film that is spiritually a Keystone film. The characters seem driven so strongly to achieve a pointless goal, like winning a girl’s affection, that they’ll fight anyone that gets in their way. Unrelated people, who might be accidentally hit, become vengeful and willing to assault the person that accidentally inconvenienced them. Amusingly, there’s also a policeman, which is not unlike Keystone. This short is especially similar to Keystone and early Roach’s “improvised films”. The gags are simple, specifically in the way one might if forced to think and act in a hurry. The dialogue has a casualness, like someone is trying to find something to add in.

SPOILERS

The funniest moment was when Laurel drank the soda and Hardy drops his character voice to say, “Do you know what you’ve done? What made you do it?” He’s got a sad soulfulness to when he merely asks, “Why?” He even looks into the camera. Laurel is a real jerk for drinking all of the soda. Arguably Hardy was a jerk for not offering to split it in the first place. It’s pretty funny to see Hardy get back at him by making him pay, only for Laurel to win some money. It’s good that the duo’s dates seem to like them despite how obviously awkward they are, making mistakes in front of them.

An example of the poor pacing is when during an exchange in blows, each involved person takes a few seconds before striking. How did none anticipate retaliation and try to duck? The man who owns the boats, played by James Finlayson, seems to react to the fighting at awkward intervals, with a lot of beats of silent nothing. The noise that’s on the boat isn’t heard in the cuts to Finlayson. We do get some funny stuff. “I did not [throw that cushion]!” “Well somebody did.” At another point, Stan breaks from his quiet demeanor to throw water at someone.

Perfect Day

Laurel and Hardy initially seem to be getting along and working together well, before things naturally and quickly fall apart between them. Hardy is annoyed that Laurel stepped in the sandwiches, even though he pushed him into them. After the sandwiches fell on the ground and were picked up, they looked basically perfect.

The pacing here is even weaker than last short. Everyone moves so slowly, with what you would expect just happening. “The wheel goes flat, everyone gets out, Edgar Kennedy hurts his foot, Stan messes up what just went wrong.” So much time is dedicated to things like Stan trying to figure out how to remove a car tire. It’s all so inane. It gets really annoying how often Edgar Kennedy gets his foot hurt. The extended “goodbye” sequences especially go on forever and aren’t even really attempting to be funny. It’s just people saying goodbye.

SPOILERS

Amusingly, When the tire goes flat, horror music starts playing. It’s pretty obvious that the wheel will fall on Edgar’s foot. When this happens, there’s no subversion. When the neighbor breaks the car window after his window is accidentally broken, you’d think he would be worried about our leads breaking something else, which they do. No one also really tries to stop an assault before it happens, as if this is more about revenge than protecting anything.

Laurel does what he basically does every short, where he acts more dominating and does something aggressive for basically just a moment. Here he throws a brick at the neighbor’s window on purpose and at one point hits Hardy. Once again, subversion would help here. How hard is it for the leads to just put their jackets on? Also, the gag of them tangled in the jackets was basically done in Berth Marks.

A highlight is when one of the women tells Hardy to “step on it” and he turns and gives her a look, because obviously he’s doing what he can. It’s also funny when he loses his cool and yells, clearly sick of all the problems happening. A lot of people with dads can relate to this sort of thing. When Hardy strangles Laurel later, the latter replies, “Oh, me apple.”

They Go Boom!

The “Smile all the While” sign is pretty good. Once again, the short takes forever to get rolling. It’s like everyone’s trying to kill time. Laurel is such a jerk, doing things like hogging the blanket. There’s also bits like the “Why don’t you stop sneezing?” line. At one point, Laurel was seemingly going to throw a lit match on the ground. Why does Hardy expect Laurel to do so much? Especially when Laurel is always messing stuff up.

Things get funnier when the scale gets bigger and the humor more absurd. Charlie Hall is really great in his minor role, expanding the scope and adding another element to play off of. The mattress scene is also quite good, as it’s more strange and out there than most of this short, which is a little too dull for its own good.

SPOILERS

Hardy’s silence when his clothes were ripped is pretty funny. It’s amusing when after a little trouble happens to Laurel, he’s unexpectedly hit by the door. There’s afterwards another great dough-eyed facial expression on Laurel’s face, with Hardy saying, “Don’t stand there looking so dumb.” Also good is how it’s revealed that the bed is a rapidly deflating air mattress. Later, Charlie Hall walks in only to be covered in first pillow feathers, then the pillow. Hall does a great job of stealing scenes. The title ultimately makes for a funny reference to the end of the film.

