Film #13 - Top Flat (1935)

 

   

Starring Patsy Kelly and Thelma Todd.

 

Featuring Grace Goodall, Fuzzy Knight, Ferdinand Munier, and Gary Owen.

 

Directed by William Terhune and Jack Jevne.

 

Synopsis

"You'd better go on the wagon!"

 

       



Patsy and Thelma are at home. Patsy's ironing, and Thelma is writing "poetry"...

Patsy doesn't appreciate Thelma's literary endeavours, pointing out to her pal that the grocery bill and rent are unpaid.

Thelma takes exception to her poetry being insulted, and she declares that they should split up...

We next see Thelma working as a French maid in a "top flat" at The Warwick. Thelma's going under the alias of 'Marie', and works for a Mr and Mrs Lamont (played by Ferdinand Munier and Grace Goodall respectively).

Thelma takes Mrs Lamont's fur coat down to "Andre's" for storage for the summer. In getting out of the chauffeur driven car she bumps into Patsy.

Patsy's chuffed for her pal, believing that Thelma has "made it" by selling her poetry for a fortune. A distant Thelma invites Patsy to visit her at her penthouse one day.

Patsy gets the address from the chauffeur (Buddy Roosevelt), who has been listening in to Thelma's lies the whole time.

Mr and Mrs Lamont go out for dinner one evening, and Patsy rocks up to visit her old pal with a couple of loud and goofy boyfriends (played by Fuzzy Knight and Gary Owen).

Thelma is not happy to see the rowdy and raucous uninvited guests (who enter pushing Patsy in a wheelbarrow sporting a "Men at Work" sign).

The trio get busy making music a noise with the piano... Thelma gets anxious and tries to tell Patsy the real situation, but you know Kelly - it's hard to get a word in edgeways!

In an attempt to keep the peace, Thelma ushers the boys outside onto the balcony. Patsy takes the opportunity to mix herself a drink, but doesn't like what she swallowed!

The boys amuse themselves by making water bombs which they dutifully drop on unsuspecting passers-by.

In the meantime, Kelly decides to take a bath, much to Thelma's chagrin.

Thelma finally manages to tell Patsy that she doesn't own the penthouse. Patsy just laughs!

Just at that moment, Mr and Mrs Lamont return to the apartment. Thelma tries to get Patsy out of the tub and out of the flat as quickly as possible.

This involves several trying moments, firstly, as Mr Lamont enters the bathroom, Thelma must hold Patsy's head under the water until he leaves.

Kelly later has to hide in Mrs Lamont's bed and then in the closet to avoid detection. Mrs Lamont gets into her bed and goes under the covers, only for Mr Lamont to suspect that 'Marie' is under there! He arranges a rendezvous for both of them, which, of course, his wife doesn't like too much...

Patsy takes the opportunity to escape the bedroom and makes for the exit with Thelma. A cop is at the door, having been struck by one of the water bombs thrown from the balcony.

Just at that moment, Mrs Lamont enters the sitting room, chasing her husband. He crashes into the wheelbarrow and is chastised by the policeman for being 'drunk and disorderly'.

Patsy, Thelma, and the boys make a quick exit...
 

Review

"Upon the wall a picture, a picture upon the wall. Upon the wall a picture, and some wallpaper"


 

   

"Top Flat", the penultimate Todd and Kelly film, must have been a strange short film to experience upon its initial release in December 1935.

It would have premiered in cinemas less than one week after Thelma Todd's tragic death. I wonder what the mood would have been like in cinemas at the time? It must have been difficult for some cinemagoers to watch this short, knowing that Thelma Todd had passed away just a few days previously, even if they did want to laugh at the comedy and appreciate the late comedienne.

Watching the film eighty years later, without the shock and sorrow attached which might have been prevalent in 1935, I still believe that "Top Flat" is a strange film in the Kelly/Todd series.

For reasons that I will explain below, it's my opinion that this is not one of the better Todd/Kelly films. It's not the worst, but it would be nowhere near featuring on my "Top 10" list of films that the girls made together.

And here's the reason why, I feel.

It's simply not that funny.

There aren't that many laughs in it. "Babes in the Goods", "Beauty and the Bus", and possibly my favourite Kelly/Todd short, "Soup and Fish", all have great moments of laugh-out-loud comedy. "Top Flat" by comparison, veers towards the type of comedy you'd expect from a Kelly/Todd short, but never actually takes you past the stage of a wry smile of appreciation.

