It seems very de rigueur to hate "The Chaser", so I went into this with expectations suitably lowered. Plus, while I loved Langdon's "The Strong Man", "Tramp Tramp Tramp" had suffered from long stretches of not being funny at all, so my trepidation towards Langdon features was quite high. Nevertheless, "The Chaser" sounded so fascinating from other reviews that I had a morbid curiosity to see it.
Perhaps I have a twisted sense of humour, but I thought the first two-thirds of the film were great. There are some fabulous routines here: the sequence at the start with the phone, the section where Harry can't get away from the business end of his wife's revolver, and the charming routine where a nonplussed Harry tries to get his chicken to lay an egg for his wife's breakfast.
I found the bits where the tradesmen keep mistaking the obviously-not-female Harry for a housewife very funny, which built into a traditional 1-2-3 comedic structure with classic twist payoff. The suicide scene is acted brilliantly by Langdon, as Harry alternates between his determination to do away with himself and his fear of pain and death. The legendary shot of Harry lying on the floor waiting to die didn't seem too long at all - in fact, given that Langdon's most famous routines are praised precisely because of his lack of action, it seems odd to criticize this gag for exactly the same thing. On the other hand, I will agree that the crying wife bit goes on for too long, and it's not helped by the obvious jump-cut in the middle of it.
It's shortly after that point that the film goes horribly wrong. Having spent four reels being a mildly sophisticated black comedy, the film takes a dog-leg left turn and becomes a hokey bit of slapstick set on a golf course. There doesn't seem to be much here that's relevant to the original premise of the film; or indeed particularly funny. It also shares the same cliffhanger cheat with "Tramp Tramp Tramp" whereby a sheer cliff suddenly turns into a lengthy incline once Harry goes over the edge. Boo hiss!
One wonders what caused this huge deviation from the main thrust of the film. It scarcely seems credible that it was scripted this way. In fact, it would only take one or two changed shots to join the end of reel 4 (where Harry is kissed by the milkman) onto the "happy" ending starting from where Harry is inundated with flour. Perhaps the final two reels were added after a preview to try and add a more traditional slapstick finale to an unconventional film. Maybe Landgon and his team ran out of inspiration on the set, didn't get as much footage from the original scenario as they expected, and had to pad the film out to length.
Up until the golf course shenanigans, I was thinking that this could well be my favourite of the Langdon features. It's badly let down by the last 20 minutes, but the rest of the film is well worth seeing. "The Chaser" may well have been massively out of step with the public's taste in 1928, but for my money the main storyline of the film holds up well, and I only wish that Langdon and co had had the courage of their conviction to stay on-plot though the entire film.
It's definitely a film that deserves a major re-evaluation. I urge you to take a look at the film (especialy now it's out on DVD in a mostly nice crisp print) and judge for yourself. Who knows - like me, you might even get a laugh out of it!
Perhaps I have a twisted sense of humour, but I thought the first two-thirds of the film were great. There are some fabulous routines here: the sequence at the start with the phone, the section where Harry can't get away from the business end of his wife's revolver, and the charming routine where a nonplussed Harry tries to get his chicken to lay an egg for his wife's breakfast.
I found the bits where the tradesmen keep mistaking the obviously-not-female Harry for a housewife very funny, which built into a traditional 1-2-3 comedic structure with classic twist payoff. The suicide scene is acted brilliantly by Langdon, as Harry alternates between his determination to do away with himself and his fear of pain and death. The legendary shot of Harry lying on the floor waiting to die didn't seem too long at all - in fact, given that Langdon's most famous routines are praised precisely because of his lack of action, it seems odd to criticize this gag for exactly the same thing. On the other hand, I will agree that the crying wife bit goes on for too long, and it's not helped by the obvious jump-cut in the middle of it.
It's shortly after that point that the film goes horribly wrong. Having spent four reels being a mildly sophisticated black comedy, the film takes a dog-leg left turn and becomes a hokey bit of slapstick set on a golf course. There doesn't seem to be much here that's relevant to the original premise of the film; or indeed particularly funny. It also shares the same cliffhanger cheat with "Tramp Tramp Tramp" whereby a sheer cliff suddenly turns into a lengthy incline once Harry goes over the edge. Boo hiss!
One wonders what caused this huge deviation from the main thrust of the film. It scarcely seems credible that it was scripted this way. In fact, it would only take one or two changed shots to join the end of reel 4 (where Harry is kissed by the milkman) onto the "happy" ending starting from where Harry is inundated with flour. Perhaps the final two reels were added after a preview to try and add a more traditional slapstick finale to an unconventional film. Maybe Landgon and his team ran out of inspiration on the set, didn't get as much footage from the original scenario as they expected, and had to pad the film out to length.
Up until the golf course shenanigans, I was thinking that this could well be my favourite of the Langdon features. It's badly let down by the last 20 minutes, but the rest of the film is well worth seeing. "The Chaser" may well have been massively out of step with the public's taste in 1928, but for my money the main storyline of the film holds up well, and I only wish that Langdon and co had had the courage of their conviction to stay on-plot though the entire film.
It's definitely a film that deserves a major re-evaluation. I urge you to take a look at the film (especialy now it's out on DVD in a mostly nice crisp print) and judge for yourself. Who knows - like me, you might even get a laugh out of it!