Topic: Picking Peaches (1924) - Harry Langdon

[Paul Pain]

PICKING PEACHES was not only the first Harry Langdon starring film, it was his first film period!  And Harry... isn't Harry... here, he's a shameless womanizer who goes on the warpath when he thinks his wife is cheating on him.  In short, he's unlikable.

The first third shows how he's a rotten husband and then his job as a shoe salesman.  There are all sorts of gags scattered throughout, but the plot revolves around this premise of cheating.  First, he lies to go out with another woman; then he gets involved in adult games; then he goes to a swimsuit contest.  Then he has a run-in with his side chick's girl; then his boss.  There are funny physical gags typical of this period of Sennett, but the plot is distasteful. 

In summary: Ignore the plot except to enjoy the gags it causes.

7/10

[Allen Champion]

Harry made two or three films for producer Sol Lesser before Sennett.  A snippet of one film is extant, but I can't remember the name of it right now. 

[metaldams]

Harry made two or three films for producer Sol Lesser before Sennett.  A snippet of one film is extant, but I can't remember the name of it right now.

It’s on the 4 DVD Langdon set and you’re right, it’s only a few minutes of footage.  I’ll check it out after work tonight for the title and watch it, I seem to remember a western setting and a chase sequence, but maybe I’m confusing it with something else.

[HomokHarcos]

Seeing Harry Langdon with his regular look, but as a womanizer is very odd. The short is entertaining, but split into different sections. The first part I think actually fits Harry the most. The woman blaming Langdon for the what the cat doing and the scene where he's hanging out of the wall would make sense in later Langdon films. Also, Vernon Dent is his boss! Then there is the womanizing part that is totally unlike the Harry we usually knew. He likes going around with different women, including the Sennett Bathing Beauties. The third section is the marriage mixup part that is very much the type of humor Jules White loved doing.

Entertaining for what it is, if not entirely fit for Harry Langdon. IMDB says Pinto Colvig was the writer for this short, is that true? He was the guy that voiced Disney's Goofy.

[Umbrella Sam]

Entertaining for what it is, if not entirely fit for Harry Langdon. IMDB says Pinto Colvig was the writer for this short, is that true? He was the guy that voiced Disney's Goofy.

Colvig was indeed working as a gag writer for Mack Sennett around this time, so it’s possible. Hoping to watch this either tonight or tomorrow night.

[Umbrella Sam]

Colvig was indeed working as a gag writer for Mack Sennett around this time, so it’s possible. Hoping to watch this either tonight or tomorrow night.

Might have to backtrack on this. I was just reading the “Pinto Notes” from the Southern Oregon History website and newspaper accounts have Pinto as being at Century Films around this time. I’ll have to double check when his Sennett collaboration actually started.

[metaldams]

This is all that survives of HORACE GREELY, JR.  It was filmed in 1923, before Langdon’s contract was sold to Sennett by Sol Lesser, but not released until 1925.  I believe this is the earliest existing footage of Langdon.  Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

[metaldams]

PICKING PEACHES is the first released Harry Langdon film and it’s from Mack Sennett in 1924.  Langdon had a successful Vaudeville act for twenty years he did with his wife and sometimes brother called “Johnny’s New Car.”  It involved lighting and illusion to add depth to the car on stage and by the time Langdon starred in films, he was forty years old - so much older than the average comedian making an on screen debut.

As far as PICKING PEACHES goes, this isn’t a Chase at Roach or Keaton in “One Week” situation where they felt fully formed at birth.  I get the feeling Sennett had no idea what to do with Langdon at first, so he threw in a cool thrill gag with the ladder and for the middle of the film, focused almost completely on the Bathing Beauties.  As Langdon films became Langdon films, the typical Mack Sennett tropes were usually not seen but here, they’re a bit more apparent. Not necessarily a bad thing as I dig thrill gags and The Bathing Beauties as much as the average fan of twenties Sennett, so it’s all good to me.

Some crazy serendipity here as between this and THE FLOORWALKER, we review two films that involve foot fetish gags though in Harry’s case, he’s much more reserved than Chaplin - appropriately so.  Langdon is not in full slow down mode here, but even in his first released Sennett short, much more so than the average Sennett comedian.  Check out the way he takes a punch from the female customer.  Delayed reaction after the first one, needing a second punch to fully take the fall.  In his opening scene checking out his neighbor’s calf, definitely slower and more subtle.  Langdon had this in him way before Frank Capra was on the scene and his films would develop along this pattern before so as well.

Yeah, the womanizing stuff is out of character for Langdon and there’s no way a fully formed Langdon would punch a midget, never mind Kewpie Morgan, but what we have here is a somewhat typical twenties Sennett film of the non Del Lord chase variety with a leading character who shows the potential to be something different.

[Paul Pain]

While the stylistic differences are readily apparent, Harry does have an extremely versatile role even if it's out of character for him.  I'm glad someone pointed out Harry's age: he's by far the oldest of the four silent film comic legends.  Chaplin was only five years younger, but he also started in silent films in 1914 when he was 25.

[Umbrella Sam]

Not a great start for Langdon, but being a Mack Sennett comedy before Langdon was fully established, it’s not that surprising. There’s an occasional gag that works; I really like that ladder gag in particular, and I also like the husband asking Harry what he would do if he were in the same situation near the end; that was actually kind of a clever twist on the usual jealous husband plot. But Langdon mostly just feels like any average Sennett comedian and for the most part it drags with its predictable formula. Not a big fan of this one.