Broke in China

Ben Turpin took a year off from the movies to nurse his dying wife and by the time he returned to the screen, his appeal had faded. He was in his mid-fifties by the time he made this movie, which put him in a sailor suit in China. His boss, Mack Sennett, was distributing through Pathe, which was also handling Hal Roach -- and Roach would jump the next year to the better-financed MGM. The Christies were flourishing, Fox, Paramount and Universal has short subject departments.... so, while Sennett was certainly turning out comedies as good as ever, the competition, with the expense of sound on the horizon, was heating up -- and Sennett's once-a-decade star, Harry Langdon had just left to go independent.

Nor is this a bad comedy short. There is some lovely cinematography -- the opening shot set in Shanghai is quite an achievement -- and the editing is as good as ever. However, the modern audience may well be put off by some of the eye-dialect language and stereotypes. The story told in flashback is full of typically good Sennett gags and the payoff joke is a good one -- to anyone familiar with the conventions of 19th century stage comedy. I'd save this one for later in your viewing, after you're thoroughly enamored of Turpin's work at the Sennett studio.

This is a short from Mack Sennett that stars Ben Turpin. Apart from his crossed eyes, I really can't see what Turpin had to offer from this one. It is set, supposedly, in China. You do start with a nice shot of a Chinese street but the rest is shot on some sound stage and all the 'Chinese' are white folks who don't look the least bit Chinese. There isn't a ton of plot in this one. Ben doesn't realize he's gambling and while he has lots of unfunny flashback scenes, he continues to win more and more money. And, at the end, he learns something odd about the B-girls that are trying to separate him and his friend from their money. All in all, the film is without laughs and is very talky--something pretty odd for a silent comedy. You can do better than this one.

Broke in China (1927)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Mack Sennett produced this short, which I believe was meant to be a comedy even though I didn't laugh a single time. Ben Turpin plays a man who is in China and begins telling stories (via flashbacks) to two different women. While all of this is going on he doesn't realize that he's also gambling. BROKE IN CHINA is somewhat of an appropriate title since this two-reeler is pretty broke on laughs. It seems Turpin is a hit or miss with most people but I've often found myself enjoying his work so I was looking forward to this short, although it didn't take long for me to realize that it wasn't going to offer much. The film takes place in China yet there's not a single Chinese person on hand here. I know films from this era often just put white people in the roles but this sucker doesn't even try to disguise this fact. Most of the time you just see men with beards as if this is suppose to mean someone is from China? There are several flashback sequences that contain zero laughs and I do wonder if these were shot for this film or perhaps they're just scenes from other movies. Either way, this film is pretty much a complete miss so there's really no reason to watch it unless you've got to see every Turpin movie ever made.