'Picking Peaches' isn't the Pits

Picking Peaches (1924)
Starring: Harry Langdon, Alberta Vaughn, Ethel Teare, Alice Day, Dot Farley, Vernon Dent, and Kewpie Morgan
Director: Erle C. Kenton
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

When the wife (Vaughn) of a philandering shoe salesman (Langdon) enters a beach-side beauty contest to show him up, and wins, his jealousy puts him on a path to a well-deserved fate.

Any readers around my age surely remembers the Fox series "Married With Children", which featured a bitter shoe salesman, Al Bundy, who was married to a hot wife, Peggy. As soon as the lead character's profession was established, and it was shown that he had a testy relationship with his wife (who, like Peggy Bundy, is quite attractive), I immediately thought of Al Bundy. Unlike Al, however, who ultimately always remained faithful to his wife, the cad portrayed by Harry Langdon is anything but faithful to his. Not only goes he cheat on her, but he's such a horndog that one of his wife's friends thinks she can flirt her way into convincing him to buy the wife a new hat.
Aside from the generally unlikeable nature of Harry Langdon's character--not to mention his taste in women; the lady he cheats on his wife with isn't nearly as pretty nor as personable as she is--and a single completely out-of-place and ill-executed stunt involving a ladder, "Picking Peaches" is a lot fun.

One of the fun aspects of the film is how animation is integrated into the live action, sometimes subtly, sometimes very obviously, but always to great humorous effect. (I won't go into specifics for risk of ruining a couple of the gags, but the preview for the embedded copy of "Picking Peaches" below shows one of the mixed bits of animations and live action.)

Of course, many people might also find the film appealing for the same reason those "beach party" movies are appealing--it's got plenty of beautiful women in tight little outfits. Here, those outfits are one-piece bathing suits rather than bikinis but the same principle applies. I have seen references to the "bathing beauties" in Max Sennett pictures (the great Sybil Seely was one, for example), but I hadn't imagined how integral they might be to the plots of the films in which they appeared, nor how funny the gags they performed would be. While the girls in their bathing suits are great eye candy, this film would be far less funny if they weren't in it, not just because of the trouble the main character gets into by playing around with them, but also because of the gags during the bathing suit and high-dive competition that he attends.

One thing that makes this film noteworthy is that it was Harry Langdon's very first film appearance... and he went straight from starring on the stage to starring on the screen. The character he plays here is nothing like the white-faced, simple-minded clown that would become his signature once he teamed up with Frank Capra, but it's still clear to see why he is considered one of the great comedians of the silent era. (Even if you're familiar with Langdon's work and know he's not usually your cup of tea, "Picking Peaches" might still be worth your while to check out.


(THE FILM WAS EMBEDDED HERE FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE, BUT IT IS PRESENTLY NOT AVAILABLE. HOPEFULLY, IT WILL RETURN SOON.)

A Forgotten King of Comedy (and a Queen)

During the early 1920s, comedian Harry Langdon was a star on the magnitude of Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. As sound films became the Thing, bad project choices and worse business decisions had put his career on a disastrously downward trajectory.  In 1929, he joined the Hal Roach studios with a contract to star in and supervise a series of short films.

The video embedded below is reportedly the first time Langdon's voice was heard by movie-viewing audiences. This untitled short film made to announce Roach's new star to MGM's marketing department (which distributed Roach's pictures). In addition to Langdon, the film (which is really nothing more than a skit) also features Thelma Todd and Eddie Dunn.



According to comedian Joe Libby, this short film was made to announce Roach's newest star to the marketing department of MGM, which distributed Roach's productions. I had assumed was some form of preview or trailer that Roach made to be shown in theaters featuring his short films, but now I am wondering what the reaction of the salespeople was. To me, this skit should have been about half as long as it is, and even then it might have seemed to drag. I have a sense that it was ad-libbed, and the fact that you can hear Todd laughing off camera at one point may bear this out, and perhaps it was funnier if you were there at the time. Still, if this was my introduction to the "all-new, all-talking Harry Langdon", and it was my job to make his work product commercial successes, I would be wondering how I would go about doing that. And if I were to go what is in this skit alone, I am not surprised by Harry Langdon, despite being a massive star at one point, is all but forgotten today.