I wonder why? Here are a few of my thoughts why this is:

It's not because the series had run its course: "An All American Toothache", the final Todd/Kelly film maintains the nice mixture of originality and bonkers humour that, in my opinion, the series showcases. Even "Pan Handlers" and the two short films with Kelly and Lyda Roberti tick that box - original, slightly bonkers, laugh-fests. So it's not that.

Perhaps this is why:

I always used to groan - inaudibly, of course, such is my love of silent cinema - whenever I saw a Pitts/Todd or Kelly/Todd film that featured boyfriends - generally I think that the films with boyfriends in are not as funny as when Pitts/Todd or Kelly/Todd are left alone together to their own devices.

"Top Flat" confirms my suspicions with that respect. Fuzzy Knight and Gary Owen get their irritating characters down to a 'T' with their performances, but I just don't warm to them that much. I know I'm supposed to find them irritating, but they just grate me most of the time. Especially the god-awful singing, which requires Todd to dance awkwardly and for Kelly to sit awkwardly on the piano - both very much taking a backseat. It's just not that funny.

It's hard to explain, but I often feel that in films where Laurel and Hardy's wives are present, they heighten the comedy. In this particular Kelly/Todd short, the boyfriends just seem to get in the way. They don't heighten the comedy with Patsy and Thelma, and it's probably not surprising that in this film, after a while, the women are paired off together and the men are paired together with little interaction between them until the end. Patsy clowns around in the bath to the annoyance of Thelma, whereas the two men are stuck with each other throwing water bombs. That kind of reinforces my point that pitting boyfriends as comedic foils alongside Kelly and Todd does not work.

Perhaps I'm being overly harsh on the men; it might just be that the script for this particular film is not that strong. After all, for how many minutes can you drag out the scenario that Thelma is hurriedly trying to tell Patsy that she has lied and the penthouse isn't hers? Just about long enough to make a short film in the Kelly/Todd series, could be the answer.

It sounds like I don't think much of "Top Flat". That's not necessarily true. I don't dislike "Top Flat", but it is quite weak in terms of originality and, well, laughs. I just don't find it that funny compared to many of the other Kelly/Todd films. It has some nice moments, but they are more "wry smile" moments rather than uncontrollable smirks and snorts of laughter, as I've already mentioned above.

However...

The girls seem a little out of character, as well, which is strange. Patsy's still brash and loud in places, but gone are many of her particular quirks - such as clumsiness and hostility - and pet names for Thelma which feature in other films. But, don't get me wrong, Kelly is not that different compared to her character in the series. It's Todd's which strikes me the most in this instance. Thelma's character requires her to be anxious and nervy for the majority of the film, which is quite markedly different from the type of figure she usually cuts in the other Pitts/Todd and Kelly/Todd films. I often think that Gus Meins was the best director for the Pitts/Todd and Kelly/Todd films, and he often brings out the best chemistry between the girls. And, of course, he doesn't direct "Top Flat". Instead we have two directors, which seems a tad strange for an eighteen minute film. Does anybody else feel that things feel a little flat - apologies for the pun - in this film?

In fact, some of the best bits in this film are at the start when Thelma is reciting her poetry and the ending, with Patsy trying to escape from the flat with Thelma's assistance as Mr Lamont bungles around. The bits in the middle are merely "meh" rather than making "whoopee!" - as Mr Lamont would have it.

So, what do I like about this film?

I genuinely think that the opening footage of the film is the best. It's funny to see Thelma's character strongly believe that her "poetry" is brilliant, and chuck in Kelly's humorous asides and blatant facial expressions revealing disgust towards the poet laureate, it's good! Patsy's line that Thelma "had better go on the wagon" is well-timed after Thelma mentions a horse, as in Patsy's mind her pal has been drinking too much. Patsy's snarky quips and Thelma's staunch defiance give some of the best laughs in this film, but it's a shame that after Kelly retorts to the poetess "Wouldn't you be surprised if [the poems] sold for $10,000", the comedy goes downhill in the film...

