Unfortunately, watching this short confirmed the fears I had when watching SUE MY LAWYER. In SUE MY LAWYER, it felt like Harry was trying to strike a balance between his style and Jules White’s; here, it seems like he’s completely adhering to White’s style. Something just seems off about him here. His facial expressions are too animated and, though I’ll admit that the gags involving him getting his fingers stuck in the bowling balls are clever, they seem too fast paced for him. Keep in mind, this is a guy who’s big selling point was the fact that he took things slow. Doing things fast was not really something he seemed all that comfortable with, and I think it’s even been argued that doing that kind of fast paced work at Columbia may have contributed to his early demise. So I hope you can understand why I don’t like watching this from the perspective of a Harry Langdon fan.
However, it’s also important to note that this really isn’t much of a Harry Langdon short; it’s really more of an Elsie Ames short, and as far as this goes, it’s not...terrible. Actually, let me rephrase that: the second half is not terrible. The stuff at the laundromat was pretty uncomfortable to watch. Seeing the guy getting caught in the machines was just way too extreme for my liking. Even from a Stooges perspective, that seemed way too painful. Some of Elsie’s gags at the bowling alley were pretty good. I especially liked when Harry accidentally knocked her ball into the pins. Again, the whole idea of Harry getting the bowling balls stuck on his hands is a good one, but I feel it might have worked better with someone else.
I’m glad you both found a lot of things to like in this short. For me, though, I find that it’s just not worth watching, considering that there are both better Columbia shorts and better Harry Langdon shorts out there.
4 out of 10
