Holding His Own

This is one of several short comedies that Ben Turpin made for the Weiss Brothers towards the end of the silent era. Of the three Turpin comedies on the DVD, this is the only one that shows serious evidence of degradation over time due to the use of nitrate stock. It was recently released along with several other Weiss Brothers shorts on a DVD entitled "Weiss-O-Rama".

This is a perfectly average film about the adventures Ben goes through on the way to a society party with his wife. The first half is about him having a run-in with an obnoxious neighbor and in the second he discovers his tux is dirty and does some silly maneuvering to get another one.

While I like old comedies and have seen Ben in several excellent ones, this one just didn't make me laugh all that much. Plus, the best part of the film (the tux that falls apart as he dances) was stolen from the Harold Lloyd film, THE FRESHMAN--and Lloyd sure did it a lot better.