Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) Review
I’m not too familiar with the work of Harry Langdon, which is strange because I’m a huge fan of silent comedy and have seen lots of Chaplin, Lloyd, and Keaton’s work. With Langdon, my viewing experience has been limited to the 1939 movie Zenobia and briefly seeing the end of one of his shorts a long time ago. Considering that Langdon is often considered to be the fourth of the major silent comedians, I decided it was time I finally checked out one of his movies and see what the big deal was with him. The movie I chose was Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, which is considered one of his most popular movies.
Harry Logan (Langdon) lives with his father at his shop, but when it’s in danger of being shut down, Harry has three months to collect the money that they need to pay to the owner (Tom Murray). At the encouragement of Betty Burton (Joan Crawford), who he’s smitten with, he decides to enter a walking race to California that promises the winner $25,000.
Langdon’s character seems to be that of a man who acts like a child, kind of similar to the character Stan Laurel eventually developed. Whereas Laurel’s character faithfully follows someone he genuinely cares about, Langdon’s character is more of a lost child adapting to new circumstances, which makes for an interesting concept, but not necessarily great comedy...at least, not at first.
So the thing is that most of the early routines consist of Langdon annoying others through his incompetence, usually the champion. Don’t get me wrong; the way the champion is portrayed, he definitely deserves it, especially since he’s the one trying to close down the father’s store. The problem is that the champion is such a boring comedic foil for Langdon. The guy doesn’t even really look all that intimidating and his moments of frustration feel very forced. The constant run-ins with this guy were so tedious that at first I thought the problem was Langdon himself, but considering that the film did get better as it went along, that turned out to not be the case.
That isn’t to say that Langdon himself is perfect in this movie. In particular, there’s one scene involving a cab driver that is pretty annoying. Basically, the guy drives Langdon to where the race is starting and demands his money, but Langdon can’t get it out because his sleeve is too long and he tries to run away without paying, which leads to a conflict that includes destroying the rear window of the cab driver’s car. The problem with this scene is that you end up feeling too bad for the cab driver. All the guy wants is what he rightfully deserves, but because Langdon is being way too stupid, he ends up wrecking the driver’s car. When this kind of stuff happens to Oliver Hardy, it’s funny because he chooses to have Stan with him always; in this case, the cab driver just happened to get unlucky and pick up a bad customer.
Surprisingly, a lot of the best scenes are actually when Langdon is by himself, which you think wouldn’t work considering the type of character he’s playing. There’s a great scene where he’s hanging from a wall above a cliff, but arguably the best scenes are when he’s with the prisoners. These scenes take great advantage of the comedic potential with Langdon’s character. He has trouble adapting to prison life and ends up using a really tiny hammer to break even tinier rocks. My favorite part, though, is when one of the prisoners hands him a gun for their planned escape. Not knowing what to do with it, he ends up using it in place of his tiny hammer in order to continue breaking rocks! This is how to use Langdon’s character right, and he doesn’t even need a comedic foil for it.
The story itself moves at a nice pace. It’s not incredibly narrative-heavy or anything, but it does remind us every now and then of the motivations behind entering the race and it is nice to see the father’s reactions when he sees his son doing so well in the race.
The climax involves surviving a cyclone, which Buster Keaton also did later in his film Steamboat Bill, Jr. Personally, I prefer Keaton’s version, which is realistic but also takes as much advantage as possible of the comedic potential. Langdon’s version, though, is still pretty interesting. Whereas Keaton struggles directly with the cyclone, for a while, Langdon is actually struggling inside a building being affected by the cyclone. For the most part, it’s pretty exciting and funny, but unfortunately rather than bring everyone to safety by himself, Langdon ends it by basically throwing bricks at the cyclone and chasing it off that way. It’s such a stupid way to handle such a serious subject that it ends up coming off as anti-climactic and is partially the reason that I prefer Keaton’s version.
