This may have been the seventh short that Sennett released with Harry Langdon in it, but I believe it was shot earlier in their association. First, it has the construction of those Sennett two-reelers in which the first half takes place in one setting -- at home, where, according to the titles, Andy Clyde has just brought home Madeleine Hurlock to be Harry's new mother; after Madeleine vamps the son, the two men wrangle, and finally, Andy kicks Harry out -- and the second in another. In the second half, Harry is a taxi driver in sunny California, who drives the Sennett Bathing Beauties to the beach, where he runs into.... well, I'd tell you to guess, but you'd probably cheat and look it up.
What makes me think this was done early in Harry tenure at Sennett is that the idea of Miss Hurlock vamping Langdon, and his not seeming to have a clue as to what is going on is as pure a bit of Langdon as you can get. Yet there's none of it here. Instead, we get Harry doing a lot of standard Sennett stuff, and doing very well. Sennett's staff was adept, they knew how to write and shoot this stuff, the director was Roy Del Ruth, who would soon move on to greener pastures. Yet, confronted with a comic who was a once-a-decade find, and everyone knew it, they stuck him in a comedy that any of Sennett's staff could have led.
Perhaps that was the point. Perhaps Sennett said "Use Langdon in everything" and they did. If so, the result, while competent, is nothing special.
What makes me think this was done early in Harry tenure at Sennett is that the idea of Miss Hurlock vamping Langdon, and his not seeming to have a clue as to what is going on is as pure a bit of Langdon as you can get. Yet there's none of it here. Instead, we get Harry doing a lot of standard Sennett stuff, and doing very well. Sennett's staff was adept, they knew how to write and shoot this stuff, the director was Roy Del Ruth, who would soon move on to greener pastures. Yet, confronted with a comic who was a once-a-decade find, and everyone knew it, they stuck him in a comedy that any of Sennett's staff could have led.
Perhaps that was the point. Perhaps Sennett said "Use Langdon in everything" and they did. If so, the result, while competent, is nothing special.