The Hoose-Gow

Our introduction to the two leads is solid, with them being in a silly situation. However, how did they even get pinned together like that? Early on, Laurel talks back to and hits Hardy. He comes off more brash than normally, which is quite amusing. It’s fun to think being in prison has hardened him up and/or he’s sick of Hardy’s ways, despite him only having been there for a few minutes at most.

It’d be interesting to see this film combined with Pardon Us.

SPOILERS

The boys escape prison so easily it’s funny, topped off by Laurel knocking on the gate door. When Laurel won’t stop causing issues as Hardy tries to knock down the tree, he seems genuinely annoyed pushing him away, like he’s sincerely fed up. There’s a particularly well directed moment when the camera moves up the tree Hardy is chopping down.

It’s hard to believe no one noticed what Laurel and Hardy were doing to James Finlayson’s car. Finlayson’s face when he sees the rice come out of the car is quite funny. When Laurel thinks he’s going to get in trouble, he amusingly starts to whimper before smiling, like subtle emotions are coming out that he’s trying to hide. The brutishness and childishness of the guard kicking Laurel in the rice is so clownish that it’s a really hilarious moment.

The climax is a better version of the Three Stooges trope of everyone getting in a food fight. Here, everything goes a lot slower and it’s less expected that the polite people are going to turn. The biggest advantage is how long we focus on the reactions and hits that look more real. You get to soak things in better than if there were a lot of quick cuts. The actors also take this more seriously than real people would, which adds to the charm. Another well directed element is how we get some shots of Hardy reacting, which end with him being hit in the face. The look of the leads at the end, as well as their body language, make for a pretty good last few seconds.

OVERVIEW

Hardy isn’t really much smarter than Laurel, just better spoken. He usually does something really dumb, and often something dumb in a similar way as Laurel, like carelessly throwing something. He’s usually more toxic than Laurel, being quick to turn violent. Then again, practically everybody is toxic in Hal Roach films. Their violence often seems done for them to “prove themselves” as not weak. never blaming themselves or finding a more peaceful solution. When Laurel messes up, Hardy must get short tempered with him, even when it was actually Hardy’s fault, like when he told Laurel to get in the car with the jack still holding the tire. Hardy never recognizes his own faults and very poorly tries to fix an issue. Sometimes Hardy is directly the cause of the issue.

What’s so irritating about Laurel in the weaker installments is that his behavior is so unrealistic. He’s just doing the dumbest thing possible and it gets really irritating, like when he won’t stop touching things when told to stop or his clothes get tangled with Hardy’s. There always seems to be a moment where Stan gets teary-eyed, not coming at a dramatic moment or climax, but almost at random. The question enters the mind, “If these guys are always fighting, why do they associate with each other?” Some moments of them doing well together might justify this, but overall it all seems a little too far fetched.

These sorts of comedies are best when more grounded in realism or less grounded in realism. Typically, these weaker outings have moments of realism, with some odd moments sprinkled in. The duo’s first sound short, Unaccustomed As We Are, is great for essentially covering the craziest thing that could happen in the given situation, but still be realistic based on what we know about these characters. Ranking every 1929 sound short of the duo would go from weakest to best: Perfect Day, Berth Marks, Men O’War, They Go Boom!, The Hoose-Gow… those five are all bad or okay. Unaccustomed As We Are is the clear and by far the standout. It’s so good it makes this whole bunch just okay if we were to average everything out.

Berth Marks (1929) Review // Laurel And Hardy #31

A frame from the film

Berth Marks has a compelling beginning. The opening title card includes a decent joke that also describes Stan’s intelligence. The clownish music is really creepy and makes everything uncomfortable. There’s a rough and dirty visual look to the film, especially at the start where Hardy is looking for Laurel in a crowded area. Some shots, like when the boys get off the train, are particularly stylish and cinematic. While the scrappiness of these early sound films might seem unprofessional, they do bring with them a certain special aesthetic of “doing it all ourselves” that is endearing. It also makes everything come off as surreal and abnormal, which helps how slow everything can be.

This one has some delightfully weird moments, like how a cello in a case is obviously sometimes fake, with it condensing too much when pressed against surfaces. Overall, the jokes aren’t very sharp. It’s too repetitive with just, “Hardy tells Laurel to do something, he messes that up” over and over. Very little runtime is dedicated to anything other than Laurel making mistakes. Still, we get things like Hardy throwing their sheet music on the ground or pushing Laurel on someone’s hat. These exemplify that Hardy’s not as smart as he thinks he is.

