Sock and Run

Marvin Loback goes to meet his wife's French cousin at the docks and takes him around the city.

Pollard and Loback were two good comedians whom the Weiss Brothers stuck together in the waning days of silents to make a series of buddy comedies. They modeled them on Laurel ^ Hardy and they are not remembered fondly because they.... well, they weren't Laurel & Hardy. The Weisses figured that people were so hungry for the two Hal Roach comics they wouldn't notice. They did. The two leads had no chemistry.

That doesn't mean the shorts were bad. The fact that this comedy *ahem* borrows liberally from PUTTINZG PANTS ON PHILLIP (wit no kilt) and THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY (with no pies) doesn't make it a poor comedy. Indeed, the final third of this movie played to Pollard's strength as a gag comedian, with him in the ring fighting a much stronger opponent. On his own terms, his comedy timing was great.

This is among Snub Pollard's last silent comedies. As Snub was an Aussie and his sort of slapstick was going out of style, it's a last hurrah for this pleasant comic. From here on, most of Snub's film appearances would be without his painted on mustache and as a minor supporting character, not a leading comic or second banana as he had been in the 1910s and 20s.

The film begins with a man going to the pier to meet his cousin Alphonse who is coming in on a boat. All sorts of nonsense occurs for the first half of the movie--none of which really was plot-driven. Then in the second half, Spike takes Alphonse to Coney Island. There Alphonse sees a sign for a boxer who will take on all challengers (a common carnival attraction back in the day) and diminitive Alphonse (Pollard) insists that he can beat the boxer. Unfortunately, it's only through lots of cheating does he even have a prayer of winning!

This is a film with very little plot and lots of tiny vignettes. It's not bad, though such a film cannot compete with a more plot-driven comedy...and this is no exception. Enjoyable but slight.