Film #8 - Next Door Neighbors (1931)

     

Starring Edgar Kennedy and Franklin Pangborn.

 

Featuring Mabel Forrest, Arthur Housman, and Pert Kelton.

 

Directed by Harry Sweet.

 

Synopsis

"Oh! I beg your pardon!"

 

   



"Next Door Neighbors" begins in the Green household, with Mr Green (Edgar Kennedy), a composer by profession, writing music on his piano.

His wife (Mabel Forrest) is busy whisking eggs and humming, and the noise disrupts Mr Green from his composition. After an angry tirade delivered to his wife, Mr Green carries on.

Meanwhile, next door, Mr Andrews (Arthur Housman) is trying to recover from a headache - I like to think it's caused by a hangover. He lies down on the sofa complete with towel for his forehead, whilst his wife (Pert Kelton) does housework.

Outside, the landlord (Franklin Pangborn) is building a fence as his son (George Billings) watches on.

The phone rings in the Andrews residence, much to Mr Andrews' annoyance. Mrs Andrews answers it. It's a call for Mrs Green. Mrs Andrews has a system where if she knocks on the wall three times and Mrs Green knocks back on the wall three times, it means that she is coming over to get the phone.

The knocking disturbs Mr Green, but his wife goes over to take the call.

As she goes outside, Mrs Green accidentally steps on the landlord's fence that he is building, and snaps one of the panels. The call is actually for Mr Green, so Mrs Green has to go back to her house to get her husband. She steps on another fence panel accidentally and breaks it, much to the landlord's annoyance.

 

An irate Mr Green goes next door to take the phone-call breaking more panels on his way there and back.

Mrs Andrews goes next door, breaking more fence panels on her way over and annoying her husband by letting the door slam.

More broken fence panels, more slamming of doors and more phone calls occur to the annoyance of the landlord, Mr Andrews, and Mr Green.

Eventually, a full-scale 'tit-for-tat' war escalates between Mr Andrews and Mr Green.

In the ensuing destruction, Mr Green rips off the Andrews' back door, Mr Andrews returns the favour, Mr Green upsets the Andrews' dinning table, and Mr and Mrs Andrews dance a waltz around the Green's living room, destroying most of their furniture in the process.

Mr Green grabs his shotgun but when he loads it, the gun goes off and he destroys his music manuscript.

The Greens go round to the Andrews' house and use the phone to call the police station. Before the call is completed, Mr Andrews rips the phone off the wall!

All four of them set off in a huff towards the Green residence, walking across and breaking the entire fence that the landlord has just finished making.

In the Green residence, Mr Andrews is on the floor in some kind of leg-lock administered by Mr Green. Mrs Andrews whacks Mr Green with an umbrella whilst Mrs Green hits Mr Andrews with a broom.

The landlord storms in and demands that they all get out and leave his properties, destroying Mr Green's piano in the process.

The film ends with the landlord finally in peace to finish his fence, only for his son to snap a panel right in front of him! The landlord finally snaps and moves angrily towards his son...
 

 

 

Review

"We love to be neighborly"

 

 

Here at Magnolia's Musings, I always take an interest in "lesser known" comedy shorts. Whilst in the coming weeks I'm finalising reviews of classic films by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, I thought that it would be worthwhile to write a short review of a short film that I stumbled upon by chance after purchasing Volume I of Alpha Video's "Rediscovered Comedies of Edgar Kennedy".

Magnolia's Musings was set up to offer my own thoughts on the giants of black and white comedy, but it's also important, I feel, to use this space as a place where overlooked, ignored films can gain some attention.

You're probably thinking that there's a reason why some short films are never mentioned on popular review sites or available easily on widely distributed, lavishly restored sets: It's because they're really not that good, right?

But that argument doesn't wash with me. Take, for example, the fact that here in the UK, you can't purchase any official Charley Chase or Harry Langdon sets because they've never been given UK releases on DVD. By the argument above, because they're unavailable, should I treat those clowns as "minors" and "unworthy" of my attention? No!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this blog was set up in part to give coverage to those films that you might not necessarily have thought deserving of a review. Perhaps some of them you haven't seen before. Perhaps you might be encouraged to go and watch them. If so, great!

