There's a scene in the Columbia comedy short, "Wedlock Deadlock," that contains the kind of studio in-humor that makes me love these semi-vintage comedies. Star Joe DeRita, frustrated beyond sensible patience by obnoxious, cloddish in laws who won't leave, is holding a book titled "Nearly Perfect Murders." The author's name is Elwood Ullman.
The scores of thousands of movie-goers who saw this short for the next few years in various theaters likely had no idea who Ullman was. He was the screenwriter for "Wedlock Deadlock." It was an inside joke for the Columbia team, likely hatched from director Edward Bernds, who directed many above-par Columbia shorts for Hugh McCollum's department.
You can watch "Wedlock Deadlock" here, via YouTube. Greg Hilbrich, who runs the absolutely essential The Columbia Short Department website, showed me links to all four Columbia comedies DeRita starred in during the second half of the 1940s. "Wedlock Deadlock" was my favorite; all are more or less remakes of previous Columbia shorts for other stars. DeRita with a full head of hair kind of resembles Lou Costello a little. But he lacks Costello's wit, although he's' not bad in physical comedy. He was mostly cast as a harried husband. (More on The Columbia Shorts Department at the end of this post)
In "Wedding Wedlock," shlubbish DeRita is "Eddie,' improbably maried to gorgeous blonde, Betty, played by Christine McIntyre (probably the most iconic Columbia female star; she was in dozens of shorts but is best known for her supporting work with the Three Stooges). The pair are in their new home, all lovey-dovey, when ... her family arrives uninvited.
They are mother-in-law, Lydia, sister-in-law Hortense, and brother-in-law Chester. They are rude, pathologically insensitive freeloaders who take over the house, to Eddie's outrage and Betty's mild protests. There are slapstick comedy scenes. DeRita serves dinner and is not able to get a bite. Another scene involves the trio rearranging the furniture and a fight over a radio in the home. Eddie's eventually ready to go after the in-laws with a meat cleaver but relents after Betty's pleas for patience. Nevertheless, the in-laws take over the bedroom, forcing the newlyweds to sleep on chairs and tables in the living room. More slapstick ensues as DeRita's makeshift bed collapses.
Eventually, Eddie arranges to have his friend, Dick, and his wife Ruby, come visit the house. The goal is to give the rude Lydia, Hortense and Chester a taste of their own medicine. The final few minutes of the short is very funny. I don't want to give the ending away but I will mention that Dorothy Granger, who plays Ruby, more or less steals the film with her enthusiastic, manic, funny performance. I am aware of Granger, who included Columbia in her roughly 250-film career of minor roles, uncredited bit parts and TV roles. She really steals the show from DeRita, who grumbles more than he fights. Also, McIntyre, who has a history of playing -- energetically -- a heroine, a villain, and a comic in many Columbia shorts, is also quite passive in this short.
The slapstick comedy fell a little to DeRita, but more so to comedy shorts veterans Esther Howard (Lydia), Patsy Moran (Hortense) and Charles Williams (Chester). They are obnoxious but do an adequate job carrying physical comedy. William Newall, as Dick, also is adequate. As mentioned, though, Granger's Ruby is the best slapstick comic presence in this short.
However, the "ironic tag" ending, that Columbia occasionally used, allows both DeRita and McIntye to show a bit more passion, Columbia "O'Oucho" style, at the very end.
I don't know how ubiquitos "Wedlock Deadlock" was in theaters. Below in old newspaper clippings from The Anniston (Ala) Star (Dec. 21, 1947) you see it mentioned as a short with George O'Brien's "Wings Over Wyoming," and there's a paragraph noting that "J DeRita" is the star. Below the Star is a Feb. 24, 1949, Statesville (Tex) Daily-Record clip showing the film as the comedy short with Johnny Mack Brown's "The Fighting Ranger." That bill also includes a supporting feature and a cartoon.
According to Wikipedia, DeRita was not happy with his Columbia shorts. Maybe that's why only four were produced. The former burlesque and Los Angeles stage star doesn't project great screen presence. He does do physical comedy fairly well. Two other shorts, "Slappily Married," and "The Good Bad Egg,' show off his skills. But I prefer him in an understated, suffering "everyman" role like "Wedlock Deadlock."
