Piano Mooner

In this short from Columbia Pictures, Harry Langdon plays a piano tuner who won't commit to his long-time girlfriend. So, her brother does what any good brother would do...threaten to kill Harry unless he marries his sister that day! Well, Harry has some piano tuning to do and plans on returning to marry her at 3. But the maid at the house he's visiting has an urge to marry and has decided on Harry...like it or not. After taking the ring he bought his fiance, things look scary for Harry. What's next?

In the early days of comedy, slapstick was all the rage. After all, movies were silent and not particularly sophisticated in the 1910s. And one element these films also often had was the angry person firing a gun wildly....and no one actually getting hit by the bullets. It was a VERY cheap gimmick...and never a funny one. So why in 1942 would the film have this in it towards the end?! Plus, why would everyone just stand about....watching the guy shooting at Harry?! None of it make sense and the overall quality of the film up until then wasn't bad. But this cheap joke left me feeling cold and unsatisfied.

Harry Langdon wants to get married to Gwen Kenyon, but needs a dress suit. Fortunately, Betty Blythe is willing to give him one in return for his tuning her piano so her daughter can get married. If only Fifi D'Orsay will stop putting the moves on him!

Langdon's work at Columbia was a constant struggle between his own cerebral slapstick and the heavy-handed style preferred by Jules White. Here's one in which Harry had his way, and the central gag -- Harry trying to tune a piano amidst interruptions by Miss D'Orsay, the woman who plays Miss Blythe's daughter, and Chester Conklin as a man picking up old clothes, works beautifully.