Film & Shorts Discussions > Random Comedy Reviews

Pistol Packin' Nitwits (1945) - El Brendel & Harry Langdon

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Freddie Sanborn:
I want to give props to Harry and El for their fun vaudeville soft-shoe routine. Not so much fun for Harry though. Mabel Langdon was interviewed and said that Harry came home completely exhausted on the day this was shot and had his fatal cerebral hemorrhage shortly thereafter. He was only 60 but, as noted earlier, looks much older.

Umbrella Sam:
Really just a sad film to watch, especially knowing that some scenes were filmed right before Langdon became bed ridden. Even taking that out of account, though, PISTOL PACKIN NITWITS just feels very generic. I do like two Harry moments; I like seeing him play the banjo as well as a quick gag of him fainting after taking a quick sip of a drink. Beyond that, though, there’s nothing funny about this short and I could not see anything about it that reflected Langdon’s style. It’s just a bunch of quick based gags that don’t feel very special. It’s strange because the crew lineup would normally make it sound promising. Harry and Edward Bernds share story credit and Harry’s old director Harry Edwards was behind the camera. Granted, Edwards’s glory days were behind him, but even then, you’d think there’d be something indicative of Langdon’s style with this lineup. Sadly, there isn’t.

Christine McIntyre and Dick Curtis are fine in their roles. Christine’s song goes on for a ridiculous amount of time, with few cutaways, although considering the circumstances of this short (they still had some scenes to film when Harry died), I understand why they went this route. Regardless, this is just hard to watch. A few weeks ago, I shared a picture from what I believed was home movie footage of this short and while part of me is curious to see it just to see how he interacted with others, the other part of me doesn’t want to see it because it would be just as sad, if not sadder.

3 out of 10

Umbrella Sam:

--- Quote from: Paul Pain on March 06, 2021, 02:49:48 PM ---Duly noted and added to my original post.

Here is one of the previously mentioned posters:


--- End quote ---

Wow! Harry doesn’t even get second billing, let alone above-the-title billing.

Also, why does Harry have a mustache in the top picture? He doesn’t have one at all in the short. Is that even him in the picture?

Paul Pain:
Just to make it clear: to my knowledge, Harry Langdon did NOT die during filming of this short.

Umbrella Sam:

--- Quote from: Paul Pain on March 06, 2021, 08:16:11 PM ---Just to make it clear: to my knowledge, Harry Langdon did NOT die during filming of this short.

--- End quote ---

According to Harry Langdon: King of Silent Comedy, filming was not completed when Langdon became ill, hence the reason for McIntyre’s song being as long as it was. I’m not sure if anything was filmed after he died (it’s possible they had the song already and were going to edit it, but kept it all in due to the circumstances), but, if King of Silent Comedy is to be believed, this was not finished at the time of his death, since he and El Brendel still had additional routines they were supposed to film.

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