But of chief import is that here at Magnolia's Musings, I'm not drawn into the school of critics who will look to tell you that "Film X" is rubbish and unworthy of your attention. If you like comedy, there's always something of interest in watching obscure or unmerited films. Hopefully, they should make you laugh, even if they aren't "classics".

Finally, Magnolia's Musings is not a blog that takes itself too seriously. I like giving space to the unknown -and- the celebrated, but ultimately these posts are little more than my (lightly edited) streams of consciousness that I feel I have to jot down on paper after watching these films. It's not a scholarly blog, nor is it a critical blog where you will find production dates, actor biographies, or obscure details. Above all, I like writing about laughter, and films that make me laugh.

"Next Door Neighbors" is a film very much in that vein above that I've been writing about. A film that is obscure; not very well-known, probably not watched very often, and certainly it has never been painstakingly restored.

It's also not a classic, and I mean that in it a nice way.

It will make you laugh in places, but you won't be in a rush to watch it again. It is essentially, a product of its time; to be watched for light entertainment, enjoyed, and forgotten about.

However, if you're a fan of comedy from this period (and indeed the Hal Roach studios) it does feature some old friends that you'll be happy to see.

For the Roach fans, you'll be pleased to see that Edgar Kennedy is in good form, and it's also a chance to see every Roach fans' favourite drunk, Arthur Housman, as an un-inebriated Mr Andrews. There's also a minor role for onetime Hal Roach Studios actress, Pert Kelton.

One of my favourite moments in the short is when Arthur Housman and Pert Kelton dance a waltz round the Green's living room, destroying many of their possessions in the process. Both show their athleticism - kicking and prancing around fallen objects and tables.

Pert's easy on the ear - nice accent - and Housman's facial expressions are as charming as ever, although he's so typecast as a drunk in my mind that it's hard to see him performing any other role without being disappointed. I keep thinking: "He's going to do something really funny in a minute," but it never quite comes in this short, sadly.

Unsurprisingly, Edgar Kennedy is the star of the short. I really don't want to use the phrase: "Kennedy is the master of the 'slow-burn'" seeing as -everybody- seems to mention that phrase whenever they mention Kennedy, but, well, he does a great job here with an under-par script in making the 'slow-burn' work!

I could have said: "Kennedy will fix it" - the script, that is.

I should have said that, shouldn't I?

Good Kennedy moments in this film include ripping the Andrews' backdoor from off its hinges to gain access to their house and telephone, and accidentally firing his shotgun at his music manuscript, destroying it in the process. I actually feel sad for Kennedy, lying on the floor crying with his hard work destroyed!

  
Before watching this short, I hadn't heard of Franklin Pangborn, but apparently he was an extremely talented actor known for his comic prowess in films of the late 20s, 30s, and 40s. He gets top billing in the list of actors, above Edgar Kennedy. 

Part of the fun of watching Franklin Pangborn as the landlord is to see his reaction to every broken fence panel that Mr and Mrs Green and Mr and Mrs Andrews ruin. The joke of people "accidentally" stepping on a fence panel could get tiresome quickly, but the humour is maintained in this short rather than the gag becoming repetitive by the fact that you're constantly wondering whether that particular broken fence panel will be the last straw and see the landlord snap.

Even though the resolution to all of those broken fence panels is expected and a little too predictable - the landlord throwing out his violent tenants - the film will go down in history in my mind as featuring one of the creepiest endings to a short ever, with a snarling Pangborn advancing closer and closer towards the camera (the camera acting as a substitute for his own son's eyes). Check out the picture at the end of this post (if you dare!)!

Even though I'm not one to whinge at picture quality very often - I got through my poor quality copy of "Seven Footprints to Satan", after all, and still enjoyed the film - it is a bit of a shame that at several moments in this short you can't quite make out some of the actors facial expressions - especially long distance shots - but still, who am I to complain. Will this ever be cleaned up and loving restored? No! Of course not! 

