"His First Flame" was something of a hidden gem for me. This 46-minute comedy as as funny as anything I have seen in a long time. Harry is an innocent, child-like figure who will accept without question that he has just cleanly pulled off a woman's leg or mistake a mannequin for a real woman, but he lives squarely in the real world -- where a man dressed in woman's clothing will not be mistaken for a woman, but scorned by passers-by and rejected by his uncle, where people marry for money, and where domestic abuse occurs. If Harry sees any of this, he accepts it with the same blank passivity that would would an inexplicable piece of magic.
It's this simplicity of Langdon's and the harshness of the real world as presented in the film here that got me truly emotionally involved, making the comic situations work so much better, and making me really feel for him weeping at the window. Langdon's comedy, even when very physical, works so well because of his wonderfully-performed long reactions, slow realizations, and uncomfortable fidgets, and director Harry Edwards really allows that to work here.
In all this is infinitely funny and charming, and perfectly blends grim but hilarious black humour (the scene in which Harry, invited to visit one violent couple, only noticed the argument next door, exclaiming "Seems to be a lot of fighting around here!) with genuinely sweet moments (Harry stopping his firefighter uncle in the middle of a rescue to wave hello). This well deserves to be sought out.
It's this simplicity of Langdon's and the harshness of the real world as presented in the film here that got me truly emotionally involved, making the comic situations work so much better, and making me really feel for him weeping at the window. Langdon's comedy, even when very physical, works so well because of his wonderfully-performed long reactions, slow realizations, and uncomfortable fidgets, and director Harry Edwards really allows that to work here.
In all this is infinitely funny and charming, and perfectly blends grim but hilarious black humour (the scene in which Harry, invited to visit one violent couple, only noticed the argument next door, exclaiming "Seems to be a lot of fighting around here!) with genuinely sweet moments (Harry stopping his firefighter uncle in the middle of a rescue to wave hello). This well deserves to be sought out.