Film & Shorts Discussions > Random Comedy Reviews
Heavy Love (1926) - A Ton of Fun
metaldams:
A TON OF FUN were a comedy team, that, according to Wikipedia, made 36 short films between 1925 - 1928. The team got their name because they consisted of three fat guys. Huge fat guys, I don’t think Curly Howard would be big enough and I’m not joking. Derita would be. Kewpie Ross, Hilliard “Fat” Karr and the immortal Frank “Fatty” Alexander. The latter we saw taking a ton of bumps recently with Larry Semon in THE SAWMILL and sure enough, he was a Semon regular. The series was done at FBO studios and the producer here is a man named Joe Rock. Rock started out as a comedian but became a producer and is perhaps best known for producing twelve solo Stan Laurel shorts in the mid twenties when Laurel was between stints at Roach. The previously reviewed DR. PYCKLE AND MR. PRYDE is one of the Rock shorts.
If you’re looking for Chaplinesque pathos, biting social commentary, slow and subtle Langdon movements or gags that will surprise you, turn away. HEAVY LOVE, like THE SAWMILL, is simply a very enjoyable giant in your face gag fest. One big difference is that Semon attempts to throw in something called a plot - and fails miserably. Here, whatever plot there is remains simple, it’s just there to set up the comedy. Nothing confusing here. Just three fat guys as carpenters taking giant falls. I mean, the first shot of the film? A long shot of a house outdoors, showing the three comics falling out of the house from the highest floor onto the ground. Fantastic opener and it tells you right away this film is no holds barred.
The gags themselves are crazy, but the fact the three comics are so big give each fall maximum impact. There is one gag where he’s painting himself into a corner. Standing on a board trying not to stand on the wet paint, he grabs onto a crooked window to keep his balance. The window breaks and with the fall, the whole room shakes! Like I said, maximum impact.
There is a bit of telegraphing, but not quite as extreme as Semon. One gag where Alexander is taking a wheelbarrow across a thin board. With his weight, we all know darn well what’s about to happen. Still, we get a title card from the leading lady saying, “Be careful. That might break.” Well, duh! Of course, it does break and Alexander takes a huge fall. Even though I know it’s coming, I get enjoyment from the pure execution of it all.
The great gag in this short involves Alexander stuck in a chimney. The chimney, very high in the air, is slowly tilting and the people below are pushing it back up. Eventually, Alexander falls down multiple floors and lands through a hole all the way to the bottom outdoors. The amount of floors broken and the set up is quite amazing.
We get some very familiar comic tropes that I like to call comfort food gags. The aforementioned comic painting themselves into a corner, the bad wallpaper job, laying down linoleum on one side of the room and having it chase the comic to the other side - we’ve seen The Three Stooges do this stuff. The running gag with the steps that turn flat and the comic falls? THE HAUNTED HOUSE from Keaton. The house being built on the wrong lot? ONE WEEK. The moving of the house leads to the house being destroyed and causing tons of damage. Another amazing jaw dropper of a shot.
With the crazy gags, the crazy falls, the real location setting and the pace of it all, HEAVY LOVE is, on a basic and primal level, the kind of film that’s the reason why I like silent comedy. Yes, the more sophisticated stuff is great, but sometimes, one just wants to eat chocolate cake.
metaldams:
I just watched a bit of the YouTube video for a few minutes. I have a copy of this on DVD on the old AMERICAN SLAPSTICK DVD set and the pleasant Ben Model piano score on said set lacks the various sound effects of relieving gas found on this YouTube video soundtrack. Good Lord!
Paul Pain:
The only real flaw in this is the ending with the crazy guy. The rest is slam-bang comfort food gags that would later, in many cases, be perfected by the Three Stooges. If you're looking for perfect applications of tools of destruction, this isn't the place, but all the old work-horse gags that are known and guaranteed to make you laugh are done here.
If you don't mind some fat jokes, you'll enjoy this Three Stooges style farce. I sure did.
Umbrella Sam:
I keep forgetting you guys did DR. PICKLE AND MR. PRYDE. I really need to get around to watching that one of these days. And, yes, that soundtrack in the link above is one of the most atrocious soundtracks I’ve ever heard; thankfully, there’s another version on YouTube with a much better soundtrack.
Ton of Fun are a team I’d never heard of prior to seeing this on the review schedule. Watching this short, they definitely lack the distinct personalities that the Three Stooges would bring to help perfect this style, but there actually are some really funny gags here that help make up for that. My favorite gag is when one of them is trying to cut up a board to the right proportion only for another to cut the end of the board while he’s not looking. I thought that was really clever. I also like the gag on the roof with the roll following the one guy while he’s trying to lay it out. And, even though they are technically variations on something by someone else, the Keaton-inspired gags are fun too; the timing on the stairs is great and that image of the house slowly falling apart as it goes down the hill got a huge laugh out of me. Heck, I even like the ending with the crazy guy; there’s a really interesting twist with his checks that I actually didn’t see coming.
I got more enjoyment out of this than I expected. Yeah, I did feel there were too many fat jokes and the personalities definitely make it hard to differentiate between the characters, but there still were some really clever jokes and I can see the Stooge influence, especially regarding the overall plot of building the house as well as the opening shot of them being thrown out the window (another really funny gag). Still prefer the Stooges thanks to their more defined personalities, but there’s still enough to like about this one. I had fun watching it.
Freddie Sanborn:
--- Quote from: Paul Pain on July 23, 2022, 08:20:08 PM ---The only real flaw in this is the ending with the crazy guy. The rest is slam-bang comfort food gags that would later, in many cases, be perfected by the Three Stooges.
--- End quote ---
Hah! Comfort food gags. I see what you did there.
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