Film & Shorts Discussions > Random Comedy Reviews
Saturday Afternoon (1926) - Harry Langdon
metaldams:
SATURDAY AFTERNOON might be my favorite Langdon short. It’s a toss up between this one and FIDDLESTICKS for me. Nice comment by Homok about how Langdon and Dent could have been in a team and yeah, this short does indeed feel like a prototypical Laurel and Hardy domestic comedy. I mean, heck, if you replaced Alice Ward with Mae Busch, you’d barely notice a difference.
Langdon is again a pretty passive character out of step with the rest of the world. “A crumb from the sponge cake of life.” What a great title card to describe Harry. Love the way in his opening shot he’s just sitting there, watching the final minutes of the clock tick away. That camera really takes it’s time holding that shot with Harry doing little more than blink - and it works. Harry out of step with the rest of the people trying to get on the bus, excellent. Whenever Harry is with a crowd of people going one direction, make sure he’s going the opposite.
I have two favorite scenes in this movie and they both involve Harry showing some gumption. The first is when after being reprimanded by his wife and she goes away, Harry finally gets aggressive. Of course, her not being there helps, so his aggressiveness is purely acting out fantasy. So funny seeing Harry finally do all these gestures - gabbing away, stomping his feet, moving his hands forcefully. So un Harry like, but easy to do when alone. Then his wife is to the side of him and Harry doesn’t see her, so he continues acting tough. Once she’s seen again he’s back to timid Harry. Love that part.
My other favorite part. Well, Harry at this point is established as a timid guy who can barely start anything on his own. Also pretty naive in the ways of love, especially for a married guy. The way he studies Vernon and his girl kissing is with childlike fascination and confusion is really telling. So we get seemingly passive and innocent Harry with Vernon lamenting they’ll never find girls like they just found. Harry, in a blink of an eye, pulls what appears to be two professional girls on each arm like it’s nothing. I always laugh at that part because he’s the last guy you’d expect to do that. Then he aggressively throws a brick at one of them, breaks a window and runs away. I love the way the camera holds while they show Harry run off in the distance. Hysterical.
I always likened the fight at the end to a tag team wrestling match. You have the superstar tag team, who are Harry and Vernon’s rivals. Vernon is the upper mid carder and Harry is the local janitor who got thrown in the ring. His presence is what guarantees the superstar team will win. More fun passive aggressive Harry here and the kicker is Harry sitting on two driving cars at the same time, completely oblivious to his surroundings. An extreme situation like that he doesn’t notice, yet he picks those girls off the street with ease.
A total classic. Included in the Slapstick Encyclopedia DVD set, so this is one of the first three Langdon shorts I was aware of. Now looks great on blu ray in The Mack Sennett Collection, Vol. 1.
Dr. Mabuse:
One of my all-time favorite Harry Langdon shorts. I have both versions, but the "Mack Sennett Collection, Vol. 1" is a must-own. My primary criticism with "Slapstick Encyclopedia" (apart from some irritating synthesizer music) is that too many shorts have the original end titles lopped off. Happily, I bought an out-of-print Image DVD set in excellent condition — a bargain at $15.
metaldams:
--- Quote from: Dr. Mabuse on May 24, 2022, 12:01:51 PM ---One of my all-time favorite Harry Langdon shorts. I have both versions, but the "Mack Sennett Collection, Vol. 1" is a must-own. My primary criticism with "Slapstick Encyclopedia" (apart from some irritating synthesizer music) is that too many shorts have the original end titles lopped off. Happily, I bought an out-of-print Image DVD set on eBay in excellent condition — a bargain at $15.
--- End quote ---
I own the Image version, I got it Christmas 2001, I want to say. I like the cover of that much better. These days Madacy owns the rights to the set, I believe.
Dr. Mabuse:
After reading about the Madacy version, I'm glad I purchased the Image set.
https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?t=16299
Umbrella Sam:
This is one I often see cited as “essential Langdon”, and...yeah, I can pretty much see why. It’s paced very well and gives Langdon many opportunities to take things slow and do his unique reactions. We’ve seen cases before where he uses stuff like alcohol to make his character slower, but none of that compares to the fight between Vernon and the other two guys near the end, where Harry just goes totally out of it. I love his reactions throughout this, like when he gets hit by the hammer or is taken out of his brief respite by a punch from one of the rivals. Harry and Vernon work well off of each other as usual. I don’t know if I’d go so far as saying they’re like Laurel and Hardy as far as a team goes, although I will say that Harry does actually look a lot like Stan when he’s laughing with Vernon about how he got out of the house. I definitely can see the connection between Harry and Stan, but not so much Vernon and Ollie, as Vernon is more like a standard troublemaker while Ollie is like a brother. Vernon noticing Harry’s wife while driving and having his back there does seem much like a Hardy move, to be fair, and it still is a good pairing based off of the scenario.
Another highlight for me is when Harry is standing between Vernon and his girl, watching them and unintentionally getting in the middle. It’s a really fun moment that takes advantage of his childish personality, not really entirely understanding what’s going on or that he shouldn’t be in the way of it. Only Harry could pull that off convincingly. Also a bonus in that the majority of it takes place outside so you get a nice range of exteriors. Really not much else to add to what’s already been said; a very entertaining short from start to finish.
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