This film has improved in my eyes upon this recent viewing although there are a few things I like less since my last review of it, the big one being I’m not quite as fond of Frank Jaquet’s performance as I once was. To me, this role seems like it was tailor made for Vernon Dent and Jaquet lacks the nuance and versatility Dent could bring to these types of performances. I also think the film suffers from a problem that a lot of Monogram films tend to suffer from: a promising setup that becomes so rushed near the end that things just kind of stop making sense. I mean, come on, Whitmore was really able to gets millions of dollars worth of beans sold in just half a day? As was my problem last time, the romantic leads are pretty bad. Dave O’Brien is incredibly awkward as a romantic lead and Catherine Lewis is in so little of this I’m surprised she managed a third billing credit.
So what makes this film worth it? Well, it’s pretty obvious: Langdon and Rogers are actually a really good team. When you get down to it, Langdon really is just being the same character he was in the silent era. The childlike wonder he has in trying to see when the refrigerator light goes off is a great example. Gags like him constantly grabbing apples every time he tries to leave the house or his failed magic routine show that the people making this film knew his strengths. And while I don’t think it shows as much as in MISBEHAVING HUSBANDS, Langdon does get to show off his versatility here, particularly from a vocal perspective, as he has to maintain a high pitched voice multiple times throughout the film. He really seems like he’s having a lot of fun here, so much so that I have to wonder if he may have been behind the casting of both Dave O’Brien and Louise Currie in his later Columbia shorts.
And of course there’s Charley Rogers. Given the Laurel and Hardy connection (they had both worked together as writers on the final Laurel and Hardy films for Roach), you’d think they’d try to go for the obvious Laurel and Hardy clone, but they really don’t. Charley Rogers has more of a wise guy attitude combined with the same amount of intelligence as Langdon. At times he kind of reminds me of a British equivalent of Chico Marx. The two clearly do have chemistry together, especially during the scene where they’re trying to fool the Whitmores into thinking they’re calling from London. I also really like their delivery when they’re trying to tell the story of how they left England and keep interrupting to decide what food they should grab. But probably my favorite is the recurring gag where Harry is constantly hiccuping and the only way to stop it is for Charley to scare him...by simply saying the word boo. That combined with Harry’s underwhelmed “Oh” after Charley does it is absolutely hilarious.
I’m usually the one here defending men in drag...in the sense that I don’t hate it nearly as much as you guys do. And, yeah, I’d maybe even argue this is actually one of the better uses of it, especially in how everyone seems to think Harry is much more attractive than Charley, playing into the whole “luck” angle that was so prevalent throughout Harry’s career. And yes, I do like Benny Rubin’s performance here. I remember seeing many mixed thoughts on Rubin here based off of reading the Stooge discussions, but I’m on the side that likes Rubin. He was on The Jack Benny Program a lot and I think his over-the-top performances do work in most of his appearances.
A fun, but flawed film. I don’t like it nearly as much as MISBEHAVING HUSBANDS, but the huge potential of this pairing does make up for a lot of its flaws.