I really appreciate all Hilbrich has done gathering and preserving the entire Columbia shorts output. Without genre experts like him we would miss a lot of the great shorts.
Afternote: I recently acquired copies of nearly two dozen non-Three Stooges Columbia comedy shorts. Greg Hilbrich, who manages the invaluable website The Columbia Shorts Department offers many of the comedy shorts, including titles other than Columbia, for sale via DVD and digital download.Sales of these non-Stooges shorts provided the opportunity to view vintage comedy shorts that are out of circulation.
By Doug Gibson"To Heir is Human" (imdb page is here) is one of comic legend Harry Langdon's more energetic late comedy shorts for Columbia, which featured other comic stars besides the Three Stooges. Released in early 1944, it stars Harry as window washer Harry Fenner, who is improbably located by telephone book deliverer Una, played by Una Merkel. It seems a sinister looking fellow asked Una to find Harry and deliver him to a forbidding domain where he'll inherit a fortune.The man, A Raven Sparrow, will give Una $1,000 to find Harry. Una drags a semi-reluctant Harry to the house, where naturally, a trio comprised of relatives and a thuggish handyman want to knock off Harry -- and Una -- and get all the inherited cash for themselves.
Although he's looking very old -- Langdon would die in December 1944 -- Harry is in excellent form the low-budget short, produced in Hugh McCollum's wing of Columbia's shorts studio. "The Elf" is in form in a few scenes, particularly during his initial refusal of Una's efforts to locate him, and more prominently in a later scene with his Vampish "kissing cousin," Velma, played by Christine McIntyre, who later gained iconic status as a Three Stooges regular. Langdon is hilarious with his mild surprise and resistance as Velma, one of the baddies, tries to provide him poisoned drinks. A Raven Sparrow, by the way, is played by Lew Kelly, who looked like a creepy cross between an aged Boris Karloff and John Carradine. The handyman is played by Bud Gribbon. His best scene is where he lowers a noose over Harry's head, who mistakes it for a tie. There are effective scenes in the house, particularly a room with an electric. Both A. Sparrow Raven and Una receive unpleasant but funny jolts as a result.
Now, I have not mentioned Una Merkel's contribution yet, because I've been saving it for her own paragraph or too. She absolutely marvelous in her role as dogged working girl Una. Merkel, who later gained a measure of consistent fame, had enjoyed a measure of stardom in the 1930s. However, by 1943 she was in a slump, and doing low-budget shorts. Nevertheless, her career slump doesn't show in this film.
Merkel has a tremendous eye for comedy, particularly slapstick, and she shows a lot of that in the film. She's literally manhandled in this film, getting thrown out of offices, having telephone directories thrown at her, being pulled by a thug who wants to kill her, fainting, and being electrocuted. Nevertheless, she never stops protecting her charge Harry, even if her main motivation for the $1,000 is to improve her appearance. Una Merkel reminds me of a slightly more intelligent version of Patsy Kelley in her shorts with Thelma Todd. Her pairing with the lower key Langdon works well. ... By the way, frequent Langdon co-star Vernon Dent has a cameo as a board chairman of a business. The scene is while Una is chasing Harry, and Langdon is funny as he intrudes into the speech.
This is an obscure film. A Langdon fan and film collector originally provided me a copy of the film, Look for it at Turner Classic Movies on the odd chance it will get on as an "extra." It is now on YouTube, however. Watch it here.
The old comedian Joe Besser is best known as the funny man who replaced Shemp Howard as the third Stooge in the late-middle 1950s. The Stooges needed a third to finish up their quarter-century contract with Columbia. The shorts with Besser are not the best of the Stooges, but other considerations, including smaller budgets and an inability of Besser to bond with the mannerisms and acting of Moe Howard and Larry Fine, hampered the productions. After the Columbia contract, the two main Stooges decided to make movies with Joe DeRita, another old comedy man.
However, on his own Besser made 10 comedies as a solo Columbia comedy star. I acquired "Fraidy Cat," a 1951 short, because I wanted to see how Besser worked as the star. Besser shone as a man/child type, this older middle-aged comic who chattered and snarked like a six or seven year old, bumbling and surviving his way through comic disasters.
