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