El vencedor

This is the first comedy short that's on disc two of the "American Slapstick" DVD collection. It stars Larry Semon as a golfer whose sister is trying to avoid the advances of regular heavy Oliver Hardy. Hardy here, years before his fateful teaming with Stan Laurel, is at his blustering best whether suffering the spill of soup on his face because of Semon's golf ball falling from a hole in the ceiling or getting kicked by a mule or running head first into a stack of boxes. There's also a hilarious fight on Semon's part with a gopher who's not above using a gun! LOL! Some of the scenes involving his black caddy may border on the uncomfortable so one should be glad his sequence doesn't last very long. Also, there's this other golfer who keeps on getting in the way who has his own hilarious bluster. So on that note, I recommend Golf.

It's hard to believe that back in the early 1920s, Larry Semon was one of the top movie comics--as he is practically unheard of today. In fact, I think the only reason I found this short on DVD was because like many of Semon's films, his co-star was Oliver Hardy and this film was part of Passport Video's "The Laurel OR Hardy Collection"--films featuring one or the other before they were permanently teamed in 1927.

While this is not a bad film, it's not particularly inspired either and ranks as just another mediocre Semon film. On a few occasions, his shorts were brilliant, but this time it lacks the energy and amazing stunt-work that set his best films apart from most of the rest. Nothing special, but also worth a peek if you want to see Hardy in action as a villain.

The film is very scattershot, barely developing one comic situation before moving on to another, and another. As a result, it seems much longer than it is. It has one laugh-out-loud gag, despite its racist premise: a black man attempts escape from what he thinks is a ghost. The actor does a magnificent job of looking like he's trying to run away while terror leaves his feet stubbornly rooted to the ground. For Laurel and Hardy fans, it's interesting to see Oliver Hardy before he'd developed his meticulous, slow-burning character.

As I see more of Larry Semon's work I'm beginning to appreciate it more purely on its own terms, which I think it has to be appreciated. Unlike other comedians before, during, and since his career, Larry wasn't really interested much in developing funny plots, scenes, characters, or personas. His films are gag-fests, which give him the opportunity to indulge in hugely creative, impressive, and often funny visual nonsense on a big scale.

Just look at the title of this one. It's just called "Golf." No reference to the events of a story involving golf, because it's really a showcase for crazy Larry Semon gags involving golf. Some semblance of a situation is introduced in the beginning. At first it seems like an excuse to set up some very punny title cards (which I must admit appreciating), but then it becomes clear that it's also setting up a funny bit wherein Larry is introduced rather destructively playing golf indoors. Oliver Hardy and Vernon Dent, both to go on to very long and successful comedy careers away from Semon are competing over his sister, and Hardy is in full burly-moustache-man mode.

We then move to probably the highlight of this short -- a very funny and really stunningly-orchestrated sequence involving a burrowing rodent moving Larry's golf ball back and forth as he tries to play it. Animals seemed to be a mine for his imagination as there are a bunch of them here.

Now, ethnic humor was far from uncommon in the films of this time, but it's impossible not to notice that almost every one of Larry Semon's films in particular seems to feature at least one sequence mocking black people. This one is no different, with an extended bit based on the stereotype of black servants being shuddering cowards. A pattern like this, I think, makes it safe to say that Semon's films display racist tendencies, to a greater extent than can be written off as a consequence of his being "a product of his time." I think we have to try to enjoy and evaluate his legitimate talents separately from the evidence of his character flaws.

After more fun and disconnected business at the golf course (including a funny but completely impossible scene in which Larry accidentally hits an egg with his golf club -- the egg doesn't break when the club hits it, but then flies through the air only to break when it lands on an unsuspecting victim), we are taken back to the family we originally met for a brief wrap-up.

I personally happen to enjoy the kind of human, personal comedy based on characters that Larry Semon tended to ignore, but "Golf" is a good example of him doing his specialty -- big, funny, spectacular gags -- well.

I was pleasantly surprised to spot my friend Joe Rock in a supporting role in this Larry Semon movie. Joe Rock kindly permitted me to interview him in his home a few years before his death. Rock was a real utility man in the early days of American films. With time out for combat service in the Great War, he put his extremely comical features to use as an actor in comedy shorts, and had even more success as a writer, producer and director. He deserves some sort of prize as the Academy Award winner who had to wait the longest to receive his Oscar. Joe Rock won a Short Subject Oscar for his documentary film 'Krakatoa', but was in Europe when the award was announced. When he returned Stateside, poor record-keeping left him unable to prove that he was the film's producer, so the Academy refused to release the Oscar trophy. More than thirty years later, while moving an old filing cabinet, Rock discovered some business documents which enabled him to prove that 'Krakatoa' was his film ... and to claim his Oscar several decades late.

Unfortunately, this movie 'Golf' isn't nearly as interesting as Joe Rock's career. Off the screen, comedian Larry Semon was an excellent amateur golfer, even introducing Oliver Hardy (his second banana in this film) to the sport. It would have been nice if Semon had taken advantage of this movie's theme to show off his prowess on the links. Instead, we get a dumb racist sequence featuring a black man frightened of a ground squirrel in a bag. There's also a very Semonesque sequence featuring an enormous vase teetering on a too-small stand. Larry Semon's universe is full of items stacked precariously high, teetering dangerously ... but (predictably enough) always falling and smashing eventually.

Semon often gave himself a love interest in his films, but here the leading lady is cast as his sister. She's Lucille Carlisle, a pert flirt. Carlisle does a neat bit of physical comedy involving a door. Later, Oliver Hardy has one nice piece of volte-face acting when he barges into a room, all bombast and bluster, then he instantaneously morphs into a courtly gent (resembling the 'Ollie' of Hal Roach films yet to come) when he sees there's a lady in the room.

Normally, I'm very glad to see Vernon Dent, a prolific and talented but sadly under-rated supporting comedian who came to a tragic end. (Dent, a victim of diabetic retinopathy, spent his last years in poverty and total blindness.) Unfortunately, at this point in their respective careers, Dent and Oliver Hardy are almost exactly the same size and shape ... and they're cast in similar roles in 'Golf', so this movie has one big blusterer too many. The film ends with Hardy getting kicked in the face by a mule ... an image which left me wincing rather than laughing. 'Golf' had a lot of potential, but it ultimately takes a mulligan. My rating: just 4 out of 10.