In "Fraidy Cat," Besser is teamed in comedy with a radio personality of the time named Jim Hawthorne. Nevertheless, Besser is the main comedy star of the team, with Hawthorne as more straight man. In what is a remake of a Three Stooges short called "Dizzy Detectives," Joe and Jim are hapless detectives with a boss (Tom Kennedy) who threatens the duo with job dismissal if they don't catch a gang of thieves that uses a gorilla to rob shops. They take vigil at an antique shop where comic mayhem ensues. I enjoyed a slapstick bit early in the short in which an angry Kennedy pounds a desk, smashing some edible nuts. Hawthorne would support Besser in three Columbia shorts. (See the pair below in this still from the short, Besser at right)
If one wants to see Besser doing the fussy man/child act at his best, catch some old Abbott and Costello TV shows, where he play, in over the top but funny style, the childish "Stinky," who snarks and slaps often at Lou Costello in skits. Dressed as a detective in "Fraidy Cat,", Besser does a lot of that, takes a few lumps but always seems to come ahead, and get the bad guys, with the luck of providence. A typical Besser joke in the short, uttered in childish talk, is him insisting the criminal plot is an "inside job" because it's "not outside."
Jules White directs with his usual constant mayhem slapstick ... a lot of heads are cracked on the noggin. Besser may not be everyone's cup of Joe but he does possess strong comic timing, even in these later, cheaper-produced Columbia shorts. I mentioned Besser made 10 shorts with Columbia, but nearly half of them were remakes with a lot of stock footage. He actually remade "Fraidy Cat" as "Hook a Crook" in 1955, with few original scenes.
The print from The Columbia Shorts Department website is very clean and crisp and it's a strong introduction to Besser as a non-Stooges performer. Look to our site for future reviews of vintage Columbia comedy shorts.
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Afternote: I recently acquired copies of nearly two dozen non-Three Stooges Columbia comedy shorts. Greg Hilbrich, who manages the invaluable website The Columbia Shorts Department offers many of the comedy shorts, including titles other than Columbia, for sale via DVD and digital download. A current sale of non-Stooges shorts provided the opportunity to view vintage comedy shorts that are out of circulation.
Harry Langdon certainly did his best comedy shorts work in the first half of the 1920, silents such as "All Night Long" "Saturday Morning," "Fiddlesticks, "Boobs in the Woods,"and many more. He made some above-average early sound shorts with Hal Roach's studio and with Educational and Paramount studios, often paired with Vernon Dent.
The last decade or so of his life, though, a healthy percentage of Langdon's screen acting credits were with Columbia making two-reel comedy shorts. Into the 1940s, the actor began to show his age. He still acted as the "Little Elf," but the face was puffy, with age lines and a paunch. I have a fondness for some of his late shorts though. He gamely carries on with low budgets, quick schedules and by-the-numbers plot. He brings magic to these films.
That brings us to "Piano Mooner," released by Columbia in December 1942. Although it has the chaos and ultra slapsticky dosage of the Columbia shorts, it's an enjoyable 16-plus minutes, with a surprisingly concise plot. Harry plays Harry, a Little Elf-type piano tuner who really wants to marry his fiance, Mildred, (Gwen Kenyon) but only if he can do it with a proper set of dress tails. In the opening scene, Mildred is explaining this to her menacing, pistol-toting brother (Stanley Blystone) who threatens to use his pistol on Harry if the marriage does not occur by 3 p.m.
Harry put an ad in the paper, he'll tune a piano for a suit of tails. In a funny scene where he waits for a call, Harry sits on a couch and pushes springs back in the seat that keep springing out. A Mrs. Gibson (Betty Blythe) calls and says he can tune the family piano and she'll give him a suit and tails.
At the Gibson home, a wedding is being prepared for the family's daughter. Harry gets to work on the piano, which offers another funny scene of him discovering it's infested with birds. Although scenes in the short are helmed haphazardly by the director (Harry Edwards) Langdon adds to their value by underplaying the role. In the manner he made famous as a silent star, he uses his face to express befuddlement and mild emotion.
At the Gibson home is a marriage-obsessed maid (Fifi D'Orsay) who gets it in her mind that Langdon, who announced that he's getting married, plans to marry her. Employing a lot of physical comedy (which in the Columbia sense means she falls down a lot and generally takes a lot of lumps) she tries very hard to keep Harry from keeping the suit and tails that Mrs. Gibson has given him.