Something that makes this film so infuriating is how much time is dedicated to Laurel and Hardy trying to get in their beds and sleep. This takes so long and it’s just things like, “They fall out the bed”, “Their clothes get tangled”. This sort of thing would only work if what was done was unexpected. Some nice moments are how Hardy sometimes seems genuinely annoyed, like he is sick of doing this bit so much! At one point, he asks Laurel to hold his hand and he sounds sincerely tired. That gives another depth that maybe even the actors are hating this! A lot of the other jokes are similarly as slow. This slower pace would work a lot better in a longer movie, though there are obviously very few ideas here, so it’s very fortunate it’s not longer. The lack of much setup or explanation for some ideas also suggests this was written in a hurry.

SPOILERS

Strangely, someone that works on the train throws out our leads’ shoes due to how battered they look. It doesn’t really make sense why he would. Also, this never comes back into relevance. There’s no scene of them looking for them. Similarly as confusing is ‘How would Laurel and Hardy not know how close they were to their destination?’ They tried to go to sleep right before they got to their destination. Imagine a scene where Laurel goes to get their shoes and right before he would learn they were absent, Hardy says they’re in too much of a hurry to worry about that.

OVERVIEW

To summarize this film in a question, “How hard is it to get ready for bed?” You keep hoping the camera will cut to something else more interesting. Despite how dull this sequence is, some of the other material, even on the train, is a lot better. Everyone fighting on the train is weird in a dreamlike way. It’s not sensible of them to do that, but it’s as if some aura, possibly created by Laurel and Hardy, is making them want to do that. Focusing on some weird ethereal curse is way better than what we get, especially considering how bland a lot of the concepts are, such as the cello merely getting stuck somewhere. Especially when compared to the first sound outing, Unaccustomed As We Are, Berth Marks really falters other than a few all too brief highlights. To close on a positive, this film does look a little better than the aforementioned episode.

Kid Boots (1926) Review

Eddie Cantor and Clara Bow

Something to be envied about two-reelers is the lack of expectation for things like romance and drama. Both of those are all well and good, but it’s perfectly clear that for many films, including Kid Boots, they’re afterthoughts. The main victims of this are Clara Bow and Billie Dove. They both do extremely little and you just want to yell at the screen for them to get more action, especially because Bow gets more spotlight at the end and proceeds to make you wish she had more to do. Still, the movie isn’t hurt by being mostly about Eddie Cantor as “Kid Boots” and other characters beyond Bow’s.

This movie has a lot of fun with silly and quaint ideas. Do you like light comedy about golfing? You get that here. Do you like massage therapy comedy? Work life comedy? Many of these ideas are interchangeable for others. Thus, a lot feels inconsequential, but it’s nice seeing the characters get taken into this or that adventure. Eddie Cantor evokes Buster Keaton. He dresses, looks, and acts similar. Some of his gags also are reminiscent of Keaton’s characterization as a “lovable failure”. One example is when Kid Boots looks in a mirror right as it’s smashed. There’s also the quality line, “Excuse me – I didn’t know you were the lady I was kicking!”

Clara Bow’s character of “Clara” is more or less a straight man character. She does a lot of reacting to the insanity. This is a little surreal when compared to movies where she’s the protagonist and more of an active agent, but she does fine in this role. She also uses the wonderful insult of “you big egg”. “Tea-time two-timer” is another great line. Other highlights are the cute moment of Kid Boots seeing Clara in a mirror; the line, “Only half of [Redacted due to spoilers]’ party for two showed up.”; and the excellent and also Keaton-esque final joke.

SPOILERS

Kid Boots is pretty absurdly bad at being a tailor. Can’t he just think a few seconds, so as to not do something that will just annoy the customer? Also, even if it’s reasonable to not presume that customer would want to kill you as revenge, they’d probably come back angry at least. This is a difference between him and Buster. Even if Buster did a bad job, he could at least effectively fake it. Kid Boots sewing Clara’s outfit up is a pretty solid way to quickly establish a relationship, considering the limitations. While these movies are always in way too much of a hurry to get characters in love, this is at least very cute and lighthearted in the same way as the rest of the movie, especially because our lead does indeed make a mistake here, which reflects how prone to those he is.

The scene of Kid Boots pretending to have a date with a woman, when really it’s just his arm, is a wonderful comedy sequence that is really made by how well Eddie Cantor sells it, having great timing and fluidity. You’d think one might not be so good at having such control over their arm, to make it seem like a different person. Clara’s reactions and finally when a woman sits down right at the end when Kid Boots reveals his trick are great add-ons to make this a highlight.