It's slightly funny, I guess, to laugh at Patsy when she's looking gawky in her uniform in the street carrying a package, when she meets a glamorous Thelma. Both Kelly and Todd milk this exchange for all it's worth, in what is effectively a necessary exchange to set up the possibility of getting Kelly into the "top flat" with Thelma. It is mere scene setting rather than an opportunity to provide humour, although when Patsy walks away muttering to herself in the style of Thelma's poetry, that was a nice touch.

Then we get the part of the film with the boyfriends....(see my comments above)...

As Thelma's character requires her to become increasingly anxious - with a distinct lack of comedy and humour in the part - it's down to Patsy to provide comic relief. Kelly's dislike of the alcohol she consumes is OK. It's not vintage Kelly, and, if anything, seems to be a excuse to get the girls into the bathroom and out of sight of the boyfriends on the balcony. Once again the plot feels a bit forced and unnatural...

...and it's made worse by the fact that Kelly decides to take a bath! I ask myself: Really? During a date with boyfriends at Thelma's swish apartment, Kelly just decides to get in the bath? I've often suspended my disbelief at many a theatre production and comedy short over the years, but even I find this a bit forced. The plot requires Kelly to get in a bit of a scrap by losing her clothes, so a bath seems to be a nice option, but it just makes the whole film once again seem a bit forced and unnatural. There are plenty of Kelly/Todd films where the situation lends itself to great, believable comedy out of the circumstances presented to Kelly and Todd - usually with Kelly's bungling; see "Backs to Nature", for example - but, I don't know, again, it feels weird here.

It's funny seeing Kelly in the bath, but not that funny. I like it when Thelma holds her under the water for quite a while when Mr Lamont enters, though.

Ferdinand Munier and Grace Goodall as Mr and Mrs Lamont give some good life to the final parts of the film, especially Ferdinand Munier as the bumbling old fool who has the hots for his French maid.

It's right at the end of the film where things do pick up, with Thelma anxiously trying to get Patsy out of the flat. It's funny to see Kelly in Mr Lamont's oversized pyjamas, but again, the final laughs are garnered by Munier and Goodall as Mr Lamont is chased through the apartment before he ends up in the wheelbarrow clutching the "Men at Work " sign.

The segments with the boys throwing water bombs are actually pretty good, if a little overdone. Especially when their water bombs hit an old English gentleman: "Oh, I say, old chap, is that cricket?" - probably the best line in the whole film. And I wonder whether that is Pert Kelton being hit by one of the water bombs? It looks like her. It's very hard to tell, but Kelton may have just started working for Roach at the time that "Top Flat" was filmed. It's worth noting that Pert had dark hair in most of her films prior to working with Kelly in "Pan Handlers" where her hair is "ice cream blonde" coloured, but that's a whole different story for when I get to the "Pan Handlers" review...

What do you think of "Top Flat"? Does it feature in your list of favourite Kelly / Todd shorts? Have I been too harsh on the film?

 

Watch it

"Just like old times, huh, Thelma?"

 

 
"Top Flat" 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 

Film #12 - The Sawmill (1922)

 

   

Starring Larry Semon.

 

Featuring Oliver Hardy, Ann Hastings, and Frank Alexander.

 

Directed by Larry Semon and Norman Taurog.

 

Synopsis

"The Dumb-Bell"

 

       



"The Sawmill" begins with a bunch of employees working with the boss of the sawmill (Al Thompson) cutting timber. The boss's daughter (Kathleen O'Connor) arrives, bearing gifts of luncheon and smiles for all.

Well, except the bully foreman (Oliver Hardy), whom she doesn't like much.

Just as lunch is being delivered, the owner of the mill (Frank Alexander) rocks up with his daughter (Ann Hastings) to check out how the sawing is going.

We meet Larry, the dumb-bell, pipe in mouth, busily rowing along the tracks astride a huge tree bark.

The boss's daughter brings Larry lunch, much to the chagrin of the foreman, with Larry and the foreman having a bit of a scrap.  

After his fight with the foreman, Larry is chased by more of the mill workers where he inadvertently flips a wheelbarrow full of paint over the owner.

Eventually he avoids capture by adopting a disguise.

Further run-ins involve buzz saws and falling trees - with Semon almost crushed to death on several occasions - before Larry decides that enough is enough and he seeks redress from his clumsy colleagues.

This involves chasing them all around the sawmill, amongst the trees, and on water, with Semon launching himself off a house in the process.

