What Makes Lizzy Dizzy?

Back in the days of silent films, Harry Langdon had a respectable career. While not quite on par with the likes of Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, Keaton and Lloyd, Langdon's films were fun, enjoyable and very well directed by Frank Capra. Inexplicably, Langdon left his studio in search of more control and more money....and ended up making a ton of incredibly forgettable films for Hal Roach, Educational, and Columbia Pictures. Of these, the Columbia ones are the worst, as the films tended to put Harry in situations that the Three Stooges would have found familiar....but this was completely wrong for Harry. He was not a Stooge nor could he or should he have been. "What Makes Lizzy Dizzy?" is one of these low-brow Columbia shorts. In quite a few of these pictures, Harry is co-billed with another actor--such as El Brendel. Here, he co-stars with comedienne Elsie Ames.

The plot and humor in "What Makes Lizzy Dizzy?" is about as far removed from Langdon's best humor of the 1920s as you can get. His silents were wonderful because he played such a sweet and likable character. Here, in this Columbia film, it's not the least about the character but more about situations and very physical humor. In this case, he goes bowling with some ladies and all sorts of ridiculous and over-the-top physical humor is used...humor which makes the characters seem more like caricatures. Most of the physical humor is annoying...once or twice it works...a bit and the bit with Langdon having BOTH hands stuck in bowling balls and flailing about is simply godawful. Mostly, the film simply isn't that funny and is a film the Three Stooges and their knockabout humor would have worked much better with than Langdon. Easy to skip this one.