Orsay was a big star in the early days of talkies and obviously her wattage had diminished by late 1942. But she is a unique co-star for Langdon and does a good job in an obviously stereotypical role. (She has the kind of role that generally would have been played to less effect by say, Columbia comedy shorts regular Elsie Ames).
Interludes at the Gibson home include Harry and the bride-to-be at the Gibson place walking down the aisle as a practice role, only to be discovered by Mildred's violent brother, who goes after Harry with pistols blazing. Other comedy interludes involve Harry setting off a sprinkler, and losing his suit and tails (temporarily) to a man from the mission collecting used clothes. Another has Harry learning from a guest at the Gibson house that he's late for his own wedding. Another involves Harry taking back his suit and tails from a scheming Fifi; and finally, Harry and Mildred escaping from a chaotic wedding scene at the Gibson home on a motorcycle with sidecar.
Betty Blythe was a silent movie screen siren around 1920. She and Langdon co-starred in a very entertaining Producers Releasing Corp. 1940 film, "Misbehaving Husbands," They had excellent chemistry as a married couple dealing with the wife's suspicions that Harry was unfaithful. The film, I have read, was a successful B movie. It would have been interesting to see if Harry and Betty could have made a series of domestic comedies for PRC, but it was not to be.
Director Edwards, who among other credits, directed "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," Langdon's first feature, was at the end of his career. Some say that alcoholism had damaged him professionally. The Three Stooges, and Vera Vague, refused to work with him on Columbia comedy shorts. Perhaps because of their long association, Edwards' best late Columbia work seems to be with Harry Langdon. Harry's signature brand of restrained comedy tempered any haphazard, sloppy directing work by Edwards. Soon after Langdon's death in late 1944, Edwards was let go by Columbia.
It's easy to find a lot of Langdon's Columbia shorts on the Internet. However, until someone produces a DVD of his Columbia shorts, what's available are ragged, choppy, faded prints. Nevertheless, watch Piano Mooner (above) and get past the tattered print and already-old slapstick and watch Harry Langdon elevate a one-week two-reeler by working well with an old movie-making partner, Harry Edwards.
Vernon Dent is ubiquitous to vintage comedy film. Genre fans and scholars know him well. The more casual film fan, the one who, say, has only sampled the Three Stooges shorts, can't recall his name but they sure do know his face. And, most importantly, Vernon Dent makes them laugh.
Dent's "I know that guy" persona is a lot like, say, the character actor Donald Meek. My wife and I, watching WC Fields and Mae West in "My Little Chickadee," saw Meeks play a faux preacher "marrying" the stars. "I know that guy. What's his name?" my wife said. "He's also in "You Can't Take It With You," I reply. (And several hundred other films ...) ... Vernon, by the way, worked with WC Fields in films.
It's the same with Vernon. Last year, on a Fox News segment, background film was rolling as comic relief. Suddenly, there's Vernon from an old Stooges short. "I know that guy. What's his name," said my son, who loves the Stooges and Harry Langdon shorts. (Dent, of course, is also a veteran of hundreds of films).
1) Vernon Dent is a
ubiquitous figure to the casual vintage comedy fan, the one who only watches
The Three Stooges. He’s the face without a name they always recognize. Describe
how Dent’s talents make him so memorable to fans when other frequent co-stars
are less noticeable to casual fans?
CASSARA: In the Three
Stooges comedies there had to be an authority figure to play against their
humor, it's called "comedy contrast." While there were plenty of
actors who could do that, Vernon brought with him a seemingly no-nonsense
approach and dealt out the punishment. It helped too that Vernon who was not a
tall man, nevertheless physically fit perfectly in the frame with the much
shorter Stooges. If one watches the Stooges even casually, he shows up in 56 of
their total product. That makes a lasting impression, so if one sees
"Vernon Dent" in the opening credits you know that the boys are
really going to get it!
2) Did the deaths of Vernon
Dent’s parents, have an effect on his life, career or personal, in your
opinion?
CASSARA: Vernon's father was
the owner of a saloon in San Jose, Calif., and was murdered when Vernon was a boy.
The local newspaper blamed the circumstance of the murder, not on the suspect
but on the "evils of alcohol." Vernon's mother made the boy swear on
his father's grave that he would never touch alcohol. Vernon's mother was a
non-professional thespian and encouraged her son's budding talents, she died
when he was only 20.
