Topic: Tireman, Spare My Tires (1942) - Harry Langdon

[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

[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]

Had no idea Louise Currie appeared at Columbia.  Sweet!

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

[Umbrella Sam]

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.

I actually think Langdon looked a bit better with less makeup. In his silent and early Roach shorts, it always seemed to me that his makeup was kind of overdone, to the point that it made him look a bit too zany (which, to be fair, may have been the point). In stuff like ZENOBIA, COLD TURKEY, and the two Rogers-Langdon features, he looks silly, but still more relaxed, which was a bit more similar to Stan’s look at Roach. I agree that he does look older in some of these later Columbia’s, but I don’t find it too distracting, at least not yet.

[metaldams]

An OK Columbia short, but not really much of a Langdon short.  He pulls the material off OK for the most part, but there really isn’t  anything specifically suited for Langdon.  It’s a reaction comedy that had gags that would have worked with The Three Stooges.  Here, it all feels very journeyman like.

Louise Currie, shortly before earning screen immortality playing scream queen to a simian Bela Lugosi, is very likable here, but like Langdon, feels a bit misplaced.  It was weird seeing Currie, in a Columbia short, mixing ingredients in a kitchen so - straight.  That type of thing is meant for comedians who can’t count and read. 

I really do like the floating pot gag and as a Columbia short, perfectly acceptable.  As a Langdon short, if this were the only thing I ever saw from the guy, I wouldn’t understand what’s so special.  Sometimes Columbia writes these shorts with gifted comedians, stays too rigid to their formula while completely forsaking the gifts that makes the comedian unique.  TIREMAN, SPARE MY TIRES is a great example.

Thank God the Columbia formula was tailor made for The Three Stooges.