Topic: His First Flame (1927) - Harry Langdon

[Paul Pain]

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016971/

I apologize for the absence!  But here we are finally with HIS FIRST FLAME, a movie Langdon made at Sennett but was shelved.  This film was released after Harry's success at First National.  The print is pretty badly damaged, and I suspect parts of the film are even lost.  On top of this, this was a five-reeler and chopped down to three.  It's very difficult to assess this one as a result.

The plot is simple.  Boy loves girl; girl is a gold digger; gold digger's sister loves boy; film works toward getting boy with sister.

The highlights of this film come from the sidetracks into scenes that do not advance the plot at all.  The first sees Harry run into old friend Bud Jamison and get brought to the friends house.  There, we get a grim view of domestic violence while watching Harry's disconnection from reality leave him flustered by what he witnesses.  A bottle of booze makes a fantastic prop here as well.  Harry naturally just freaks out like the manchild he is.

The second scene is one in which Harry has his clothes stolen and never realizes it even after multiple people tell him what's wrong.  The bizarre part of this one is his sudden and inexplicable intent on sleeping no matter what.  My guess is that the explanation of what happened to induce this semi-comatose state was also cut.

Harry just wants a happy marriage, and everywhere he gets a bad look.  He has a misogynistic, thrice-divorced fire chief uncle (Vernon Dent) hounding him.  His friend is in an unhappy marriage and lives next door to a couple in a miserable one as well.  His girlfriend, played by the temperature raising Natalie Kingston, cheats on him and is a gold digger.  The girl that loves him is also played by a temperature raising Ruth Hiatt, but her outfit and hair are done in a way that looks awful on her just to remove the visual appeal.

It's an enjoyable film; just be warned that it's in poor condition.

[metaldams]

Re-watching this now, should be a review soon - but I just want to say, isn’t this a wonderful title card for Stooge fans?  The other is a pic of my friend’s cat because you know - why not?

[metaldams]

      I pretty much agree with Paul’s review on this one.  Overall, HIS FIRST FLAME is a perfectly acceptable and enjoyable Harry Langdon film but as a feature, it really feels like an extended two reeler.  The build up to Harry eventually getting with Ruth Hiatt is cute and funny, but also a bit sudden and shallow compared to say, the search Langdon had in finding Mary Brown and their dramatic coming together in THE STRONG MAN.  Compare these two scenarios and that is what I mean by an extended two reeler versus a well thought out feature.  As far as Langdon and Natalie Kingston, were they ever in the same shot together excluding when she was in a car about to drive away and Langdon was on the outside?  If so, I don’t recall.  Perhaps their lack of screen time together, considering the relationship, is appropriate.

The thing is, every Sennett feature I have seen with male comedians as the star is like this.  Enjoyable but very workmanlike.  I have yet to see MICKEY, definitely the biggest hole in my silent comedy viewing experience based on importance, but THE EXTRA GIRL seems to have a little more thought in it.  Perhaps Sennett had more inspiration on a personal level working with Mabel and it inspired him more professionally.  Just typing out loud here, I don’t know.  But yeah, Sennett, from what I can gather, made passable features for long time silent comedy fans, but not the kind of thing you introduce silent comedy with like THE GOLD RUSH.

      But as far as HIS FIRST FLAME goes, there are some nice Langdon moments here.  My favorite is definitely when Langdon visits old friend Bud Jamison and wife Dot Farley.  It’s perfect for Langdon, being around all this domestic violence and being a helpless bystander.  A perfect situation for Langdon to merely react, which is what makes the scene so wonderful.  Without Langdon’s presence, the scene would verge on wild melodrama.  With Langdon, it’s comedy.  Also love the bit where Langdon’s flowers get cut off in the car and how long it takes Langdon to realize it.  Great scene at the beginning when Langdon gives his speech.  His awkward not knowing what to do before the speech begins is typically wonderful Langdon and all the moving around and various gestures he does during the speech - basically anything but sit still, is worthy.