The madcap chase comes to a conclusion just as the owner, the foreman, the boss, and his daughter are sitting down to lunch.

In trying to get more paint, Semon is shot at by an angry co-worker, and with the bucket full of paint falling onto the head of the foreman, lunch is ruined and the owner isn't too happy.

He's made more unhappy when Semon's bungling means that a shedload of paint is spilt over the lunch party.

In fact, he's so unhappy that he fires the foreman and the workers.

Larry, meanwhile, attempts to seduce the owner's daughter in the owner's home. The shenanigans that ensue see the owner receive a shot in the backside because his dog sets off a gun (!); Larry and the owner's daughter hide in a safe; and the irate foreman returns with a gun to settle scores with the owner.

Thanks to the ingenious canine, who manages to divert the gun powder laid by the foreman away from the owner's safe, the safe is safe from the ensuing blast.

However, the house isn't; it's blown to smithereens.

Larry and the owner's daughter emerge from the safety of the safe in one piece, but it isn't long before Larry is clobbered over the head by the foreman's cronies and the owner's daughter kidnapped.

Larry's daring attempt to save her results in both of them high-up in one of the trees, armed with just a rope.

With all the grace of Tarzan and Jane, Larry and the owner's daughter (who I might just call 'Jane' from now on) swing from the rope which has been lassoed over a metal structure, and fly through the air before landing in a lake.

Safe and well, they are reunited with a happy owner (who has escaped the clutches of the villainous foreman) and his dog, only for the owner to fall into the lake as Larry rushes into the arms of 'Jane'.

   

Review

"The Worm Turns"


 

   

It's about time that Larry Semon made an appearance on Magnolia's Musings, and what a great film to discuss for his MM debut.

"The Sawmill" encapsulates everything that makes Larry Semon comedies great, in my book; frantic, bizarre plots that are utterly unpredictable and daredevil stunts which are extremely funny. 

"The Sawmill" was the first Semon film that I saw. I stumbled upon his work by accident, as a couple of his comedies featured on a definitive Laurel and Hardy collection set that I have, which showcases the early work of the wonderful duo. "The Sawmill" was bold, ambitious, very silly, and very funny, and it left a strong impression on me and made me want to track down more of Semon's films.

Some quick scouting around popular film review sites drags up the fact that Semon often gets a lot of bad press - people are not very kind to him. I don't know whether it's because people mistakenly believe that when you write a "critical" review you have to "criticise" the film that you are talking about - a bad error - or whether the general unavailability of a lot of Semon's work means that people make judgements based upon viewing one or two of his films. People can also be harsh on Semon because he isn't Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton - a strange viewpoint - but whatever the reason for the bad press, the fact that most of Semon's corpus has not been beautifully restored or re-mastered certainly does darken one's appreciation of him.

So, this much is true. He's been critically overlooked and it's not easy to view his films.

I've bemoaned the fact that it's hard to obtain Charley Chase and Harry Langdon films in the UK, but at least some of their films have had official releases by Kino in the States. Semon hasn't had that luxury yet, although Grapevine video have done a good job in making more of his shorts and a feature film ("The Perfect Clown") available.

Hopefully the recently released biography of Semon by Claudia Sassen will arouse more interest in Semon's films and perhaps somebody like Kino might consider something like a "boxset" or collection of Semon's work in the near future.

Whatever your views of Semon, you can't deny the fact that for a period in the 1920s, he was massively popular. Not that his popularity should exclude him from criticism, oh no, but it's time to give the clown a much needed round of applause... 

"The Sawmill" was one of the most expensive short silent films ever made, and it's easy to see why. With its gorgeous environment of trees and lakes, and several large explosions along the way, Semon's great outdoors must have blown the pants off any studio sets that other short films were using at the time of its release.

But despite its great backdrop, it's not all plain sawing sailing...

Semon's films are much like a "comedy of excess": "Excess" is the key word here, because Semon doesn't do things in half measures. -Everything- is over the top and, well, excessive. His films are frantic, fast-paced, even absurd, with excessive amounts of running, incredible stunts, and humorous gags. It's difficult to write a synopsis for a Semon film because there is so much that goes on and you can't write about every incident!

There's often so much going on in a Semon film that the viewer can feel slightly overwhelmed by the experience as your brain struggles to remember every madcap minute and every bonkers stunt that takes place at breakneck speed.