Overall, the film is solid if unspectacular, with a few nice novelties. It's worth a watch, if you haven't seen it before, but you probably won't be in a rush to watch it again.

And the ending will creep you out...

What do you think of "Next Door Neighbors"?
 

Watch it

"If I find my shotgun, you'll see what I'm going to do!"

 

 

"Next Door Neighbors" is available on DVD as part of "The Rediscovered Comedies of Edgar Kennedy: Volume 1," released by Alpha Home Entertainment.

 

Here's the link: Edgar Kennedy Volume 1 DVD

Film #7 - Going Ga-Ga (1929)

     

Starring Anita Garvin and Marion Byron.

 

Featuring Max Davidson and Edgar Kennedy.

 

Directed by James W. Horne.

 

Synopsis

"You would have to fall on that birthday cake!"

 

  

 

   



Anita and Marion are fired from their jobs in a bakery because Marion happened to sit on a birthday cake.

The pair walk off, only for Anita to discover that Marion has "Greetings" printed on her backside where she sat on the cake!

In the meantime, detective Max Davidson takes up a new case. A baby has been kidnapped and the distraught mother and father (Edgar Kennedy) will pay Max $10,000 if he can find baby Oscar.

The woman who has kidnapped baby Oscar bumps into Anita and Marion, and asks them if they will hold the baby for her for a few moments. The kidnapper then does a runner, leaving the baby with Anita and Marion.

The girls enjoy holding the baby until they overhear Max informing police officers that the kidnapped baby must be close by! Anita and Marion walk away from Max, carefully concealing the fact that they are carrying the child.

They try to get rid of the baby by placing it in an empty baby carriage, but the carriage rolls back towards them and knocks over Marion, who is thrown into the road. A police officer helps her up, which strikes fear into the heart of Marion!

The rightful owner of the baby carriage comes back, leaving Anita and Marion holding baby Oscar once more.

The girls devise a plan to leave Oscar outside someone's front door, where they will knock and then run away. Unfortunately, they don't have any luck. The door they knock at contains a hatch, and after knocking, a glass of beer appears!

Anita suggests that they make a swift exit. She grabs Oscar and starts walking down the road, speaking away to Marion...

...only Marion didn't follow her!

Marion stayed behind to have a drink!

Still trying to get rid of Oscar, the girls spy a nurse leading a group of kids along a street. They decide to follow the line and slip Oscar in with the other children. With Oscar safely in line, the girls walk off, hand in hand, only for Oscar and a new friend, hand in hand, to follow them.

The girls hurry and get both kids back in line and see them reach the safety of an orphanage. Anita and Marion are massively relieved.

They then learn that a reward is on offer for the lost baby, so rush back to the orphanage hoping to find Oscar again.

Instead, they bump into Max.

After giving Max a telling off, the girls walk away. However, Marion has the child's bonnet tucked into the back of her skirt, which Max notices, so he sets off in hot pursuit. Max crashes into a cop and the girls manage to escape.

Night falls, and Anita and Marion indulge in a bit of cross-dressing to aid their attempt to break into the orphanage and find Oscar.

Once they get in, they find a room full of sleeping kids and have difficulty locating Oscar.

Several babies wake up and Anita and Marion attempt to pacify them all. Marion trips whilst dancing, and knocks numerous beds out of position. Her bungling alerts the nurses and doctors, who come in to see what's causing the disturbance.

Anita and Marion hide under two beds until the coast is clear.

The kids start crying again, and in their attempts to pacify them, Anita loses her fake moustache and Marion has to pretend to be a baby in the cot once the staff come in to investigate the noise.

Oscar is found, and the girls and the baby make an escape out of the window.

Outside, Max is on the prowl. To avoid his suspicions, Marion places the baby (complete with beard and hat) on her shoulders underneath her coat, giving the impression that Anita is walking with a very tall friend!

Max can't believe what he sees, so he follows the girls.

