Film buffs know Edward Everett Horton as Hollywood's funniest fussbudget, a welcome addition to many a musical or light comedy during his heyday in the 1930s and '40s. He's one of those beloved character actors whose first appearance is often greeted with applause at public screenings of films such as Trouble in Paradise or Shall We Dance, because we know that when Mr. Horton shows up, things are going to get funny. Even when he was given hokey or otherwise uninspired material EEH could rise above it, with that highly expressive face and wonderful, plummy voice. He almost always gets his laughs, and when the material is good, he gets BIG laughs.

I'm a longtime Horton fan, but until fairly recently I didn't realize he had a substantial career in silent movies. As it happens, he appeared in a number of silent features, always in featured or leading roles, and during 1927-8 starred in a series of eight two-reel comedies, produced by the one and only Harold Lloyd. These films still exist, and in recent months I've managed to see three of them. Horton comes off surprisingly well, even deprived of his famous voice. (Like other comedians who made a stronger impression with sound, such as W. C. Fields or Eddie Cantor, I've found that I can "hear" Horton when I watch his silent work.) Dad's Choice is a good example of what EEH could do in the field of strictly visual comedy.

Horton plays a hapless young man -- not so young really, even in 1928, but no matter -- who is courting a wealthy young lady. Her father disapproves of the match, and keeps her locked up in a well-guarded mansion, where she is protected by a vigilant bodyguard. (I should add at this point that the print of Dad's Choice I've seen did not have title cards in English, so I had to guess what was happening without any help from the text, but this is how I interpreted the story.) Basically, it's a Romeo-and-Juliet situation, where the young lovers must outwit disapproving elders and elope. But the plot is just a framework for the gags, which emphasize that our hero finds himself thwarted and publicly embarrassed at every turn.

I don't know if producer Harold Lloyd took an active role in the Horton comedies, but he clearly influenced the content. Some of Lloyd's own most memorable routines grew out of social humiliation; witness the "disintegrating tuxedo" sequence in The Freshman. Much of Horton's material in Dad's Choice plays like a Lloyd comedy. The film kicks off with a routine in which EEH repeatedly tries to cross a busy intersection, but the crowd keeps forcing him back, much to the consternation of an irascible traffic cop. (Interestingly, Charlie Chaplin filmed a similar routine for Modern Times several years later, but ultimately cut it.) Later, in a fancy dress shop, Horton tangles with a sour tempered matron played by Josephine Crowell, best remembered as Lloyd's awful mother-in-law in his 1924 feature Hot Water. Here, the lady's lapdog snatches away a gift Horton has purchased for his girlfriend, then hides it under his mistresses' chair, but whenever EEH tries to grab it back, the lady thinks he's being fresh. This rather risqué bit reminded me not only of Lloyd but of Charley Chase, another master of comic embarrassment.

Dad's Choice is a pleasant short that rattles along at a nice clip, and builds to an amusing chase finale. In the last scene a significant matter of mistaken identity is resolved, and our young (or youngish) lovers are wed by one of those stray clergymen who always seemed to turn up in silent comedies just before the fadeout. I wish these Horton comedy shorts were more easily accessible, either as a stand-alone set or as extras with some of EEH's later feature films. They're fun, well produced short comedies that deserve wider exposure.

helpful•4