The Rent Collector

Oliver Hardy plays the heavy in this slapstick short to star clown Larry Semon, who's most famous for making arguably the worst silent film of all time, the 1925 "The Wizard of Oz." "The Rent Collector," thankfully, is much better; surprisingly, I thought it was the funniest short in the Pordenone Silent Film Festival's "Laurel or Hardy" program. Besides the comedy sometimes resulting in laughs, it also helps that this, unlike Semon's later feature-length film, doesn't spew duck vomit (that's a reference to a duck puking on Semon in the movie) on a classic children's book or base much of its supposed humor on cruel racial stereotypes (albeit, that may be due to the entire cast in this one being almost as white as Semon's grotesque makeup).

The gag of the woman falling into a pot hole after Semon lays his jacket over it was amusing, as was him and the policeman both ignoring her drowning to get into a chase. There's some good exploitation of expected and unexpected gags later, with a couple bits of business involving knives being obvious, whereas those with cars are less so. The gags in general tend to be fairly elaborate and not as broad as in some other slapstick shorts, although the violence remains cartoon level, and the entire thing devolves into nonsensical running around in the end. And, I have no idea why a barber shop is underneath a street drain; does the place get flooded every time it rains, or what. But, then, that raises the question of why Hardy wants a barber to shave his painted-on beard in the first place. Logic is but a pratfall here.

There isn't much left of this Larry Semon short, in which Semon is sent to collect the rents in a slum neighborhood. Oliver Hardy plays the tough plug-ugly who has various comic things happen to him, which he then takes out of the cast.

Or so I imagine. All that's available is the sequence in which barber Pete Gordon attempts to shave Hardy, while kids torment him with fake spiders, ad an accident causes a pot of boiling pitch to cover his face. If that happened to you or me, we'd suffer from third-degree burns. In a short comedy, it makes Hardy throw Gordon around like a rag doll -- indeed, in part of it, it is a dummy he's tossing.

Semon is not one of my favorite silent comics, but it's a pity there isn't more of this available, if only for Hardy.

"The Rent Collector" is a comedy short from forgotten silent film star Larry Semon. While Semon was very popular in the day, today very few would recall his name...which is a shame as often his films were fun and highly acrobatic...and this one is no exception.

The story is set in a very mean town...with lots of big thugs who delight on beating up people and stealing. The biggest meanie is played by Oliver Hardy...who often played thugs in this point in his career. Into this nutty environment arrives a group of social workers. When one of them is accidentally left behind, Larry does what he often does in films...comes to the rescue of a lady and stands up to much tougher and stronger foes...defeating them using his wit and acrobatics.

Overall, a high energy and fun film...not one of Semon's best but still quite nice.

I recently discovered Larry Semon because he has become proverbial in Italy. Well, not with his name... American comedians used to get local names in Europe in the 20s and 30s. And Larry Semon was called "Ridolini" (ridere is the Italian verb for "to laugh", but the nickname sounds like a family name, so that would translate to something like "Mr. Laughly").

My grandmother used to call me and my brother "Ridolini" when we did something funny as children do. When asked, she told me the name came from a comedian who was very famous when she was young (she was born in the mid 10s). Recently I found myself using the word to my son and I got thinking "Whoever was this guy?" - the technology of this decades lets you discover things... fast. So here I am online, watching this movie off You Tube and discovering my beloved IMDb has next to nothing on this movie and other of the same actor (who was considered in the same league as "Crik e Crok" - Laurel and Hardy or "Charlot" - Charlie Chaplin). Now, Italy did like slapstick comedy more than other, more developed I may say, kinds of comedy. For instance, the Marx brothers were not nearly as famous in Italy as they were in anglosaxon countries, and I must say Charlie Chaplin was well liked because he did put lots of physical, down to earth laughs in movies which contained much more than that (and I suspect the Italian public of back then did not really get the much more). I do rather like the Marx brothers, but... Larry Semons, and this movie in particular, did steal some laughs for me.

The scenes are... fast, breakneck fast, absurdly violent: I believe it is totally meant to be like that. You should watch this kind of comedy thinking about watching a cartoon. People get thrown down a ravine and walk out, which is absurd, but the absurd was part of the laugh. That said... This guy was good. Hardy was also good as the bad, violent guy who owns the neighborhood.

The movie is fast, fast paced and does not have much of a meaning except what you see on screen, which is just basic. histrionic, brainless fun. At that, it works perfectly, which is why I will give it an 8. A pity this guy has been forgotten (in America: not in Italy where curious sonorized versions of his movies were still getting laughs in the '70s - I am not that old, and by the '80s it had disappeared, but TV was still quite full of Laurel and Hardy).