Topic: Defective Detectives (1944) - Harry Langdon & El Brendel

[Paul Pain]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036751/

THIS piece of $#¡+ was the first film I saw with either Harry Langdon or El Brendel in it.  The thought makes me want to take up alcoholism, because this is a dud.  I watched this, read up on it, and decided that I would have to eventually watch some 1920s Harry Langdon.  I did.  End of story.

My God is this short disappointing.  This is basically standard Columbia fare.  Except for one scene where Harry sits on the couch that El is hiding beneath, there are no moments that suit Harry's talents at all.  Instead, we get a cohesive story of Harry and El being a couple of bungling idiots who almost would forget to breathe without being reminded to do so. 

The cast is all right and performs well, but the writing is sloppy.  Christine McIntyre is a dish, as always; Vernon Dent is comedically emotional; George Lewis is nicely cynical.

It's just not... good.  This is bad even for El Brendel.

5/10

[HomokHarcos]

Maybe I don't care as much if something fits somebody's personal style, because I happened to find this short very funny. But then again, I like to see people keep bumbling their jobs. It has pretty much everything I like in Columbia comedies: people bashing their heads together, hurting each other accidently, being terrible at their jobs, Vernon Dent and Christine McIntyre. Is it possible that their former boss hated them so much he tried to intentionally get them killed by gangsters? Because it's unbelievable that they would be able to catch a crime boss.

[Umbrella Sam]

Well, it’s not particularly good and almost nothing in it is truly indicative of Harry’s style, but I did find that I enjoyed quite a few moments. In particular, I liked the couch gag, which seems the most like a Langdon moment, Harry moving his tie to look like a mustache, El Brendel pulling Harry in the wagon, the re-enactment of how they captured Vernon Dent and Christine McIntyre, and any moment involving Dent being scared.

There definitely is good stuff here. Unfortunately, the stuff that’s bad...is really bad. The short starts off terribly; it involves El Brendel making horrible squeaking noises. There’s also this really bad moment involving Harry and El pretending to sell flowers and Harry once again has to do overreactions that he’s clearly not comfortable doing.

Harry and El are not a truly defined team here. At least in TO HEIR IS HUMAN, it was clear that Una Merkel was more of the “leader” of the two. Here, it kind of shifts, and neither actor does a good job being the leader; Harry because it’s out of character for him, and El Brendel because...well, he’s El Brendel. Actually, in Brendel’s defense, I do think that the slightly more fast-paced, almost Marx Brothers type anarchy of this teaming does seem to be something he’s well-suited for. I could actually see this type of short working if the mix-up just wasn’t so stupid and if he could work with someone like Monte Collins or someone who excelled at fast paced humor. It’s not terrible as a whole, but it’s just so sad to watch Harry Langdon acting so out of character.

5 out of 10

[Umbrella Sam]

Maybe I don't care as much if something fits somebody's personal style, because I happened to find this short very funny. But then again, I like to see people keep bumbling their jobs. It has pretty much everything I like in Columbia comedies: people bashing their heads together, hurting each other accidently, being terrible at their jobs, Vernon Dent and Christine McIntyre. Is it possible that their former boss hated them so much he tried to intentionally get them killed by gangsters? Because it's unbelievable that they would be able to catch a crime boss.

I think he was so desperate that he was willing to try anything to capture the crime boss. According to him, no one else he hired could catch him, so maybe he thought that a different approach would work?

[Paul Pain]

I think he was so desperate that he was willing to try anything to capture the crime boss. According to him, no one else he hired could catch him, so maybe he thought that a different approach would work?

It's stated that Henry the Hacker's girlfriend personally knows every detective in the city, so she will recognize whoever is tailing her.

[metaldams]

Moving today and will be without WiFi for a bit if you guys don’t hear from me much.  Can’t wait to get to this one just for seeing some early Christine.

[metaldams]

Random observation to indicate the pecking order at Columbia.  The Three Stooges always had their own theme music.  Everybody else after a while used “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

This is a prime case of Columbia pushing product.  Throw two random comedians together and give them a script that has nothing to go with their characters.  The whole business of being incompetent blue collar workers and then wrongfully chasing somebody would work well with The Three Stooges.  Heck, throw in one extended routine in this script and make this in 1940 and we’d have a pretty good Stooge short.

As this short is?  Two comedians doing stock work.  You’d never know the uniqueness of Langdon, even remotely, by watching this.  I’m sorry this was your first impression, Paul.  While not exactly THE STRONG MAN, at least TO HEIR IS HUMAN has some clever gags, a stronger Christine role and the two comedians compliment one another.  Here, no dice.

[Paul Pain]

Random observation to indicate the pecking order at Columbia.  The Three Stooges always had their own theme music.  Everybody else after a while used “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Give this man a dollar.  I have done much research into the theme songs used at Columbia, and the only comedy teams, that I have found so far, that ever had an unique theme were The Three Stooges (multiple themes), Andy Clyde (Reuben and Rachel), and Charley Chase (For He's a Jolly Good Fellow).  In the 1930s, many shorts just had popular tunes as their theme songs.

[HomokHarcos]

Give this man a dollar.  I have done much research into the theme songs used at Columbia, and the only comedy teams, that I have found so far, that ever had an unique theme were The Three Stooges (multiple themes), Andy Clyde (Reuben and Rachel), and Charley Chase (For He's a Jolly Good Fellow).  In the 1930s, many shorts just had popular tunes as their theme songs.

By this point The Three Stooges were also the only act that had their own title cards with faces. The rest just had their names listed above the name of the short.

[Paul Pain]

By this point The Three Stooges were also the only act that had their own title cards with faces. The rest just had their names listed above the name of the short.

Well, not to ignore the fact that in the late 1930s Charley Chase (not always) and Andy Clyde also had title cards with their faces.  However, I haven't seen any 1940s Clyde shorts to see if this continues.