Topic: Saturday Afternoon (1926) - Harry Langdon

[Paul Pain]

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017347/

Long story short... I budgeted my time to watch and review this short... and discovered it was significantly longer than the rest and that I didn't have time to watch it.  The short that should have been next, THERE HE GOES, is mostly lost.

Have at it, folks...

Paul Pain's review
There is no review.  Read metaldams' review below mine because he and I are in 100% agreement on this one.  I make further comments though.

This short solidified for me an increasingly strong reality: Harry Langdon was indeed the fourth head on a Mount Rushmore of silent comedy.  Those four heads need not be named, but it is indisputable that Harry has (1) a completely unique persona, (2) a completely unique approach to comedy, and (3) the ability to be consistently funny even when everything else in the short is bad.  Look away from that Mount Rushmore, and you will always find one of those three things lacking.

[Paul Pain]

Here is the surviving footage from THERE HE GOES.

[metaldams]

Just edit in your review later. I did that a few times during my Stooge run.

[HomokHarcos]

This is the film that proves to me that Harry Langdon and Vernon Dent could have been a full fledged comedy duo; they have fantastic chemistry and the story of them getting away from abusive wives and spending the day out with friendlier women is a plot that would be later used by Laurel and Hardy. The main difference being that Vernon Dent is much less innocent and is clearly aware of what he is doing.

I like the gag of Harry Langdon hiding his money under the rug, it reminds me of Stan Laurel hiding his money to keep it from being taken by his wife. Surprisingly, Harry actually stands up to his wife and says he's taking charge and is going to go out with other women, his wife thinks he's just bluffing, but he's actually not. Things of course don't go according to plan as their get stuck on the road and their boyfriends get angry.

Supposedly they made talkies as a comedy duo for Paramount, unfortunately they are all lost.

[metaldams]

Concerning THERE HE GOES.  You can read my little comment about it in the comment section of the YouTube video (metaldams78 with the Cliff Burton avatar).  I was having a rough day at work and had a fifteen minute break.  Went into my car, checked YouTube on my phone and this came up in my recommendations.  I was thrilled I got to get a few minutes of “new” Langdon to watch during my work break.  Totally cheered me up.  Hopefully the rest shows up someday.  I believe this may have been the last Sennett short released before Harry signed his First National contract - not that there weren’t plenty of Sennett shorts released after anyway.

[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]

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.

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.

[Umbrella Sam]

And, yeah, that footage of THERE HE GOES was really good, it’s a shame the majority of it is apparently lost. I especially love his reaction when the policemen run straight past him.

[NoahYoung]

Well, I have the Super 8 Blackhawk version.

I'm nowhere near a Langdon expert, and have not seen all his films, but this is definitely the best one of his I've seen. I agree that he and Dent made a great team. Aside from the comedy, I enjoy the many street scenes. Makes me feel like I'm in a time machine with a great view of the past. That's what's great about silent comedy before the talkies arrived that were mostly shot on sound stages.