Langdon's employment with Hal Roach lasted eight films, none of which were, according to film historians and other commentators, very successful, commercially or as entertainment. I read that they got better as Langdon and the Roach team--specifically many of the same talents who were part of Charley Chase's unit--got used to each other, so I chose to hunt down and watch the last one made before he was shown the door. (Since Thelma Todd co-starred in it, it was also perfect review fodder during this, The Year of the Hot Toddy.)




The King (1930)
Starring: Harry Langdon, Thelma Todd, and Dorothy Granger
Directors: James W. Horne and Charles Rogers
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When the frivolous-minded and childish King (Langdon) is seduced by his advisor's slutty wife (Granger), the Queen (Todd) takes extreme measures to stop the extra-marital shenanigans before they fully start. Naturally, her plan backfires spectacularly.

   Thelma Todd in costume (but definitely not in character) while filming "The King" 

"The King" leads me to believe that either Harry Langdon's short films for Hal Roach have an undeservedly bad reputation, or his final film for Hal Roach is a masterpiece when compared to the rest. It's not perfect, but there's never a dull moment. Even the several gags that don't quite work are not dragged out to the point where they become tedious, which is more than I can say for many comedies that I've watched.

That said, one thing that really stood out about this picture is that it didn't seem to have what I think of as the "Hal Roach Style." There's a certain similarity between the way stories unfold and the way the actors perform in the Laurel & Hardy-led shorts, the Charley Chase-led shorts, and the Thelma Todd-led shorts I've watched that isn't present here. This is probably a result of Langdon having his own style and working habits that didn't fit the "Hal Roach Style", and this may been why Langdon's films didn't go over well with audiences back then, why Roach cancelled Langdon's contract, and why these films are held in such low regard today: Harry Langdon was a square peg that Hal Roach tried--and failed--to fit into a round hole.

Maybe, Hal Roach pulled the plug on Harry Langdon's films too soon, because some of the funniest bits in the film are a melding of the Roach Style with the general feel of the rest of "The King." One of these scenes--both of which take place in the royal bedchamber--may be the first time that Thelma Todd got to show how adept she was at doing physical comedy while still managing to remain poised. During the time this film was made, Todd was being allowed to fully spread her wings as a comedienne for the first time. She had already held her own in films shared with Charley Chase, and here she shows that she could shine just as brightly along side the very different performance style of Harry Langdon. If Langdon's other Roach films are as bad as I've been led to believe, maybe this one shows that he was finally figuring out how to work with Roach's other talents. Or maybe the others he did weren't as bad as is claimed; I will have to seek out and watch one or two of them to see for myself.

But--back to "The King". Aside from the fast pace and the non-stop wackiness, this is also one of those comedies that adults and children can enjoy equally but walk away with different impressions of the story and the characters.

For adults, Harry Langdon's impish character is both funny and infuriating, and even while we're laughing at his antics, most adult viewers will be able to understand why the Queen is so agitated. I've seen her referred to as shrewish, but that's not how she comes across to me. I get the sense that she's fed up with her husband's crap and is trying to keep him from embarrassing her, himself, and the high position he occupies. Little kids, on the other hand, will most certainly identify with the King and view the Queen as the parent getting in the way of his fun.

"The King" is not a perfect film, but it's full of laughs and never dull. If you like off-the-wall comedies, I think you'll enjoy this one. I really recommend you check it out if you've heard some of those blanket statements about how awful Harry Langdon talkies are. And to make it easy, I am providing you with the opportunity to watch it right here via YouTube. (As of this writing, none of Langdon's films for Hal Roach are available on DVD.)