Her Boy Friend (1924)

Young and beautiful Iva Method is spying for the police at the Dropem Inn, a sleazy club that the police suspect is a front for a bootlegging operation run by gangster Slim Chance. Chance ... See full summary »

Directors:

Larry Semon, Noel M. Smith

Writers:

Larry Semon, Noel M. Smith

Stars:

Larry Semon, Dorothy Dwan, Alma Bennett

Cast

Cast overview:
Larry Semon	...	Larry, the Chief's son
Dorothy Dwan	...	Iva Method, the girl detective
Alma Bennett	...	The Vamp
Oliver Hardy	...	Killer Kid (as Oliver N. Hardy)
Fred Spencer	...	Headquarters Hank (as Fred Spence)
Frank Alexander	...	Slim Chance
Spencer Bell	...	Dock worker
William Hauber	...	(as Bill Hauber)

Storyline

Young and beautiful Iva Method is spying for the police at the Dropem Inn, a sleazy club that the police suspect is a front for a bootlegging operation run by gangster Slim Chance. Chance discovers Iva's identity and kidnaps her, and the police chief sends his somewhat bumbling son to rescue her.

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Genres:

Short | Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 September 1924 (USA)

Also Known As:

Los señores de la secreta

Company Credits

Production Co:

Chadwick Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

Audience gets a rum deal

There's nothing especially wrong with this short comedy, except for the main thing that can be wrong with a comedy -- there's just nothing very one funny about it. This is the second Larry Semon film I've seen, and one of a series of shorts in which Semon, one of the most popular comedians of the twenties and now barely remember, starred with Oliver Hardy, before his teaming with Stan Laurel, as his support. As in my previous Semon film ("Frauds and Frenzies"), the comic proves that he is a pretty good comic actor who plays a gormless young man quite effectively, but there's just not very much good material here.

The somewhat unnecessarily complicated scenario has Semon as a junior detective rescuing a beautiful woman who has gone undercover to defeat a ring of rum smugglers. There are some of the creative visual moments that Semon is famous for. I give credit for the stunts on the rigging of a boat, and my favorite moment involved the two detectives looking like cardboard robots as they have "disguised" themselves in shipping crates -- but none of it really made me laugh.

Oliver Hardy pulls out all the stop here, flailing his arms and leering menacingly in his "rough bully" characterization, but he doesn't have too much to do except be menacing. Spencer Bell appears in an now-unpleasant racist sequence as a cowardly dock worker that further decreases the appeal of the film. This short isn't really badly made at all, but of you miss it you aren't missing much.