Soft Pedal

"Soft Pedal" is the second comedy I've seen starring James "Paul" Parrott, the younger brother of Charley Chase who would find greater success later as a director. I enjoyed it, and based on my two films -- twenty minutes -- worth of evidence, I would disagree with those who would claim that he never had a well-defined screen character. Paul Parrott seems defined by a kind of cool, scheming indolence that's quite appealing. He's the kind of guy who -- in a very funny gag here -- gets a little boy to pour water on people from roofs so that he can make money in his job as an umbrella salesman.

There are a good number of goofy and inventive gags in evidence here, not always proceeding from character -- but the water pitcher doubling for doubling for Paul's supposed tears should be a sure laugh-getter. Unfortunately, "Soft Pedal" gets a little to caught up for its own good in its plot about Paul saving a pair of blackmailed musicians that doesn't really fit in the one-reel length of the comedy and so ends up as a fairly typical wild chase. In that sense it's not the best-constructed silent comedy, but it shows of its star nicely and contains some very funny material.

Paul Parrott's comedies aren't for viewers looking for realism, coherent plotting or character motivation. No, these crazy little farragoes are for buffs who appreciate live-action films that look like Tex Avery cartoons, though they were made when Tex himself was still a youngster. In Parrott's movies people leap through walls leaving person-shaped holes, cars crash through store windows without hurting anybody, and when bombs explode -- which happens often -- the smoke clears and reveals everyone in shredded clothes, but otherwise okay. Parrott, like Ben Turpin, Larry Semon, Snub Pollard, etc., looked like a clown from outer space and wasn't meant to be taken seriously as a leading man. These guys usually hook up with a Girl at some point prior to the fade-out, but we aren't supposed to think of them having actual marriages, or being husbands or fathers. (Semon tried to play a more realistic persona in his later features, but audiences didn't buy it, and his popularity dwindled nonetheless.) In his starring shorts for the Hal Roach studio Parrott always followed the anything-for-a-laugh style more typical of Mack Sennett's crew, but in later years, under the name James Parrott, he demonstrated a comparatively sophisticated, semi-realistic approach to comedy in the films he directed for Laurel & Hardy, the Our Gang kids, and his brother Charley Chase.

In one respect this short, Soft Pedal, presents a more human side of cartoon-y Paul Parrott. Like Charlie Chaplin in The Kid, he's teamed with a cute little tyke. Parrott's sidekick is Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, a charming boy who was the first African-American kid in the Our Gang series. In the opening credits Paul's character is identified as 'Willing' and the boy is called 'Wary.' When we first meet them the duo are operating a scam similar to the one Chaplin and Jackie Coogan ran in The Kid: Sammy runs along rooftops with a watering can, sprinkling pedestrians to make them think it's raining, at which point Parrott the umbrella salesman happens by and quickly makes a sale. (It's a less destructive con than Chaplin & Coogan's window-smashing racket.) When Paul and his sidekick are approached by a young woman in distress, and learn that she and her father need $500 right away, they come to her aid the only way they know how: by burglarizing a house. How were they to know that the house they chose to burglarize would turn out to be her own?

Soft Pedal runs only ten minutes or so, and things get chaotic towards the end, but there's certainly a lot of incident packed into this frantic little reel. It's pretty silly, and not all that different from the standard Sennett output of the period, but along with the typical gags there's one genuinely funny, unexpected moment. During the burglary, when Parrott is confronted by the homeowner (the girl's father), they suddenly realize that they knew each other back in school days long ago. That gag alone makes this one worth seeing, but there are some other amusing bits along the way. And incidentally, Ethel Broadhurst is not the usual demure leading lady you expect to see in films like this one; in fact, she was one red hot mama.

Soft Pedal (1926)

** (out of 4)

Paul Parrott, Charley Chase's younger brother, plays a con-man here who runs said con with the help of a black boy (Ernie 'Sunshine Sammy' Morrison from Our Gang) where the kid would run from a roof with a water device and make people think it's raining when Parrott would then sell them an umbrella. Later in the film Parrott is asked by a lovely woman to help her father by breaking into her house. This is a pretty mixed bag because the first half of the film gets a few charming laughs but the second part pretty much falls on its face. I liked the first few gags of the film because the "con" isn't all that funny but it does mildly work because you know the film is ripping off Chaplin's THE KID (this short was filmed in 1921 but not released until '26). The second part of the film had me scratching my head more than anything and the humor it does go for just doesn't work. Not a horrible film but not one really worth watching either.

This film was included in a DVD set of Charley Chase films, but he's only the producer for the film--not an actor or director. In this film, it's his brother, James, who is the star and it does seem to be stretching it a bit to include this in the Charley Chase set. And, you may notice that underneath that HUGE mustache, he bears a strong resemblance to his brother. In fact, in one film they both played the same character! Describing the plot in detail would be a bit difficult, as the film is frenetic and makes little sense. Now this is not a criticism--the movie actually works quite well. It consists of James impressing a young lady when he accidentally captures the guy who stole her necklace. The crook is taken away but eventually escapes. Will Jimmy be able to get the girl by the end of the film? What do you think?! Some nice sight gags and a good pace make this one worth watching. While far from perfect, it's an enjoyable romp.

By the way, one of the characters is a cute black kid and it's nice to see that unlike many films of the day, he's not shown negatively. In fact, he's an amazingly capable kid!!