House of Errors (1942)

House of Errors was the second of the two "Harry Langdon-Charley Rogers" pairings. Weirdly enough, this one was actually made by a completely different studio. Double Trouble was done by Monogram while this one was done by PRC. I'm not entirely sure how this came about; the producers for both films were different, so it's not like there was much of a connection there. Whatever happened, House of Errors was the result.

House of Errors once again finds Harry and Charley playing Bert and Alf. This time, they're paperboys for a newspaper. After getting fired, they decide to try reporting themselves and act on a tip they overheard from their former boss. They go to the house of Hiram Randall (Richard Kipling), who is working on a brand new machine gun that promises to be revolutionary. They go undercover as his servants, only to come across another reporter (Ray Walker) and two men attempting to steal the gun (John Holland and Guy Kingsford).

So, in some respects, the story of House of Errors is both better and worse than the story of Double Trouble. On the positive side, the comedy is better balanced with the plot this time around. Charley and Harry are there from the beginning and when the plot is being set up, they're right outside to both be a part of it and to do some comedy bits.

On the negative side, though, the male romantic lead here is really, really unlikeable. In Double Trouble, the male romantic lead openly flirted with another woman, but that was the extent to which he was unlikeable. This male romantic lead cons Harry and Charley, slacks off from work to annoy a woman who doesn't initially care for him, and then even later forcibly kisses that woman! He's such a jerk that when the bad things happen to him throughout, I'm happy to see those bad things happen to him! He's really annoying, but thankfully he becomes less prominent during the second half of the film.

The second half of the film is also where Charley and Harry shine the most. One portion is of them in a haunted house type setting, guarding the gun while crooks are trying to steal it. While normally this type of setting is used for scare reactions, this time a lot of the comedy comes more from the situations than the reactions. At one point, the crooks try throwing a hook in to grab a key, but they accidentally keep hooking on to Harry, at one point completely pulling him on to the floor. They do some scare reactions, but they're not overdone and do feel kind of creative. For example, they both see the crooks at one point and become nervous, but Charley leads them to both believe that they're seeing things due to some pie they ate earlier. It's pretty funny to think that Charley would believe they're both hallucinating at the same time and not be smart enough to realize there actually is someone there!

The best moments take place near the end when they stay the night at a flophouse. A lot of people are trying to sleep throughout, so the situation demands for a lot of physical comedy, like when Harry tries to keep a painting from falling on the person in the next bed (played by the always reliable Vernon Dent). There's another funny situation where Harry tries to get Charley's attention after Vernon Dent falls asleep on Harry's hand. Harry keeps throwing stuff at Charley only for them to hit the guy next to Charley, and the guy beats up Charley as a result! This also has my favorite verbal exchange in the movie:

Harry: What'll I do?

Charley: If I were you I'd pinch him. Well, I'm glad I'm not you.

Another reliable supporting player also helps out during theses scenes. Monte Collins plays a flea owner whose fleas keep escaping. He freaks out and goes after every person he sees who might have access to his fleas, and he gets even more distraught when they get on him! He definitely takes advantage of the little screen time he has.

As far as the first half goes...I kind of like the recurring gag of Harry writing stuff down. Sometimes it just boils down to him writing exactly what happened, but occasionally he does mix things up and even expresses surprise at things he just wrote down. I do also like Charley's delivery when he's deciding on all the stuff he wants from the male romantic lead in order to not blow his cover. There's some OK stuff throughout, but it doesn't really pick up until the second half, especially given how annoying the male romantic lead is throughout the first half.

Overall, the "Harry Langdon-Charley Rogers" pairing was an interesting experiment, and one that had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, both films were bogged down by either boring setups or unlikeable characters. I really wish that they would have kept trying with this pairing, because I think they could have eventually found some way to take full advantage of their comedy talents.

7 out of 10

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