Fiddlesticks

At Christmas, what better to watch than Harry Langdon? This is a delightful Mack Sennett short film of 20 minutes starring Langdon. There are many hilarious scenes and even more hilariously witty titles. The story and titles were by Frank Capra, who was later to become such a famous director. Harry plays a goonish and hapless young man who wants to learn how to play the bass fiddle, and is taking lessons from 'Professor von Tempo'. But he cannot play a note and drives everyone crazy with his screeching on the strings. Meanwhile, he is taking up space at home and his father and brothers throw him out of the house because he is not bringing any money in. His mother looks downcast at the floor and allows him to go, her expression sad but resigned, a typical silent film mother. Harry was much funnier than Charlie Chaplin in my opinion. Both of them were 'the Little Fellow', scorned by ordinary people, hobbling along as vagabonds and looking lost. Langdon had the advantage of possessing a genuine baby face, and he could look like a hopeless simpleton without even trying. He is thus deeply endearing, but we know he is always going to get himself into a mess. Professor von Tempo in this film thrusts a music diploma into Langdon's hands in order to get rid of him, because the neighbours have threatened to beat him up if the racket continues. So Langdon wanders out into the street, fully qualified but wholly inept. Many comic incidents arise where he tries to play in the street but people throw rubbish at him from their windows. A 'rag and bone man' (i.e. itinerant junk collector with a cart) sees this and realizes that some of the junk being thrown out of the windows is worth collecting. So he engages Langdon to play for him while he collects the junk and puts it into his cart. Langdon, with his share, thus comes into a lot of money and returns home in a smart suit with cash in hand, much to the astonishment of his family. He has been doing well at music! This film is so funny it will make you forget all your woes. It also provides a possible recipe of survival for the world's starving musicians. (Just joking, but then so is Langdon.)

It was poignant but not surprising a few years back when Kino Video offered several Harry Langdon comedies for sale under the series title "The Forgotten Clown." Even during his heyday Langdon was never a huge celebrity like Chaplin, or a box office champ like Harold Lloyd; he had a devoted following, but was more of a critics' darling than a universally beloved star. Viewed today, his comedies are often slow in tempo, whimsical in tone, highly idiosyncratic, sometimes downright bizarre, and very much an acquired taste. If you're looking for belly-laughs you should look elsewhere, for although Langdon's comedies can be quite funny they're not gag-driven. The best of his films are amusing, quirky mood pieces built around a curiously passive, child- man protagonist you may find appealing, lovable, or perhaps icky. I tend to enjoy him, but can see why some people can't stand him. There's something undeniably eerie about a man in his 40s who looks and behaves like a kid -- and a weird, pasty-faced kid at that -- but when the act works, it works, and Harry can exert a powerful charisma.

For those curious about Langdon, Fiddlesticks is a pretty good introduction. This was among the last of the films he made for Mack Sennett before departing for First National to make features. Langdon was never really a Sennett-style comic to begin with, but, after a shaky start at the studio, he found the ideal team of collaborators and they concocted some highly enjoyable comedies. In Fiddlesticks Langdon worked with his dream team, including director Harry Edwards and writer Frank Capra; Edwards reached his own career peak working with Langdon, while of course Capra was just getting started. Harry's co-star, as usual, is Vernon Dent, who has a real showcase here in two sharply contrasting roles, first as a balding music teacher and later as a crafty junk dealer. Dent's characterizations (and makeup jobs) are so distinctly different you might not realize that the same actor plays both parts.

Nevertheless, Harry is the star of the show, quite sympathetic in his efforts to become a professional musician. Because the film is silent we can only imagine what a poor job he's doing, but that's the story here, and the main joke: it's the reaction of the other characters to Harry's (obviously awful) attempts at music-making that drives the plot. Even so, the true focal point of the film is Harry's characterization, and he's fascinating, even when he isn't doing anything especially funny. Towards the end there's a sight gag involving a pocket watch that is probably the funniest gag in the whole movie, but it seems strangely out of place, since it's the sort of business that could have been used by Andy Clyde or Billy Bevan or any of Sennett's other comics. Harry Langdon, at his best, didn't really need gags, at least not conventional ones. He's funnier, or more "himself" anyway, during a sequence at a pawnshop when he is forced to buy back his own bass fiddle from a pawnbroker who mistakenly believes it's part of his merchandise. The solution to the problem is pure Langdon: more clever than funny perhaps, but a perfect encapsulation of this comedian's special style.

Fiddlesticks can serve as a sort of Langdon litmus test for viewers. If it seems pointless, proceed no further; but if you enjoy it, as I do, you may be a Harry Langdon fan and there's more good stuff where this one came from.

This Harry Langdon short subject is one of those pieces that are almost equal parts hilarious and sad, but is one hundred per cent wonderfully done and entrancing all the way through. The whole film is also a great and effective encapsulation of Harry's character and place in the world -- he lives in the real universe where families throw out their children and everyone needs money, which is difficult to get, but he is the trusting little person who believes that he can be a musician no matter how badly he plays, and that a diploma makes him a Real Musician, who kisses his mother and tries to shake his father's hand when they throw him out, who can buy, sell, and lose his own property without even knowing it. We can laugh at his naive confusion and still really feel for him when he loses his musician certificate.

Harry's cheap room, the run-down streets, and the supporting players are all starkly and sadly realistic, and that just increases and incongruity and humor of Harry's very realistic. It's kind of existential in its solitude of the world against the man, and also extremely funny at the same time. Harry is as good as ever here, managing to make it as funny as it is almost solely through he reactions and pantomime in the uncomfortable situations. Vernon Dent shows his versatility here, playing two characters who seem totally different. The out-and-out gags that there are part of perfectly logical-absurd sequences: I won't spoil my favorite, which involves Harry in a large cage on the street.

This short reminds me of the later Laurel and Hardy film "Below Zero" in which they are also poor street musicians. Perhaps it was an inspiration as the Laurel and Hardy short, while demonstrating their usual brilliant humor, also has a more desolate, sad feel than most of their output. The titles in "Fiddlesticks" deserve commendation too; there's a funny joke in almost all of them.

I agree with the previous comment that this short, which is pretty distilled Harry Langdon, is a good litmus test of whether a viewer will like him. I do, so I loved "Fiddlesticks."

Fiddlesticks (1927)

** (out of 4)

Decent two-reeler has Harry Langdon playing the "wimp" of a rather tough family who would much rather play music than get a real job. Once he's kicked out of the house he tries to find work as a musician but he's so bad that often people just throw things at him. This here gives a junk collector a few ideas. FIDDLESTICKS comes from producer Mack Sennett and for the most part it's a watchable film, although there simply aren't enough laughs to make it work. As was usually the case, Langdon pretty much plays his typical weak character who gets pushed around by pretty much everyone. He's certainly a character all to his own and I thought the film at least did a good job at showing how determined the character is no matter how bad of a musician he is. The first half of the film really doesn't contain any laughs as we just keep hearing what a poor musician the man is and then in the second half is when we meet the junk collector. This little twist in the story is actually a clever one but I just don't think it ever gained any laughs. Langdon is certainly good in his role as is Vernon Dent who plays a double role. It's just too bad the story didn't have a few more laughs worked into it.