When walking past some shops, the baby manages to get up on a shop canopy as Marion walks underneath it. The resulting headless walker terrifies Max.

Max eventually corners the girls and starts fighting with them. The father and mother of Oscar appear in a cab and pull their hired detective away from Anita. Oscar cries out for his mother, and he is reunited with both parents.

The happy father pays the girls $100 as a reward. Max doesn't get a nickel, but he does get a shove in the face.

Anita tries to find Marion just as the cops appear, but she can't find her. The cops arrest the men who were responsible for handing out beer from the doorway that the girls visited earlier - this being prohibition time. Marion had been drinking more beer, and a drunken Marion is carted away in the police car.

 

Review

"What do you know about babies?"

"I know one thing: Your parents drowned the wrong one!"

 

 

"If only" as a phrase can be applied to so many films, people, and studios during the great age of silent and talkie cinema in the 20s and 30s. If only "Hats Off" could be found; If only more Max Davidson comedies were to resurface; If only it were easy to purchase Charley Chase DVDs here in the UK. The list is endless. Well, OK, that last one isn't that difficult to sort out, but it is pricey.

But one of the greatest "If only" phrases at the top of my lengthy list is: "If only Anita Garvin and Marion Byron had made more than just three films as a comedy team."

I think about that "If only" a lot; whether it's inventing new Garvin/Byron scenarios in my head that would have worked well in films, or trying to figure out why the duo only made three films, it is a real shame that all the world has of their talents together are three shorts.

So, trying to solve the riddle: Why did they only make three shorts? My first thoughts were, unsurprisingly, full of unsurprising clichés: "oh, well, it's 1929, talkies are getting to be all the rage / perhaps Roach lost interest in this silent female partnership / the duo couldn't work together in talkies, etc, etc"

But, thinking beyond the clichés, the answer was probably simpler than that. Marion Byron left the Hal Roach Studios in 1929 (probably not long after the third and final Garvin/Byron short - "A Pair of Tights"). With Byron gone, and the series only three films in, it's hardly surprising that Roach shelved his idea for the moment.

I'd like to know why Marion Byron left the Hal Roach studios though, but that's a question I may never find out the answer to.

So, leaving clichés and suppositions behind, let's give a very fond slap on the back(side) of "Greetings" to Marion Byron and Anita Garvin who star in the excellent short, "Going Ga-Ga."

Why do I like "Going Ga-Ga" so much? Well, besides the fact that Marion Byron and Anita Garvin are terrific actresses, the short also features two other terrific actors, Max Davidson and (in a briefer appearance) Edgar Kennedy. You'd think that this sounds like the recipe for success; you'd be right. It's the icing on the cake.

I do love Peanuts.

Now, before you take that the wrong way, I don't mean the type that you eat. No. I mean P - E - A - nuts. Peanuts! Marion "Peanuts" Byron graces the opening gif of Magnolia's Musings (and if you've ever scrolled down to the depths of the page you'll find another gif of Peanuts that I think you'll enjoy) and was a wonderful comic actress. Apparently, she was only 4'11" in heels, hence the affectionate nickname.

In short - no Peanuts pun intended - I was really pleased to find out the cracking news that in the script for the first Garvin and Byron film, "Love 'Em and Feed 'Em", Marion Byron is referred to throughout as Peanuts! 

I've always wanted to find out more about Peanuts, and, in fact, she's on my list of biographies that I need to write:

Biographies to write - by Magnolia

1) James Finlayson

2) Marion Byron

3) Patsy Kelly

4) Pert Kelton

The list could go on and on.   

So, finally getting back to "Going Ga-Ga". It's a brilliant short rich in slapstick and laugh-out-loud moments. It is such a pity that the surviving footage is incomplete, with some small sections missing throughout the film including the ending and many intertitles.

Firstly, the pairing of Anita Garvin with Marion Byron works really well. The difference in height between the two women creates a lot of comic potential (just as Laurel's leanness and Hardy's penchant for looking like a biscuit offered lots of comedy for the duo).