Overall, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp is a somewhat entertaining film. It’s got a pretty charming story for the most part, with some good acting from the likes of Joan Crawford and Alec B. Francis, and has a decent amount of funny moments. You just have to sit through some pretty tedious moments to get to them. What’s good, though, is done really well and I can definitely see the appeal in Langdon’s comedy even if I don’t think that this is the best representation of it.
7 out of 10
Langdon’s character seems to be that of a man who acts like a child, kind of similar to the character Stan Laurel eventually developed. Whereas Laurel’s character faithfully follows someone he genuinely cares about, Langdon’s character is more of a lost child adapting to new circumstances, which makes for an interesting concept, but not necessarily great comedy...at least, not at first.
So the thing is that most of the early routines consist of Langdon annoying others through his incompetence, usually the champion. Don’t get me wrong; the way the champion is portrayed, he definitely deserves it, especially since he’s the one trying to close down the father’s store. The problem is that the champion is such a boring comedic foil for Langdon. The guy doesn’t even really look all that intimidating and his moments of frustration feel very forced. The constant run-ins with this guy were so tedious that at first I thought the problem was Langdon himself, but considering that the film did get better as it went along, that turned out to not be the case.
That isn’t to say that Langdon himself is perfect in this movie. In particular, there’s one scene involving a cab driver that is pretty annoying. Basically, the guy drives Langdon to where the race is starting and demands his money, but Langdon can’t get it out because his sleeve is too long and he tries to run away without paying, which leads to a conflict that includes destroying the rear window of the cab driver’s car. The problem with this scene is that you end up feeling too bad for the cab driver. All the guy wants is what he rightfully deserves, but because Langdon is being way too stupid, he ends up wrecking the driver’s car. When this kind of stuff happens to Oliver Hardy, it’s funny because he chooses to have Stan with him always; in this case, the cab driver just happened to get unlucky and pick up a bad customer.
Surprisingly, a lot of the best scenes are actually when Langdon is by himself, which you think wouldn’t work considering the type of character he’s playing. There’s a great scene where he’s hanging from a wall above a cliff, but arguably the best scenes are when he’s with the prisoners. These scenes take great advantage of the comedic potential with Langdon’s character. He has trouble adapting to prison life and ends up using a really tiny hammer to break even tinier rocks. My favorite part, though, is when one of the prisoners hands him a gun for their planned escape. Not knowing what to do with it, he ends up using it in place of his tiny hammer in order to continue breaking rocks! This is how to use Langdon’s character right, and he doesn’t even need a comedic foil for it.
The story itself moves at a nice pace. It’s not incredibly narrative-heavy or anything, but it does remind us every now and then of the motivations behind entering the race and it is nice to see the father’s reactions when he sees his son doing so well in the race.
The climax involves surviving a cyclone, which Buster Keaton also did later in his film Steamboat Bill, Jr. Personally, I prefer Keaton’s version, which is realistic but also takes as much advantage as possible of the comedic potential. Langdon’s version, though, is still pretty interesting. Whereas Keaton struggles directly with the cyclone, for a while, Langdon is actually struggling inside a building being affected by the cyclone. For the most part, it’s pretty exciting and funny, but unfortunately rather than bring everyone to safety by himself, Langdon ends it by basically throwing bricks at the cyclone and chasing it off that way. It’s such a stupid way to handle such a serious subject that it ends up coming off as anti-climactic and is partially the reason that I prefer Keaton’s version.
Overall, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp is a somewhat entertaining film. It’s got a pretty charming story for the most part, with some good acting from the likes of Joan Crawford and Alec B. Francis, and has a decent amount of funny moments. You just have to sit through some pretty tedious moments to get to them. What’s good, though, is done really well and I can definitely see the appeal in Langdon’s comedy even if I don’t think that this is the best representation of it.
7 out of 10
I like blogs where you select Name/URL and or Anonymous to post a comment
ReplyDelete