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Tireman, Spare My Tires (1942) - Harry Langdon

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Paul Pain:


https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035444/

TIREMAN, SPARE MY TIRES is a crazy little short that has good points around.  Unlike last week's, this is a real Harry Langdon short, though much screen time is given to co-star Louise Currie (who died in 2013, age 100).  To get it out of the way: the only major issue is the way Harry is stopped by the war-effort reps (one of them is Eddie Laughton in one of his last roles) and his tires are seized and he is told to drive on his rims.  You may have your opinion on the rest, but this is the only real flaw.

Harry is presented differently here: he's clearly middle-aged and, in a fuddy-duddy way, tells the girl he agrees with her father and is taking her home.  She's rebellious and running away from home because she can.  We see a generational clash that builds up to the end of the short.  One must keep in mind that Harry was significantly older than Charley Chase or Buster Keaton and was already approaching 60 years of age at this time.  And who better to be the girl's irate father than Bud Jamison?  Vernon Dent was in this as well, but his scenes were cut.

Basically, once Harry and Louise are in the cabin, it's a farce of them both being fools when it comes to keeping house.  We see a few gags that were done by nearly every Columbia team, particularly the rotating, thumping faucet.  Harry, however, I think is the only one to resolve the issue in the way he did here, using two pans. 

The toxic food prep really had me cracked up, in part because Harry was finally able to make his trademark facial reactions.  I admit that the cabin scenes really cracked me up way more than they should have.  It was a bit unoriginal in places, but Harry and Louise did a fine job with this one,

8/10 [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke]

metaldams:
Had no idea Louise Currie appeared at Columbia.  Sweet!

Umbrella Sam:
Well, it’s definitely better than last week’s short and I agree that aspects of it are more like a real Harry Langdon short, mainly the middle section. There still are a few too many parts that seem too out of place for him; his overreaction to accidentally lighting his finger and the part with the tacks, in particular, felt a bit too out of place. To its credit, though, most of the scenes at the cabin do feel more in character. They’re milked quite a bit and Harry does seem more comfortable there up until the scene with the tacks. I really liked the gag with the floating pan, but I do think that it’s the scene at the dinner table that truly stands out as the highlight of the short. The other kitchen scenes were kind of amusing, but not much more than that. Overall, it’s a decent enough short, but still not of the same quality as COLD TURKEY or I DON’T REMEMBER.

6 out of 10

HomokHarcos:
This is much different from the previous short and feels less like you'd usually expect from Jules White. I thought it was interesting that Louise didn't know how to cook, usually they make men the clueless ones when it comes to cooking. But being from a rich family, I think the implication is supposed to be that they usually hired people to cook for them.

Harry Langdon is noticeably older here, when I saw the YouTube thumbnail I noticed it right away. I think that might be due to Harry Langdon using less makeup than before, like what happened when Laurel and Hardy went to 20th Century Fox.

Paul Pain:

--- Quote from: metaldams on January 06, 2021, 08:44:13 PM ---Had no idea Louise Currie appeared at Columbia.  Sweet!



--- End quote ---

She did a lot of varied and impressive work for a woman with only 40-something screen credits.

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