This was the only one of the Educational Langdon shorts I’d seen prior to us deciding to go through them. I thought it was great the first time and still think it’s great now.
What really works in its favor is that it’s clearly playing to Langdon’s strengths in terms of its narrative. A lot of this amounts to people having to pose as wax dummies, which, if you know Langdon, going slower and slower to the point of a complete stop is one of his specialties. Another huge point in its favor is that, in some ways, this is basically a silent film. I’m actually kind of tempted to go back and count exactly how many words Harry says in this short, because it’s certainly not a lot. There are long stretches where he doesn’t have any dialogue at all, and he just allows his movements do the talking for him. Look at the beginning when he first meets Nell O’Day and see how he comprehends what’s going on and then does a fake “tough guy” act without any dialogue; maybe it’s just me, but I found bits like that super impressive. Obviously I’ve made clear before that I think Harry had a fitting voice and he definitely could work well with dialogue, but it’s also nice to see that every now and then, he could pretty much just go back to the old style flawlessly (THE BIG KICK is another good example).
As far as comedic highlights go, I absolutely love the bit Harry does with the hose while trying to retrieve his hat; once again, just an opportunity for Harry to use his movements and expressions to carry the comedy. There’s also a really funny moment where one of the criminals is looking at Harry through a mirror and Harry, despite the criminal facing in the wrong direction, somehow thinks he is actually aiming at him; the payoff is predictable, but just Harry’s reaction alone is enough to make me laugh. I also like the moment where Harry disguises himself under a balloon with a face on it; the face is super childish and the type of thing I could actually imagine his character drawing up really quickly. Every joke hits in this film and, like Paul says, it relies very much on the chase angle, so it’s always moving at a good pace.
I will disagree with Paul on the supporting cast...for the most part. I’ll admit, there are a few moments where I feel Nell O’Day is kind of phoning it in (especially that part where she talks about how worried she is about the ruby in the most monotone way possible). At the same time, though, there are moments where she does fit her part, mainly whenever she is acting impressed with Harry’s skills at stopping robbers; she does seem more invested in these parts. Everyone else I think is pretty good; Vernon Dent as always is great, Billy Engle’s freak outs can be kind of funny, and Eddie Baker and the two people playing the crooks do a good job keeping up with the fast pace of the chases, which is really all that was required of their roles for it to work.
We’ve still got some Educational shorts to go, but KNIGHT DUTY is a pretty tough one to beat. I say this not to disparage the quality of the other Educational shorts (I actually enjoyed THE HITCH HIKER a lot more than I thought I would), but rather to compliment just how good KNIGHT DUTY is. Not only do I think it’s one of Langdon’s best sound films, but I think it’s one of his best films in general; such a creative idea for him, and it’s executed well. Definitely recommended for Langdon fans.