      HIS FIRST FLAME is good Langdon, but man, I really can’t wait to discuss THREE’S A CROWD.

[Freddie Sanborn]

Before reviewing Three’s a Crowd, if you’re able, listen to David Kalat’s commentary track on the Kino disc. He makes a convincing case that 3’s a Crowd is a neglected masterpiece. He also does a masterful commentary on His First Flame on the Harry Langdon: Lost and Found disc. He’s really a master of the form.

[metaldams]

Before reviewing Three’s a Crowd, if you’re able, listen to David Kalat’s commentary track on the Kino disc. He makes a convincing case that 3’s a Crowd is a neglected masterpiece. He also does a masterful commentary on His First Flame on the Harry Langdon: Lost and Found disc. He’s really a master of the form.

100% agreed.  Three’s a Crowd is one of my favorite commentaries ever.  David Kalat actually makes me appreciate the film more versus reading IMDb credits, so rare in a commentary.

While on the topic of Kalat, his Godzilla commentary, spanning both the Japanese and U.S. version, is also excellent.

[Umbrella Sam]

Kind of what I expected; a decent film, but you can tell that this clearly is their first feature. It very much has a TILLIE’S PUNCTURED ROMANCE vibe where it kind of just feels like they put separate reels from different films together and tied a loose narrative around them. Heck, they literally do the same climax twice; they follow up a house fire with another house fire! But, again, this is their first feature, so it’s not like this kind of stuff is totally unexpected and, really, as long as we get to see Harry doing what he does best, it’s still worth it. I mean, after all, this is the kind of guy who can make a cyclone disappear by throwing a brick at it in TRAMP, TRAMP, TRAMP; a certain suspense of reality and expectations is required with him.

As far as the highlights, a big one is the scene where he’s stumbling around after coming across the shoplifters. Love how he keeps just stopping and trying to fall asleep while he unintentionally fools the firemen into thinking he actually is a woman and running away. I also really like the scene where he loses both the flowers and chocolates he’s bought for Natalie; after jumping out the car, instead of running straight for the box, he does that little thing where he briefly runs forward and then realizes he needs to go back. Other highlights include a scene where he is horrified after grabbing a fake leg, thinking it’s a real leg he accidentally pulled off, and the part during the second fire where he grabs a small ladder to climb into the ground floor window. The supporting cast is good; always cool to see Bud Jamison and we get to see Harry and Vernon in a rare feature film together (correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe HOUSE OF ERRORS is the only other time this happened).

In the end, it’s not nearly as good as TRAMP, TRAMP TRAMP or THE STRONG MAN, but at the very least you can argue that it’s not so much a feature as just an extended short and as such, it kind of belongs in a different classification altogether. HIS FIRST FLAME still has enough funny moments to it to recommend despite the slightly choppy quality.

[Umbrella Sam]

The thing is, every Sennett feature I have seen with male comedians as the star is like this.  Enjoyable but very workmanlike.  I have yet to see MICKEY, definitely the biggest hole in my silent comedy viewing experience based on importance, but THE EXTRA GIRL seems to have a little more thought in it.  Perhaps Sennett had more inspiration on a personal level working with Mabel and it inspired him more professionally.  Just typing out loud here, I don’t know.  But yeah, Sennett, from what I can gather, made passable features for long time silent comedy fans, but not the kind of thing you introduce silent comedy with like THE GOLD RUSH.

Interesting theory. I always kind of assumed that Mabel had more creative control than other Sennett stars and as a result, she was able to steer those films in a much clearer direction, but who knows? Sennett does have a story credit on THE EXTRA GIRL, but I’d be interested in seeing how the finished film compares to his original treatment if it exists.

Regarding MICKEY, it’s been a while, but my main memory was that it was very Cinderellaesque and that, much like THE EXTRA GIRL, it felt like a fully fleshed out story rather than just a bunch of shorter reels tied together.