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Sue My Lawyer (1938) - Harry Langdon

(1/1)

Paul Pain:


https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030810

We improve drastically to SUE MY LAWYER, where many of Columbia's best all were together in this wild short.  Cy Schindell, Ann Doran, Bud Jamison, Vernon Dent, and more appear in this short.

The plot is simple and sensible enough: Bud needs evidence, and of course Harry screws it up and bungles his way into heroism.  This short foreshadows DIZZY DETECTIVES in multiple ways, but I leave you to spot the similarities.

My only real complaint here is actually Harry.  Harry is fine, but his character is frustratingly stupid in this one.  However, we do get to see some of his trademark behaviors.  Likewise, he so quickly becomes a biased party and hides evidence when he could have sparked a huge fight scene right then and there.  Nevertheless, the ending that results from his bungling is much more satisfactory as we get a huge fight AND Vernon Dent as the judge.

The best moment is when, spoiler alert, Harry says Bud hasn't the evidence and proceeds to produce the evidence himself.  That and the games with Ann Doran on the stairs got the biggest laughs out of me in this short.

9/10 [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke]

HomokHarcos:
Harry is a not-too-bright wannabe lawyer, and the villains, believing his is stupid, want him to help them in their court case. Not exactly a smart decision, but it makes for funny comedy. The part when Ann gets stabbed on the stairs was funny, what I like about the Columbia comedies is that women were on the receiving end of slapstick, which is pretty rare. Harry accidently reveals the evidence, but that actually helps him get the job he wanted.

Umbrella Sam:
I’ve really been gaining much more of an appreciation for Harry Langdon lately, especially his short subject work. He had such a unique style and while it could be problematic, especially when it came to milking unfunny situations, it really does hold up well in a short subject. While I haven’t thought all of his Columbia shorts so far were perfect, I do think that he felt comfortably in character in them. This is the first one where I do start to notice some sort of power struggle. Looking at the credits, I noticed that Jules White was the director, but Harry wrote the story. I bring this up because I think there are noticeable parts that reflect both of their styles. Harry trying to carry Ann Doran up definitely is his type of gag; he was in a similar situation in THE STRONG MAN. However, while he’s doing that, we also have to deal with key and needle gags which are so obviously favored by White. The part with Harry getting Bud Jamison to essentially act as a nutcracker also felt like a Harry Langdon gag, but then there’s also that scene at the beginning where he’s eating the ball of yarn which definitely feels like something White would have favored.

I also noticed that Harry did that one trademark of his where he put a finger up to his mouth. As far as I’m aware, this was the only Columbia short so far where he did that. I note this because I actually feel this is a bad sign. Watching his other Columbia shorts, it seems to me that Harry was evolving his style somewhat. He still could do many of the same gags and even have many of the same personality traits, but it really felt like he was playing down the childish aspect to his character and making him more of a dopey idiot; a funny, dopey idiot, mind you. The fact that the finger thing is in here indicates to me that, in addition to trying to inject his own formulaic style into this short, White may have also been trying too hard to make Langdon recapture his old silent film style rather than continue with his more evolved personality.

Now, I know it does seem like I’ve been pretty critical of this short so far, but truth be told, I actually liked it for the most part. The chases were fun and most of the gags did work. I especially loved when Langdon kept getting his foot stuck in the bucket. I also really liked the Monte Collins gags when he was trying to search the apartment. The only really tedious part was when Harry landed his rocking chair on the cat’s tail. I get they were trying to build up suspense, but we knew what was going to happen; they didn’t need to spend that much time on it. Otherwise, this was a pretty fun short. However, the fact that I am beginning to notice those White trademarks does also seem like a bad sign for the future, considering we’re now getting to the allegedly “mismatched pairings” era for Harry Langdon at Columbia...

9 out of 10

metaldams:
      As Sam mentioned, the carrying the girl on the stairs bit was used by Langdon in THE STRONG MAN.  Actually one of Langdon’s most famous bits.  Here it is edited to Hell and nowhere near as thrilling as the original.  There’s a story that supposedly Frank Capra walked by the set while White was doing his directing of Langdon in this scene and was none too thrilled.

      This was Langdon’s on screen comeback after being away from film for two years and also Jules White second released directed Columbia short after THREE MISSING LINKS.  The short itself does move along at a good pace and even though White is known for his micromanaging directing style, I can’t imagine him telling Langdon what to do as far as the subtle stuff.  Langdon’s herky jerky movements are definitely his own and he uses them a lot of this short - shuffling back and forth in a confused manner and little hand waives and points.  The business with his foot in the bucket is well done.

      We do get the crushed nuts gag from DIZZY DETECTIVES with a more creative punchline - Bud Jamison eventually misses the nut so Langdon has to move it across the table a few times until there’s a hit.  It is fun seeing Cy, Bud and Vernon and yes, Monty Collins too, being a Jules White short.  Love Ann Doran here, really beautiful and energetic.  She’d be more known to comedy fans if she appeared with The Three Stooges more.

      A good short overall.  Yeah, the stair gag kind of stinks to me because I can’t help but compare it to the original, but I enjoyed this short just the same.

metaldams:

--- Quote from: Umbrella Sam on December 30, 2020, 04:40:57 PM ---Looking at the credits, I noticed that Jules White was the director, but Harry wrote the story. I bring this up because I think there are noticeable parts that reflect both of their styles. Harry trying to carry Ann Doran up definitely is his type of gag; he was in a similar situation in THE STRONG MAN. However, while he’s doing that, we also have to deal with key and needle gags which are so obviously favored by White. The part with Harry getting Bud Jamison to essentially act as a nutcracker also felt like a Harry Langdon gag, but then there’s also that scene at the beginning where he’s eating the ball of yarn which definitely feels like something White would have favored.


--- End quote ---

Really good observations.

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