However, perhaps that's the point of a Semon film, though. Larry Semon certainly wouldn't have expected someone almost 100 years later to sit down and write an accurate synopsis of "The Sawmill".

Larry Semon wouldn't be interested in hearing a detailed plot synopsis; what he'd want to know is whether the audience laughed at his film. And perhaps that's the crucial point of Semon's comedies of excess - the reason why there could be so many stunts to bombard the viewer with is because Semon wants the viewer to laugh as much as possible. As long as they are happy and laugh, what does it matter if they can't recall the plot in minute detail?

But the picaresque plots that Semon favoured can cause problems for a generation bred on tightknit dramatic unity -especially when it comes to issues concerning plot holes. In "The Sawmill", for example, what happens to the boss and the boss's daughter? Larry seems to have some kind of romantic interest with the boss's daughter, which is reciprocated, only for her to vanish from the film.

I think that part of my appreciation of "The Sawmill" comes from the fact that I like Semon's character. He just looks like a loveable rogue, doesn't he? And with his exaggerated eyebrows, white face paint, baggy trousers and plethora of winces and grimaces for the camera, Semon's character is simply funny to look at on screen.

Despite the plot holes in places, "The Sawmill" is an enjoyable madcap romp. Here are some of my favourite moments:

Semon's epic battle with Oliver Hardy; which sees the duo running around amidst the trees and dust and dirt. It's slapstick at its finest - especially when Semon believes that he has escaped from Hardy by showcasing his gymnast skills, only to receive a bump from a tree bark and crash down into the angry foreman.

The dangers of the sawmill are showcased to great slapstick success when Larry can't find anywhere safe to stand. Seeing trees crashing down near our hero are very funny indeed.

Semon's love of death-defying leaps: We get a lot of jumping and diving in "The Sawmill". Whether it's one of Semon's co-workers or even Larry himself leaping from a house, these moments must have been impressive and hilarious for Semon's first audiences.

And if you can't laugh at the epic chase which takes place in two boats on sea, land, and rocks, well, there isn't much hope for you!

Speaking of Oliver Hardy earlier, he plays his somewhat early typecast role as the blustering bully - which can be seen in many a Semon short from this period and when Hardy was briefly paired with Bobby Ray. He gets some good comedy moments: being scorned by the boss's daughter; foiled when attempting to bull-whip Larry; cooling off his burnt backside in a bucket of water; and blown up by gunpowder.

The final rescue of the owner's daughter once again showcases Semon's love of a grand, over the top finish, this time involving more daring leaps from a swinging rope into a lake.

If anything, it's the final moment of the comedy which falls a bit flat on its face as it's asking quite a lot of the audience to accept that the owner of the sawmill would want to rush into Larry's arms in the first place, never mind miss him by a country mile and -still- carry on running straight into the lake...

It's probably accurate to say that "The Sawmill" contains one of the weakest endings of any Larry Semon short film.

What do you think of "The Sawmill" and Larry Semon's short films in general?

Would you want to see Semon's films available as part of a DVD set and would you purchase it? If so, please leave a comment below.

I've toyed with the idea for a while now of setting up a number of petitions on change.org which would ask for signatures of people interested in obtaining official releases of films by Semon, the Roach Charley Chase talkies, in fact, anything Roach related like the Pitts/Todd/Kelly shorts, etc, and then somehow presenting said petition to companies like Kino to show them that many people would like to see some of the more "obscure" comedians getting official DVD releases.

It might work. Probably not, but it's worth a shot. So leave a comment below if you'd like to see a petition set up.

I've also decided to write much shorter reviews on Magnolia's Musings in the future. Each post will still feature a detailed synopsis and plenty of screenshots - as these might be of more interest to people than my confused ramblings - but the review section will be considerably shorter with just a few of my thoughts. This should mean that I can cover more films a month as well.
 

Watch it

"Discharged!"

 

 

 
"The Sawmill" is available on DVD, beautifully restored by Lobster films as part of their "Early Films of Oliver Hardy" set.

 

Here's the link: The Early Films of Oliver Hardy DVD

Special mention should be also made to Grapevine Video, who have released two DVDs containing some of the short films of Larry Semon. Here's hoping they release more Larry Semon shorts in the future.

Here's the link: Larry Semon: Volume 1 DVD

Larry Semon: Volume 2 DVD