Clunked on the Corner

Johnny Burke is doing his Harry Langdon naif imitation for this late Sennett silent as a newsboy who thinks it would be a fine thing to catch crook Vernon Dent and pick up a nice reward thereby. But while he's standing around blankly, some stolen pearls are planted in his pocket. The usual mischief ensues.

Sennett was preparing to go into sound -- and color! -- production, but in the meantime he still had to meet his releasing schedule, and the late silent Sennetts are pretty good -- rarely great, but certainly consistently amusing, with a practiced crew in front of and behind the camera. Burke may be the lead, but it's Sennett regular Vernon Dent who has the best role.

In the 1920s, Mack Sennett's best comedians had long gone as were his glory years with Keystone Studio. However, he did continue working independently and his shorts of the 1920s were distributed by Paramount. "Clunked on the Corner" is one of these films.

The film stars Johnny Burke, Carmelita Geraghty, Vernon Dent. Johnny sells newspapers and notices that a guy standing near him on the sidewalk is the wanted man on the front page of the paper! This villain (Dent) slips away but his accomplice (Geraghty) soon bumps into Johnny and plants some valuable pearls on him, as the shop owner is suspicious. Later, she invites Johnny to her house. He thinks he's going to get lucky...she just wants to get the pearls back. Soon, he realizes he's in the thieves' hideout and when the cops soon arrive, he assumes they are members of the gang. What's next? See the film.

This is a very pleasant comedy...despite the leading man being a forgotten comic today. There's very little in it that is hilarious, but it did keep my attention and had a few funny bits. Well worth seeing if you like silent comedies.