Sorry, I know I’m behind on reviews, but I’m going to try and catch up.
Harry Langdon’s style of comedy, though somewhat similar to Stan Laurel’s, was still very unique compared to most comedians. In some cases, this can be a negative, especially when he focuses too much time on unfunny situations, but in COLD TURKEY, this is definitely a positive. Langdon does pretty much the exact opposite of what you’d expect in a typical Columbia short, or even a comedy short in general. For example, we’re all used to seeing comedians getting chased by cops in these shorts, but the twist here is that Langdon doesn’t really know he’s being chased for a lot of it. Similarly, even though we do get drunk Langdon, it’s not over-exaggerated like in most cases; he just gets more confused, and, yeah, that actually does work quite well. Heck, even Monte Collins as the landlord is pretty unique. We usually think of the landlord as the big villain who’s going to throw out the hero, but here, Collins gets really frightened after mistakenly thinking that Langdon and his wife are plotting to kill him. Judging from other examples I’ve seen, it really seems like Langdon works especially well when he’s working off of Collins or Vernon Dent. Dent of course worked with Langdon in the silent era, but I don’t think Collins did, so this must have just been a lucky pairing. The part with Harry accidentally strangling Bud Jamison is a bit uncomfortable, but it doesn’t last long and that’s really the only negative thing I have to say about the short. Well worth checking out.
9.5 out of 10