When Kid Boots thinks he might get killed by someone, why doesn’t he run away early on? What’s stopping him? The comedy scene that plays out is a little too expected, with the common trope of the lead being able to avoid any serious harm magically, though there are nice touches. One favorite is when Kid Boots’ leg is put over his head casually to prevent him from leaving. It’s a little too silly when the big bad sits in the electric chair, giving Kid Boots the chance to use it.

The ending is pretty exciting, though it’s all very ridiculous in a way that is easy to enjoy, but hard to take seriously. Kid Boots and Clara had to cover a lot of ground in only thirty minutes and they got sidetracked pretty bad along the way. It’s hard to believe they managed to get there in so little time. There’s a lot to love about it otherwise, how it brings Clara and Kid Boots together, the energy, and things like our hero swinging down the cliff attached to his horse. Also ridiculous are the rules of the court. Everyone has to constantly jump through nonsensical hoops. These bits of absurdism work when taken as intentionally stupid, which the film mostly commits to being. They might’ve been intended to be more serious considering the romance between Kid Boots and Clara is resolved in a straight way, but even with that the movie still works at being a crazy comedy. The romance is another well-handled novelty to emphasize the other elements at play.

OVERVIEW

It’s always fun seeing characters in these movies, particularly the women, try on various snazzy costumes. Clara Bow is no stranger to these outfits, my favorite being the plane garb. Eddie Cantor has no trouble carrying the film himself, though everyone else is enjoyable enough to elevate Kid Boots, making it a pretty fun watch.

Stepping Out (1929) Review

Stepping Out gets started on an interesting foot. It’s weird that Charley would talk so brazenly about preferring being single and Thelma, his wife, would seem so fine with it. With the latter, you can speculate that Thelma’s plan all along was for Charley to ultimately hate the party lifestyle. Thelma’s face in response to Charley first bringing up how he preferred single life is very funny. It’s like she can’t help but steal scenes. That being said, Charley Chase is not to go unappreciated, take his silly dance near the beginning for example. Throughout he gets some good lines like, “Well, baby don’t play with those crackers like that!” Then there’s, “You’ve got your hand in my soup.” “Oh, that’s all right. It’s ain’t hot.” He disposes of those crackers by dumping them on the crowded floor, with this never being acknowledged. Charley calls the ballroom a “palace of jazz” and Anita Garvin a “Big Bohunk”.

It’s a little weird to see Thelma Todd play a “nice girl”, but she is fine at it. She gets a chance to steal a scene with a little meanness at one point, and that is satisfying for a Toddy fan. Charley Chase, in what little I’ve seen of him, continues to be a satisfying goofball that can’t help but be frightened by trouble. He could certainly be doing more. Todd and Anita Garvin are better at being memorable, with Garvin being this overly cutesy and inconsiderate party girl. Anita has a gloriously devilish look on her face in her first scene, introducing her and her main trait well. Despite coming from silent films, Garvin doesn’t put too much in her physicality, unlike Chase, and thus probably can only be really appreciated here if the vocal disc turns up.

The concept of this short is pretty simple. That’s fine if it’s filled with great jokes, but they’re just “alright” here. To cover miscellaneous topics… between a cut, Charley went from having messy hair to perfectly smooth hair. Anita also goes from one outfit to another. You can imagine there was a passage of time, but that wasn’t stated or suggested. Also, it’s weird that a club wouldn’t let men go in alone. Wouldn’t they want single men to come in to meet women, and thus pay for things?

SPOILERS

It’s amusing how everyone in the ballroom threw their flasks brazenly on the floor. You’d think they’d be more subtle. As much can be said for how everyone was willing to just knock Charley over, playing into Hal Roach’s common theme of people not caring about people outside themselves. Mickey, Anita’s jealous boyfriend, never appears or has relevance. This makes for a nice anti-joke. At one point, a random person is believed to be Mickey for a second before things are cleared up and then that person never plays any role in the film. This element works, as it’s so underplayed. Most of Anita’s food never shows up. In fact, what is logically most likely is by the time Charley was arrested, the food wasn’t done, and thus he didn’t have to pay for it.

