Frauds and Frenzies

I'm not terribly familiar with Larry Semon, the comedian with whom Stan Laurel co-starred in this 1918 two-reeler, and who later appeared in a number of films with Laurel's future partner Oliver Hardy. He was well-known in his day and here appears to be a very capable comic actor and performer. In fact, the best thing "Frauds and Frenzies" has going for it is the charming interaction between Semon and Laurel as two chain-gang convicts who escape. It's delightful to watch them as they gleefully cause mischief together and squabble over comic misunderstandings. Their timing together is excellent, and it seems like a shame that more of their films together don't survive if for no other reason.

"Frauds and Frenzies" moves fast enough that it never drags, but the actual material here is not very original or memorable. There's one rather racist sequence that won't play well with most modern audiences (Semon and Laurel are both dismayed to find that the girl behind an umbrella with whom they have been flirting is black). Not boring but nothing to write home about, though I am curious to see Larry Semon in his other films.

Well, looks like Stan Laurel told John McCabe a whopper in MR. LAUREL AND MR. HARDY. He claimed someone said, "This guy is funnier than Semon," while this was being filmed and Semon in retaliation had Laurel (they were both paying convicts) handcuffed to a tree and did the rest of the picture without him, and then fired him. No such scene exists in the movie. Laurel is basically a co-star in this one. He is not around for the comic chase at the climax, which is pretty standard for a Semon comedy, but what do you expect? It is a starring vehicle for Semon. It is amazing he gave that much screen time to Laurel. This is the last of three Larry Semon comedies with Laurel. His roles get bigger with each one. Did Semon fire him after this one? You look at Laurel's filmography and he seems to be working steady and the Semons are actually the only ones from this period where he doesn't have the starring role, before and after. He seems to be hopping from studio to studio. It has been said this may have been during a period when Vitagraph temporarily shut down. I think it is just as likely Laurel moved on to do shorts where he was in the lead. Oliver Hardy also worked with Semon, but a few years later and was kinder in his reminiscence about him. As for the movie itself, this is one of the better Semon comedies and it is helped by Laurel's presence. Some of the gags seem very similar to later Laurel and Hardy movies.

I do wish people would think first before they start making the usual of sort of pious statements about the portrayal of African Americans in Semon comedies. In a discussion of another Semon film, for instance, some worthy gentleman mentions how he dislikes seeing a caricatural portrayal of "a negro" (the splendid Spencer Bell in that case). Well, I must say to that gentleman and to anyone else who is inclined to try and tag a racist label on Semon, that I personally very much like to see African Americans getting parts in films at a time when it was still very difficult for them to do so and having an opportunity to exercise their talent as actors, even if, it is true, the parts tend to be caricatural (as they continued to be to a greater or lesser extent for decades to come in most US films).

Spencer Bell was regularly employed by Semon in relatively significant roles in his films. He is one of the very few African American actors to have had regular employment in films at this period and that is to a large extent due to his association with Semon. It is also clear that the two have a close working relationship rather in the way, at the Roach studios, Snub Pollard had with the young Ernie Morrison in the days before "The Little Rascals" made the latter the most celebrated and best paid black film-star in the US.

But Semon quite regularly, as here, employs black actors in other small roles and he also has a way of slightly modifying the standard racial joke to give it a more honourable status. In Kid Speed for instance he uses the well-worn gag about blacks being frightened to death of anyone with a sheet over their head who look like a ghost but he varies it significantly. The sheet over his head becomes spotted with oil or whatever so that it comes to resemble something really scary - a Ku Klux Klan hood!

The same is true here if not quite so obviously. The gag about a man mistaking a white woman for a black one certainly does not originate with Semon, It appears in one form or another in countless films (the first occurrence I can think of being in British director G. A. Smith's A Kiss in the Tunnel of 1899). Note however that in this film not only is the black actress notably good-looking and elegant but that at one point Laurel actually does kiss her, actually on screen, albeit under a misapprehension, something that was still (and would be for many years to come) entirely taboo in a US film. Also note that the actress is given some real work to do, not merely the stock comic reaction but first teasing the shy Semon when he backs away and then fury with the hapless Laurel when he dares to actually kiss her. These make seem like tiny points but to African Americans at this time every little gain was worth gold.

I am not trying to suggest Larry Semon was some kind of starry-eyed philanthropist or campaigner for black rights but he was certainly no enemy to African Americans.

On another matter, Stan Laurel was a fine comedian but not a particularly nice person. His later snide comments with regard to Semon are entirely in character.In fact Semon shares honours with Laurel in this film, even effacing himself at times to give Laurel scope. The only reason Laurel is largely absent from the last few minutes of the film are that it ends, as usual, with the kind of daredevil stunts at which Semon excelled and of which one has absolutely no reason to suppose that Stan Laurel was capable.

This is actually a very good comedy. Larry Semon and Stan Laurel work very well together. Laurel is really at his early years best.

The story is of two convicts always trying to escape, until one day when they actually manage to. They meet up with a girl and become rivals for her charms.

The second part of the film falls short when Laurel almost totally disappears from the picture. According to Stan Laurel this was in response to the actor Antonio Moreno commenting at a showing of the dailies that Laurel was funnier than Semon, causing Semon to change the plotline of the story.

This was a pretty interesting film because although Oliver Hardy often was teamed up with Larry Semon, this is one of the few existing films that features Semon and Stan Laurel (about a decade before being teamed with Oliver Hardy). And as far as this teaming goes, it actually seemed to work a little better than the Semon-Hardy films because instead of Laurel being a villain, he is almost a co-equal with Semon--a friend from the chain gang that is loyal,...to a point. Plus, what I really liked is how both comedians worked so well together on the physical humor. While Semon was always very physical in his films, Laurel is much more so than usual and the change is welcome. Both he and Semon spend much of the film being knocked about and I never knew Laurel had it in him! Additionally, this is far better than most existing Semon films, as most are at best mediocre and quite unpolished. But in this one, the plot seems a little more well thought out and the laughs are there. A good film for both and one that still works well today--almost 90 years later.