3) In his pre-Sennett career,
what were Vernon Dent’s greatest strengths in the shorts he made? How did these early films, as well as Sennett shorts, set up his career as a foil to
the stars of the shorts?
CASSARA: It should be noted
that Vernon was influenced by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, while Roscoe
sang illustrated songs at the Unique Theater in San Jose. Vernon was a singer
first, even a published song writer. Vernon was the emcee while at Seal Beach,
Ca. when Hank Mann saw possibilities of him as a comic "heavy" to
Mann's comedies. Vernon graduated to his own starring series for "Folly
Comedies 1921-1922. His character was very similar to Fatty Arbuckle's film
persona to include a similar fitting hat. In those silent days, action was the
key. Vernon proved himself adept at physical comedy; making pratfalls and big
reactions. The Mack Sennett studios demanded a quick pace and sometimes very
dangerous stunts, he was also a "fat" character so necessary to play
off of others.
4) What
are the three best Harry Langdon/Vernon Dent Sennett shorts and why?
CASSARA: 1) HIS FIRST FLAME: This is the sweetest little
film full of charm and redemption. Harry is a naive nephew to Vernon's worldly
Uncle who works as a fireman. Harry overcomes his physical limitations and wins
the girl and his uncle's respect. This film holds up really well to modern
audiences, the lessons to be learned are still fresh and humorous. 2). HIS
MARRIAGE WOW : Harry almost plays the straight-man to Vernon's maniac
character. It's a visual delight as Vernon drives his car crazily and seeing
Harry as his captured passenger. 2) SATURDAY AFTERNOON: This short
made in 1925 establishes both as buddies, Harry is hen-pecked and Vernon is his
"wiser" friend who tries to fix them up with a couple of floozies.
Tiny Harry and big Vernon are perfectly contrasted together, this predates
Laurel and Hardy by a couple of years and might have been very influential.
5) You
mention something interesting in your biography, that perhaps Harry Langdon
would have had better success at First National had he taken his frequent
Sennett co-star Vernon Dent with him. How could Dent have improved, say,
“Three’s A Crowd,” if he had played Arthur Thalasso’s part, or the judge in
“The Chaser.” CASSARA: I'd hate to
speculate other than saying Vernon would have enhanced any screen appearance.
6) There was an effort to
make Dent a comedy pair team with Monty Collins, and of course many say he and
Langdon were teamed often without officially being a team. What were the
challenges in the 20s and 30s against succeeding as a comedy team? What were
the artistic challenges as well as the logistical challenges, such as exposure,
play dates and marketing? CASSARA: This is an
interesting question. Comedy teams were certainly popular in vaudeville but
often did not make it in film because one was a talking medium and the other
visual (during the silent era. For film teams to emerge there has to be a
business sense by the respective studio that the audience will be in demand of
said team. The comedians also have to have a strong respect for each other; the
typical set up is for a "comedian" and a "second banana" to
help set up the gags. Many teams failed because both wanted to be the funny
one. Stan Laurel for instance had a chance through the years to establish
himself as a solo comedian to lukewarm response. Frankly, he was not ready in
the early years to take on a partner. This changed when he was eventually
paired with Oliver Hardy, at the Hal Roach Studios. Audience reaction at the
two as a true team demanded more. The studio then marketed it to the
distributors and the public as such. Vernon and Harry were never a
"team" on equal footing, Harry was the star and Vernon was versatile
in comic support. While Harry had a defined character, Vernon did not.
More importantly, Harry wasn't ready to be a team in the 20's. On reflection in
later years he might have regretted it.
7) All of us want so badly to
see the lost Arvid Gillstrom Educational/Paramount shorts. Synopses seem to
tease us with plots for Vernon and Harry that would be appropriate for a
regular comedy team (Laurel and Hardy). Do you believe Paramount was pitching
the duo as a team, albeit maybe with a little more press toward Langdon? CASSARA: Gillstrom is a name
not heard of anymore, he was an important director and producer for Paramount
in his day. I think he was in line to make Harry Langdon comedies and Vernon
would have a big responsibility for the studio. As it was, Gillstrom directed
Vernon Dent and Bing Crosby in "Please," a two-reel comedy written by
Vernon. He also wrote the screenplays for Langdon/Dent series that are lost
now. Gillstrom died suddenly in 1935 and that ended any hopes of bigger fame at
Paramount.
