So, what do we have here? One dumb, dumb guy, who happens to be a jail bird, is determined to escape his miserable situation, along with his dumb, dumb friend? Sounds like Laurel & Hardy to me...and while that certainly isn't the case, it certainly isn't an all that far-fetched assumption, either. Made just about the time when Larry Semon's rise to stardom was announced as fact, FRAUDS AND FRENZIES is perhaps best remembered for being one of the very few surviving films of his in which the more familiar Stan Laurel appears; in fact, this seems to be one of the very few works of Semon in which Laurel appears at all. This might not strike one as such an extraordinary event at first, except for Laurel & Hardy die-hards as myself. Laurel had at this point just entered the world of celluloid and was far from having developed the lovable "Stanley" we prefer to remember. However, what is notable with this setting is that Semon and Laurel are paired as a team, not too unlike a more primitive, less polished version of the later duo. By saying less polished, mind you, I do really mean not much polished at all, and the comparison to Laurel & Hardy would probably have appeared irrelevant had not one half of the later team been present. As was to remain the case with Semon for his entire career (explaining why I find it hard to let him truly enter my heart despite his obvious gift for amazing gags), the characters are not given opportunity to be much more than vessels to the situations in which they enter. One never cares for their well-being, nor is it particularly shocking to see the one betray the other towards the end of the film. In this regard, Semon and Laurel resemble the even earlier duo of silent comedy Ham and Bud more than they do Stan and Ollie.
Even so, FRAUDS AND FRENZIES offers several enjoyable bits of business; remember, it might not be such an unhealthy thing to not have to be concerned with the fates of a couple of clowns once in a while, and simply let them be victims of a few coarse and merciless chuckles. The funniest stuff occurs early on, with Semon and Laurel responding in an increasingly incompetent manner to the orders of the jail warden. The gags displayed in these first scenes appear more character-driven, even more "personal" than what usually dominates Semon's work, and I suspect much of this stuff to have been the inventions of Laurel, whose stage experience in Fred Karno's troupe in Britain had undoubtedly made him more observant of a character's potentials in comic situations. Towards the end of the film, however, Laurel is suddenly abandoned to make room for yet another one of Semon's wildly bizarre chases, providing one large-scaled mechanical gag after another. These do indeed come across as quite cartoonish, less charming than what other comedians had done (and were to do) with similar material; as a comparison, when Max Linder, years before, had magically sailed across the sky on a couple of skies, the romantic attitude of his character invited his audience into a fairytale-like state of being, which made the situation real to us despite being very much improbable. Larry Semon delivers no such depth; which is not to say, however, that his astounding gags cannot be very entertaining. FRAUDS AND FRENZIES remains quite funny to this day, and is certainly among Semon's better work.
One final note: it has often been claimed that Semon fired Laurel as the latter, apparently, received more laughs than the star himself. Although not impossible, it should be pointed out that the Vitagraph company, where Semon worked at this time, had to close doors for a while due to a heavy influenza, and that this might have caused Laurel's departure.
Even so, FRAUDS AND FRENZIES offers several enjoyable bits of business; remember, it might not be such an unhealthy thing to not have to be concerned with the fates of a couple of clowns once in a while, and simply let them be victims of a few coarse and merciless chuckles. The funniest stuff occurs early on, with Semon and Laurel responding in an increasingly incompetent manner to the orders of the jail warden. The gags displayed in these first scenes appear more character-driven, even more "personal" than what usually dominates Semon's work, and I suspect much of this stuff to have been the inventions of Laurel, whose stage experience in Fred Karno's troupe in Britain had undoubtedly made him more observant of a character's potentials in comic situations. Towards the end of the film, however, Laurel is suddenly abandoned to make room for yet another one of Semon's wildly bizarre chases, providing one large-scaled mechanical gag after another. These do indeed come across as quite cartoonish, less charming than what other comedians had done (and were to do) with similar material; as a comparison, when Max Linder, years before, had magically sailed across the sky on a couple of skies, the romantic attitude of his character invited his audience into a fairytale-like state of being, which made the situation real to us despite being very much improbable. Larry Semon delivers no such depth; which is not to say, however, that his astounding gags cannot be very entertaining. FRAUDS AND FRENZIES remains quite funny to this day, and is certainly among Semon's better work.
One final note: it has often been claimed that Semon fired Laurel as the latter, apparently, received more laughs than the star himself. Although not impossible, it should be pointed out that the Vitagraph company, where Semon worked at this time, had to close doors for a while due to a heavy influenza, and that this might have caused Laurel's departure.