In California in the early 1980s, I interviewed Clyde Cook (from "Brizzo", Down Under) near the end of his long life. He had a fascinating career, performing in American vaudeville as the Kangaroo Boy, and arriving in New York City just in time for the 1919 Actors' Equity strike. In his prime, Clyde Cook's acrobatic abilities were equal to those of the great Buster Keaton, Al St John and Lupino Lane. Unfortunately, most of Cook's starring vehicles -- low-budget shorts -- failed to make full use of his dazzling acrobatic talents. Even in the feature film 'He Who Gets Slapped', Cook has extensive screen time as a circus clown but he confines his acrobatics to a single hurdle/back-handspring/run-off that left me wanting to see more.
Cook's on-screen appearance was rather off-putting. He was a scrawny "gowk", resembling the later English comedian Nat Jackley (or a frailer version of the American comedian Gil Lamb). In his starring vehicles -- including 'Should Sailors Marry?' -- Cook typically wore a huge brush moustache that I consider unpleasant to look at because of its calculated asymmetry. When Cook isn't doing his acrobatics, it's difficult to see what he has to offer as a performer.
In 'Should Sailors Marry?', Cook plays off against burly Noah Young, a talented character actor who's better known for his second-banana work opposite Harold Lloyd and Snub Pollard. Young and Cook have one excellent scene here; in which Young's character -- a wrestler -- starts to sleepwalk, and thinks he's having a wrestling match. Amazingly, he manages to wrestle Cook without ever actually waking up. Cook's physical comedy here is excellent, but I kept waiting for him to cut loose with some truly first-rate acrobatics that never arrived.
Oliver Hardy (pre-Laurel) has one brief scene as an insurance medico, giving a fine performance in a role very different from his later "Ollie" character. Cook does a bit of dancing here, performing an eccentric step that has also been captured on film by Buster Keaton and Groucho Marx. I have very fond memories of Clyde Cook -- one of the very few male actors from the silent-film era whom I ever met -- so it pains me that I can't rate this short comedy any funnier than 4 out of 10.