8) Based on your biography,
Vernon seemed to have a wonderful final marriage. He settled into an eventual
well-paid character actor supporting role in Columbia shorts, with freedom to
do other work. His settling down into that role, was it due to domestic
happiness, and perhaps also that his diabetes was a growing concern CASSARA: Vernon was married
three times and his second wife passed away When Vernon was in this 30's.
Vernon met his future wife at a party at the Langdon's home and he was so
smitten, he proposed to her that night. Vernon was in love and they were both
dedicated to each other though Mrs. Dent had no interest in the movie business.
Vernon's wife worked at a bank for consistent income, aside from Vernon's
acting income he was also vested in real estate and owned a concession stand in
Westlake Park in Los Angeles. They both pitched in during the weekends.
9) What are Dent’s best
dramatic roles? CASSARA: Thomas Ince hired
Vernon for his feature: "Hail the Women" (1921). It is unfortunately
this is a lost film, Vernon had a prominent part. Mack Sennett cast Vernon as a
sinister and overbearing suitor of Mable Normand in the feature, "The
Extra Girl." (1923) He played a mean husband in the rarely seen
"Dragnet Patrol" even out bullying screen heavy Walter Long. Vernon's
most sensitive portrayal was the feature, "Beast of Berlin" (1939)
when Vernon's character is German citizen (a bartender) who is terrorized by
the Nazi soldiers. We hear Vernon cry in pain...it's heartbreaking.
10) What are the best examples of Dent singing
in films CASSARA: In the short
Technicolor film, "Good morning, Eve." Vernon (as Nero) sings
"Rhythm in the Bow," it's very catchy. He sings "There's No
Place Like Home" to a sequestered jury in "The Jury Goes 'Round and
Round" (1945). My favorites are when Vernon sings the old songs: "The
Waning Honeymoon" (Fainting Lover (1931), "When You and I were Young,
Maggie" (with Harry Langdon in Hooks and Jabs), and especially in Bing
Crosby's short "Please," Vernon challenges Bing to a singing
competition and bellows out "Dear Old Girl."
11) Has there ever been a comedian who had a
stare as humorously menacing as Dent? CASSARA: I think Vernon
carved this out for himself and sustained it through out his years at Columbia.
He forewarned the Stooges many times with his look of intolerance, Charley
Chase and Shemp Howard both got those stares in the baseball-themed "The
Heckler" and "Mr. Noisy." The audience could witness his many
stages of body language, but never the comedians. 12) Who did Dent pair best with in films? I imagine the
favorites are The Stooges or Langdon, or maybe you have another selection? CASSARA: For sustained
pairing there is no doubt; The Three Stooges for the sheer delicious physical
comedy and Harry Langdon for the obvious chemistry between them.
13) In your research, how is Dent received by genre
fans? Is he recognized for his supporting talents or seen as a comedy star who
couldn’t quite reach star status? CASSARA: Though Vernon
appeared in over 400 films, most of them are unavailable for viewing. We'll
never know what heights Vernon would have propelled to if Gillstrom had lived,
the same could be said about Thomas Ince who also died after casting Vernon in
a dramatic feature. Vernon knew everyone at Columbia Studios when he became one
of their prized stock-players in 1936, so who wants to change history? I had
the pleasure of giving a discourse at the last Three Stooges Convention in
2016, if the knowledgeable audience was any gauge, they held Vernon Dent in
highest esteem for his comic support.
14) In
your research, what more did you learn about the warm personal friendship
between Dent and Langdon? (Vernon, Harry, and their spouses seen in above photo.)
CASSARA: In Harry Langdon Jr.'s new book, it is reaffirmed how close Vernon and Harry were. Harry's widow
emphasized this to Junior, Vernon even took the boy to baseball games in his
father's absence. Vernon never had children but he would have been a great dad.
15) If
someone were to put on a Vernon Dent film festival, what 12 films would you
choose to include?
CASSARA:
Some titles I have already mentioned, those would have to be included in any
list. The rest go to just about any of The Three Stooges: "Slippery
Silks," "An Ache in Every Stake,"Idle Roomers,"
"Half-Wits Holiday," "Three Little Pirates," "Sing a
Song of Six Pants," "Squareheads of the Round Table,"
"Fuelin' Around," Malice in the Palace," (see Vernon above) "Scrambled
Brains," "The Tooth Will Out."