While of course a very common theme with old comedy shorts is social politeness being followed to an absurd degree, it’s hard to not let the realist wonder why Charley wouldn’t leave Anita, considering how rude she’s being. This can also be used to explain why Charley doesn’t leave Anita as soon as he finds out she has a boyfriend who is insanely jealous of other men being with his girl. That being said, this is sometimes broken. You’d think a polite person wouldn’t hit someone, especially in the scene where Charley’s date was bothering someone, so he hit Charley in response (I was wondering why he seemed weirdly forgiving), even though Charley didn’t do anything wrong. The rationale may be, “It’s okay to hit someone as retaliation, but if it’s a woman hurting you, hit her male associate, as hitting a woman is wrong.” That of course includes some pretty absurd logic.

Charley walking up to a random table is quite amusing and could be seen as a highlight, though the scene suffers as available, due to the sound being lost. Based on Charley Chase’s body language, he probably really earned a few laughs that are now harder to appreciate. The same can be said for when he sings. This was probably supposed to be a big moment. There’s also some more fun moments that would be better appreciated with sound, like the banjoist playing as Charley destroys instruments and makes a fool of himself or when everyone claps in response to him saying he’s going home. As soon as Charley destroyed his first instrument, why wouldn’t Edgar Kennedy immediately try to stop him?

OVERVIEW

While the plot is predictable, it is fun to see all that happens to poor Charley. This short would probably be better with sound, but it works well enough without. The final joke is hilarious. You can imagine a funny noise had accompanied the gag.

Many Scrappy Returns (1927) Review

“Warning! Don’t interfere when a man and his wife are fighting – Married people have their rights.”

Many Scrappy Returns seems trapped between being a “realistic” comedy and an absurdist one. It concerns the conflict of a few couples and how they interact. That can result in extremely clever writing and acting or extremely okay writing and acting. This short seems to hit the middle. Charley Chase is a likable enough protagonist, turning in a little charm and most importantly humor. One highlight is when he puts plates in his suit to protect them. Anita Garvin plays the wife of Charley’s brother. She brings a vibrant spunk to her role and really commits to her character. Her run is also way too cute to not be lovable and funny. One of the best moments, which is also amusing out of her character for her, is when she says, “-Did the mean nasty old pole run into mama’s darling little dickey bird–”. The other actors don’t make strong impressions, especially Eugenia Gilbert, who is too often just a distressed woman to be worried about.

Some of the funniest moments come from wordy and humorous intertitles. “The Suspicious Wife – She wouldn’t trust any man further than the Statue of Liberty can jump.” not only tells you what you need to know about Gilbert’s character, but carries its own laughs. The same can be said for, “Brother Wellington and his wife fought each other four years as amateurs – and then turned professionals.” “Porker” and “Applesauce” are two insults that need to be brought back to the modern day. There’s also a few sharp jokes, such as the one with a $50 vase. The story gains some momentum throughout, only to drop it by getting too convoluted and predictable. There’s notably less of the actors giving a performance in the second half as much as it’s this bland story playing out. There’s even a scene of Charley talking to his maid, without any comedy to liven it up.

SPOILERS

There’s a fun twist on social situation comedies where Charley won’t stop his brother from destroying his stuff, probably for the sake of politeness, but he will pretend to start his own fight and actually destroy his things, of course paying him. Why did Charley really chase his wife with a knife in the fake argument? The moments of the story that are best have a sense of unexpectedness and logic, a favorite moment being when Charley’s wife is situationally prompted to mention her accusations of cheating, to which the maid walks in and thinks she knows of her affair. All that was set up, given a chance for us to forget, then now paid off.

The story at points does not make sense. When this is excusable is when the nonsense element is made so funny that it works as a joke in its own right, but that is not the case here. A man threatens to kill Charley for hugging his wife, then says he’ll only kill him if he is with her again. Based on his nature, why wouldn’t he just kill him after the first offense? Later, he is pretty cordial with Charley, who he still thinks was trying something with his wife. Separately, the man’s wife goes in Charley’s house (without either man knowing). Despite the man being invited in to talk during the day, he’s now getting ready to sleep at Charley’s house. The two almost act as friends. Due to the low quality of the print, I thought this might’ve been a new character whose introduction wasn’t included, possibly due to missing scenes. Later, the man’s wife finds her in Charley’s bed. Even though it’s later proven that Charley didn’t initially make a pass at her, shouldn’t he still think that he was trying to do something with her in his bed?

The happy ending was so stupid that it was funny. It was satisfying as a little time and love was actually given to getting us into Charley and rooting for him. If it was meant to be taken seriously, oh boy!

OVERVIEW

Considering the incongruent story structure, it was a little hard to get into this one and follow it. Still, there are many good jokes, especially near the beginning and it’s worth it for a few laughs. See for Anita’s run.