Harry Edwards Movies
Harry Edwards was a noted director of early silent short comedies, and is best known for making the popular Harry Langdon vehicle, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926). Born in London, Ontario, he started out working with props in 1912. With the illustrious Mack Sennett as his mentor, he soon developed into a fine director. He worked mostly with comedians Harry Langdon, Ben Turpin, Billy Bevan and Carole Lombard. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1944
In this Vera Vague 2-reel comedy, the irrepressible man-chaser gets new neighbors who, unfortunately, turn out to be a gang of crooks. Vera Vague was the creation of radio comedienne Barbara Jo Allen, who became so identified with the character that she adopted the name as her own. Vera did not get along with her director, Harry Edwards, and requested forthwith to work only with department head Jules White, the man who perhaps more than anyone was responsible for the success of The Three Stooges. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1943
The Three Stooges were still in their prime when this short (the last one of theirs directed by Harry Edwards) was filmed. Larry, Moe and Curly play the most inept poster hangers imaginable and they are caught by their boss just as Curly is tearing his head through one of the posters. It turns out that their pay only consists of tickets to the circus, but when Curly gets his hands on an additional roll, the boys decide to make some cash by selling them at a discount. They are caught by the circus owner and the sheriff, who chase them through the place. Curly winds up in the tent of the bearded lady, who thinks he is her blind date. Then he and Larry hide in a horse costume, which a myopic Chester Conklin mistakes for a real horse that is to be fed to the lions. Ultimately the Stooges are all caught, but instead of sending them to jail, the circus owner hires them to be human targets for the spear-throwing "Sultan of Abudaba." When Curly throws one of the spears back, ! the Sultan (who looks more like a native wildman than a sultan) chases him onto a tightrope. Moe and Larry hold out a net and tell Curly to jump. But the net is actually a paper disc and Curly falls right through, making a deep hole in the ground. Larry and Moe jump in after him, thus eluding their foes. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1942
This Three Stooges short takes place in the days of "Ancient Erysipelas," where the lusty Octopus Grabus is emperor and Ye Olde Pottery and Stone Works is run by Mohicus, Larrycus and Curleycue, "the biggest chiselers in town." The emperor is on the search for a new wife, but the young lovely that is chosen by one of his men just doesn't want to have anything to do with him. The Stooges try to help her out by hiding her in one of their pots, but they are all caught and brought to the palace. The Stooges are to be thrown to the lions but they manage to escape their captors. Moe and Larry convince Curly to dress up as Octopus's prospective bride while the real one escapes. Luckily the emperor's eyes are bad and Moe and Larry break his glasses, so he's never any the wiser. Finally the boys break for freedom by jumping out one of the palace's windows, but they wind up getting caught, upside-down, on the spears of three guards. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1942
In their fourth and final 2-reel comedy together, El Brendel (of "Yumpin Yimminy!" infamy) and Tom Kennedy played owners of a moving company charged with delivering mysterious crates to a museum in the middle of the night. With African-American comedian Dudley Dickerson along for the ride, the comedy was resplendent with the usual eye-bulging "scairdy cat" humor. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1926
When baby-faced comedian Harry Langdon left Mack Sennett Studios to make features for First National, he wisely brought along the two Sennett staffers who helped make him a star: gag writer Frank Capra and director Harry Edwards. Langdon's first feature-length comedy at his new studio was Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, which not only ranks as one of Harry's best efforts, but also one of the funniest comedies ever made. Our hero plays a bumbling cobbler's son who enters a cross-country walking race sponsored by shoe manufacturer John Burton (Edwards Davis). This he does partly to save his dad's business, but mainly out of love for Burton's daughter Betty (Joan Crawford), whom Harry knows only from her appearances on the Burton Shoe advertising billboards. As our hero tramp, tramp, tramps along, one mishap after another befalls him. At one point he is arrested and placed on a chain gang, leading to pantomimic tour de force in which the hapless Harry tries his best to make little rocks out of big ones. He also runs afoul of a belligerent herd of sheep, nearly plummeting off a cliff as a result. The climax finds Harry being literally swept off his feet by an outsized cyclone -- a surprisingly convincing special-effects sequence staged entirely within the studio! Miraculously, Harry wins the race and Betty's hand in marriage (According to Frank Capra, leading lady Joan Crawford was so amused by Langdon's antics that she couldn't film her big scene with him without collapsing into laughter; as a result, the scene had to be shot with Crawford's back to the camera). An amusing coda featuring a "baby" Langdon in his bassinette caps this well-nigh-perfect film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon, Joan Crawford, (more)
- 1926
Baby Face Harry Langdon is a videocassette collection of selected Mack Sennett two-reelers starring pasty-faced comedian Harry Langdon. Langdon's character can best be described as an overgrown baby (with all the bad attributes of infancy as well as the good), and as such he seemed an unlikely candidate for stardom in the mid-1920s. But with Charlie Chaplin between pictures, movie audiences turned to Langdon for large dollops of character comedy seasoned with pathos. Many of Langdon's silent short subjects for Mack Sennett Studios were scripted by Frank Capra, and most were directed by Harry Edwards, a mediocre talent who did his best work with Langdon (who, in turn, trusted Edwards without question). The highlight of this collection is Saturday Afternoon (1926) a near-perfect three-reeler in which Langdon escapes his domineering wife for an afternoon of carefree abandon with his pal Vernon Dent and two flirtatious flappers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1926
Baby-faced comedian Harry Langdon plays a timorous fireman in His First Flame. Much of the action involves Langdon's efforts to impress the unimpressable Ruth Hiatt. She is so resistant to his "charms" that she can't even act grateful when he rescues her from a burning house. Filmed during Langdon's last year at Mack Sennett's studio, His First Flame was originally a three-reeler. It was expanded into a feature (using stock footage and outtakes) after the success of Langdon's official feature-film debut in First National's Tramp, Tramp, Tramp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon, Natalie Kingston, (more)
- 1925
Although Harry Langdon was nearing his peak as a two-reel comedian (in just a few months he would graduate to features), not all his films during this period were winners. Of this picture, trade paper Moving Picture World complained, "The gags carry little punch and the action is constantly slowed up for no palpable reason." This is too bad because the beginning is promising. Harry, naïve as always, goes to a sidewalk "astronomer" who advises him to seek his fortune under the guidance of a certain star. The star takes him to an equally phony doctor who is actually a snake oil salesman (Vernon Dent), and they head for San Tobacco in Mexico to peddle their wares. They're quite successful, much to the chagrin of the local druggist and his daughter (Natalie Kingston). She grabs a dagger and goes off to kill the intruders, but her boyfriend has already ruined their business by adding a secret chemical to their potion. The resulting brew poisons their clientele who take out their anger on Harry and the "doctor." ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