16. Is there
anything you have discovered since your book was released? CASSARA: Most definitely. I heard from a woman who was a teenager when Vernon
was at home and blind unable to work. She used to check on him while his wife
was at work. One day she came in and she caught Vernon at the dinner table with
TWO pies in front of him furnished by a buddy. Vernon sensed her presence and
slightly panicked (he was on a strict diet). He tried to buy her off with
"Keep your mouth shut and the other pie is yours." That's how much he
valued his sweets. I also heard from a man who said he was Vernon's lawn mower
as a boy. Vernon offered him any of his souvenirs and artifacts. Apparently
Vernon collected stills from all his pictures and had them autographed by his
co-stars. Where they went nobody knows.
I also found out something unique about Vernon that I'm not sure if he was
conscious of himself. The very uncommon surname of "Mann"
seemed to pop up in his life: He went to Horace Mann school, Sam Mann was
Vernon's stage idol and who encouraged Vernon to continue impersonating him
with his foreign dialects, Gus Mann hired him for the "Jewel City
Cafe," Hank Mann hired Vernon as his comic heavy, and Helen Mann played
opposite of him in "The Girl Rush" (1931). If I were to ever write a
play about Vernon I would start with the temperance movement, Vernon's father's
death, and weave it around all the "Mann" coincidences. I can see it
now... Thanks so much, Bill, for the interview.
"To Heir is Human" (imdb page is here) is one of comic legend Harry Langdon's more energetic late comedy shorts for Columbia, which featured other comic stars besides the Three Stooges. Released in early 1944, it stars Harry as window washer Harry Fenner, who is improbably located by telephone book deliverer Una, played by Una Merkel. It seems a sinister looking fellow asked Una to find Harry and deliver him to a forbidding domain where he'll inherit a fortune.The man, A Raven Sparrow, will give Una $1,000 to find Harry. Una drags a semi-reluctant Harry to the house, where naturally, a trio comprised of relatives and a thuggish handyman want to knock off Harry -- and Una -- and get all the inherited cash for themselves.
Although he's looking very old -- Langdon would die in December 1944 -- Harry is in excellent form the low-budget short, produced in Hugh McCollum's wing of Columbia's shorts studio. "The Elf" is in form in a few scenes, particularly during his initial refusal of Una's efforts to locate him, and more prominently in a later scene with his Vampish "kissing cousin," Velma, played by Christine McIntyre, who later gained iconic status as a Three Stooges regular. Langdon is hilarious with his mild surprise and resistance as Velma, one of the baddies, tries to provide him poisoned drinks. A Raven Sparrow, by the way, is played by Lew Kelly, who looked like a creepy cross between an aged Boris Karloff and John Carradine. The handyman is played by Bud Gribbon. His best scene is where he lowers a noose over Harry's head, who mistakes it for a tie. There are effective scenes in the house, particularly a room with an electric. Both A. Sparrow Raven and Una receive unpleasant but funny jolts as a result.
Now, I have not mentioned Una Merkel's contribution yet, because I've been saving it for her own paragraph or too. She absolutely marvelous in her role as dogged working girl Una. Merkel, who later gained a measure of consistent fame, had enjoyed a measure of stardom in the 1930s. However, by 1943 she was in a slump, and doing low-budget shorts. Nevertheless, her career slump doesn't show in this film.
Merkel has a tremendous eye for comedy, particularly slapstick, and she shows a lot of that in the film. She's literally manhandled in this film, getting thrown out of offices, having telephone directories thrown at her, being pulled by a thug who wants to kill her, fainting, and being electrocuted. Nevertheless, she never stops protecting her charge Harry, even if her main motivation for the $1,000 is to improve her appearance. Una Merkel reminds me of a slightly more intelligent version of Patsy Kelley in her shorts with Thelma Todd. Her pairing with the lower key Langdon works well. ... By the way, frequent Langdon co-star Vernon Dent has a cameo as a board chairman of a business. The scene is while Una is chasing Harry, and Langdon is funny as he intrudes into the speech.
This is an obscure film. A Langdon fan and film collector originally provided me a copy of the film, Look for it at Turner Classic Movies on the odd chance it will get on as an "extra." It is now on YouTube, however.
