Film & Shorts Discussions > Random Comedy Reviews
Cold Turkey (1940) - Harry Langdon
Paul Pain:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032345/
As I promised, this one is being reviewed out of order due to its themes. Harry took a break from Columbia shorts in 1935, returned in 1937, left in 1938, filmed this one in 1940, and left again until 1942.
COLD TURKEY is entirely unique in certain regards, but it is unquestionably a Columbia short. This short has a strange appeal to it, even if it's a reworking of a 1933 Joseph Cawthorn film also directed by Del Lord.
In the opening office scene, we get much comedy from Eddie Laughton and Vernon Dent. The former is a loud-mouthed party animal, and the latter is the short tempered boss. This leads eventually to a flat, Columbia stock gag: comedian getting extremely drunk from a single glass of champagne. This gag always sucks regardless of the comedian, but it's short-lived here.
The turkey here has a personality all of its own, and it had the potential to have as much as the piano in Laurel & Hardy's THE MUSIC BOX. We get an accidental kidnapping, a turkey on an awning, and a beautiful scene of Harry strangling Bud Jamison. In the end, we never get an explanation while Harry gets home so late though we can guess, and much opportunity is missed.
The scene in the house is wild and disjointed (my guess is that there is a bit missing here) that leads to turkeys flying, kitchen disaster, rolling pins flying, and a bizarre chase scene. The whole maniac bit at the end is just ridiculous and hard to enjoy in the slightest.
Monty Collins is fine here as the landlord and more or less is the star of the last 3rd as he is the only funny character at that point. Harry just seems uninterested in this film and maybe was desperate for work at this time. It's a strong first third, OK middle third, and weak closing third.
"Don't eat that dressing; we're going to stuff you with that tomorrow."
7/10 [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke]
Paul Pain:
Paul Pain sees no reason to post the next review when this one as yet has no responses. I hope this one will get some reaction over the Turkey Days.
metaldams:
--- Quote from: Paul Pain on November 24, 2020, 08:23:08 PM ---Paul Pain sees no reason to post the next review when this one as yet has no responses. I hope this one will get some reaction over the Turkey Days.
--- End quote ---
Was planning my response on turkey day. I got a few reviews with no responses - it happens. But I definitely plan to get to this one. I just got a 20 film blu ray Hammer films set which is taking up my viewing time more than normal.
metaldams:
This one I have seen before and this might be Langdon’s best Columbia effort. I say might because there’s a decent amount I still haven’t seen, but COLD TURKEY is a tough one to beat. It’s a 1940 Columbia short directed by Del Lord, so that right there is a good omen and this short lives up to it.
The best Langdon is an out of touch and confused Langdon. Everybody else in the office are partying drinkers but Langdon is a teetotaler who through circumstance, has to unwittingly drink alcohol with his boss around (Vernon Dent) anyway. Langdon thinks he’s carrying a turkey on a little wagon but instead, through circumstance, ends up carrying a little kid before encountering the enraged mother. Harry’s landlord thinks, through circumstance, that Harry is the maniac when Harry thinks it’s someone else he’s referring to. A confused Langdon is always the best Langdon, one step away from the neurotypical world. Even just the little bits of throwaway business like Langdon getting caught with himself in a mirror is pleasantly odd and a nice Langdon touch.
A 1940 Columbia, so there’s a lot of s energy, extras, a good pace and budget and never gets boring for one moment. A definite classic and I highly recommend you all searching this one on YouTube. Hopefully someday Sony will give this and the other Langdon’s a restoration and proper release.
Umbrella Sam:
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
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