The Sawmill

I found this short, The Sawmill, on a Platinum DVD collection of Laurel and Hardy shorts. It stars Larry Semon as one of the workers. Oliver Hardy plays the foreman and chief tormentor of Semon who shares with him a rivalry for the owner's daughter's hand. Unlike the Laurel and Hardy classic Busy Bodies, not all gags take place in a sawmill, some also take place in the owner's house involving a dog and some dynamite. There are also gags involving logs, paint, falling off roofs, and water. All are perfectly executed. There's a cartoonish atmosphere that's infectious here and that would eventually serve Hardy's later partnership with Stan Laurel well. For fans of Laurel and Hardy, this is well worth seeking out!

In the 'teens and '20's, Larry Semon was a second-echelon comedian primarily in two-reel comedies. His comedies, while expensively mounted and populated with good comic actors, never quite made the leap to Chaplin, Arbuckle or Keaton standards.

It was set in (naturally enough) a lumber camp. Larry plays the "rugged he-man type" usually portrayed by Wallace Beery or Jack Holt. Semon's physical bearing makes this an amusing target.

The Sawmill was a very expensive comedy to make, more than some Chaplin pictures, but it just doesn't make it as a great comedy. If you like Ben Turpin, Lloyd Hamilton, or Charley Bower (You may have to look these names up) you'll like Semon.

This comedy short contains some fantastic stunt work. I wish I knew how many were done by the actors and which were done by the uncredited stunt performers, but while the film is filled with familiar gags and features an early appearance by Babe Hardy--better known as Oliver Hardy after his partnership with Stan Laurel--the real star of this film is some amazing stunt work. From massive falling trees barely missing the performers to high dive and one amazing double rope swing, these amazing stunts are worth watching just to enjoy for their own merit.

Overall, not a bad film, but just sit back and marvel at the work of stunt men (and perhaps stunt women) long before the days of CGI and all the safety procedures we have a century later.

As a supporting player Oliver Hardy worked in several silent films before teaming with Stan Laurel. This one, The Sawmill, was done with now forgotten silent screen comedian Larry Semon as both star and producer. Hardy did several with him.

I couldn't quite get Semon's style down, he seemed to flit from Buster Keaton, to Harry Langdon, to Stan Laurel with a little Charley Chase thrown in as well. Maybe a dash of Harold Lloyd. He's the little dunce of a worker at a sawmill who's in love with the owner's daughter. But so is Hardy who plays a Simon Legree like foreman who carries a bullwhip to enforce his will.

The more Hardy chased, the more Semon ran until the worm turned and he got the girl at the expense of a sawmill. The Sawmill had a few good moments, but it was not up to the standards of any of the folks that Semon copied.

This is definitely a "lesser known" comedy short from the 1920s. The only reason I saw it was because it was on a DVD by Kino Films featuring non-Laurel and Hardy shorts featuring Ollie. They are interesting and historically important, but also generally average to below average for the style film. Compared to shorts by Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle and Lloyd, they are definitely a step below them in quality and humor. Also, the accompanying music was pretty poor by the standards of other silent DVDs. I ended up turning OFF the sound due to the inappropriateness of the music to set the proper mood. But, despite this, they are still worth seeing.

The star of this short is Larry Semon--a well-known and popular comic from the silents that is completely unknown today. Read his IMDb biography and you'll find out what an odd life he led and how he died when only 39 years-old.

Well, after seeing this film, I could rather understand WHY Mr. Semon isn't well-known anymore--the film was dreadfully dull. While this wasn't the only Semon short on this Oliver Hardy DVD, it was certainly the most uninteresting. Save yourself the trouble--try to find some other silent short--ANY other silent short!