But it's more than just a height difference - both Anita Garvin and Marion Byron are terrific actresses. Both posses what I have scientifically labelled "eye magic" (see the post on "Why Girls Love Sailors" for a detailed digression on the subject). "Eye magic", as the one avid reader of this blog will remember, is the ability for an actor to communicate a range of emotions and passions through facial expressions that largely stem from the eyes.

Anita Garvin is brilliant at this (in both silents and talkies) at making anger look sultry, and so is Marion Byron, whose bulging-eyed looks of fear are adopted frequently in this short. And have you observed how many times Marion Byron can contort her face into weird expressions in one scene?! She's incredibly funny!

In fact, it might even be Marion Byron who I tend to watch more in scenes in this short where she's with Anita Garvin, as I find her gestures and mannerisms hilarious.

One of my favourite moments in the film is right at the start, when it becomes apparent that Marion has sat on a birthday cake. The viewer finds out straight away that the word "Greetings" is printed on Marion's backside, but Anita's shocked discovery and scowl of disapproval moments later is terrific.

When the girls get hold of the baby, their attempts to look inconspicuous under the gaze of Max's prying eyes garners lots of comedy. I particularly like Marion's sneaky attempt to tell Anita that they are being watched. 

Whether it's tripping over bags of flour or getting terrified of policeman, Marion Byron's face is bound to make you laugh. I think that's part of the beauty of the comedy pairing; Byron and Garvin pull so many funny faces and exaggerate so many gestures, that sometimes it's simply funny looking at them on screen without anything particularly funny occurring.

When Marion Byron is helped up from the ground by a policeman, her slow turn towards the camera and delayed yelp of shock is fantastic. With Marion fleeing to the comforting presence of Anita and clinging onto her for dear life, the moment echoes Ollie's maternal instincts towards protecting Stan from harm. Indeed, in a couple of places in this film, Anita becomes a mother figure for Marion, with Anita defending her and generally looking after her pal - especially when it comes to Marion's lust for beer.

Speaking of beer, check out Marion's hilarious beer moustache! A nice foreshadowing of the cross-dressing that occurs later on.

  
The scenes in the orphanage allow for some really creative gags to take place. The fact that Marion and Anita don male attire for their daring break into the orphanage makes the comedy even funnier.

Anita Garvin makes a good man! Her gestures and posture are incredibly funny (as is the false moustache). Marion's exaggerated beard and sideburns add to the hilarity. The cross-dressing angle was fun to watch the first time that I saw this short. I wasn't expecting it, and it allows for some nice comedy, especially the boys girls' attempts to break into the orphanage. Anita Garvin takes a couple of bumps (one on the head with a fire hose and one on the backside when falling from a window).

Their creative ways of stopping the children from crying include Marion displaying her dancing talents and Anita getting part of the side of the cot stuck on her head (losing her moustache in the process)! Other standout comedy moments from inside the orphanage include Marion taking a spoonful of castor oil!

Whilst the ending of the film is missing, the moments that lead towards a conclusion are creative and very funny. Seeing Oscar with a beard and wearing a hat as a giant baby-man is great, although I wonder whose shoulders he sat on? It's clearly not Peanuts!

It's a shame that we don't get to see a drunken Peanuts arrested by the cops because of the missing ending, but it probably would have been a good laugh for cinema goers in 1929.  

I haven't said much about Max Davidson in this post, but he's in fine fettle in the film with his trademark hilarious facial expressions as he is outwitted by the girls. My favourite Max moments in this short include seeing him get soaked by water from a fire hose and laughing at the look of fear on his face when he thinks he sees a headless torso walking towards him!

"Going Ga-Ga" is a really fun short and very worthy of your attention. Let's raise a glass of prohibition beer to Peanuts and Anita!

"If only" they had made more films together...

What do you think of "Going Ga-Ga" and the Byron and Garvin pairing?

 

Watch it

"Get out! You're fired!"

 

 

 
"Going Ga-Ga" is available on DVD, beautifully restored by the German Filmmuseum as part of their "Female Comedy Teams" set.

 

Here's the link: Female Comedy Teams DVD