A Double Feature disc of Unsung Sophisticated Silent Comedy
DIRECTED BY HARRY A. POLLARD/1925, 1926
BLU-RAY STREET DATE: APRIL 18, 2023/KINO CLASSICS
Oh, Doctor! (1925)
Harold Lloyd he is not, but you can’t blame Reginald Denny for trying. Such may be one’s initial response to 1925’s Oh, Doctor!, a compact and delightful silent comedy yarn from director Harry A. Pollard. Leading man Denny, competently hopping into this character-driven bit of slapstick-lite, sports Lloyd’s black round spectacles in playing the hapless hypochondriac Rufus Billings Jr.
Raised “under glass” as a sickly kid, we find Rufus as a bedbound patient with questionable in-home care. When his nurse “Death Watch Mary” is replaced with the easy-on-the-eyes Dolores Hicks (a very young Mary Astor), Rufus’ will to live is suddenly invigorated. There is, of course, more to it than that, but at the end of the day (or in this case, the end of the film), we all know what matters most is the lovey-dovey.
Rufus may be physical fragile (or so he’s told), but he does have the good fortune of being real well off financially. If he lives three more years, he’ll inherit $750,000. The problem is he needs $100,000 now for the in-home care that leads to Dolores. A very lopsided loan occurs that will cost Rufus his inheritance. But hey, he’s probably going to be dead in three years anyway, so he might as well make himself comfortable in the moment… Only, the money people know what Rufus doesn’t: he’s actually fine. Will he arrive at the truth on time? And how will his affection for Dolores impact his bedridden lifestyle?
Deny, while a fine presence in Oh, Doctor!’s moments of pathos, isn’t at all a slapstick comedian comparable to any of the greats of the time. In this sense, his passing resemblance in this film to Harold Lloyd does him no favors. That resemblance coupled with the film’s climax closely evoking that of Lloyd’s Safety Last! (1923) don’t serve Oh Doctor! particularly well.
On the other hand, however, the sixty-six-minute comedy is, above all, a breezy watch that defies most any objections. The silent film’s provided music score by Jake Monaco definitely helps it along in this manner, complimenting the action and tone appropriately throughout.
Poker Faces (1926)
Well into Pollard’s 1926 comedy Poker Faces, gangly leading man Edward Everett Horton has two guys that wanna pound him, and pound him somethin’ flat. One is built like a big brick house; the other is a raging prize fighter. Not good, especially considering that all of this animosity is playing out at his boss’s luxurious estate where he’s supposed to be helping to close a major deal. Everyone has turned in for the night, albeit with Horton’s wife in the big guy’s room, and Horton with the prize fighter’s wife. The boss himself, a frail old man, has zonked out on the staircase.
There, there- none of it is what it looks like…! (Well, the boss [Tom Ricketts] sleeping on the staircase is pretty legit). Horton’s character, feeling the heat at home to earn more money, agrees to pose as his boss’s junior partner for a high stakes evening with the high-dollar potential client, who is also the aforementioned very large guy (George Siegmann) who ends up wanting to pound him. He’s told to bring his wife, whom his boss has heard tell of being very attractive. But with his actual wife (Laura La Plante) angry and gone looking for a job out of spite, he is forced to hire a stand-in for the night. The wife of the prize fighter takes the gig. Imagine Horton’s surprise when his actual wife strolls into the dinner party having just been hired by his boss as a stenographer. Imagine her surprise when she sees her husband there with a different wife and being introduced as a junior partner. Then everyone is made to stay the night.
Tempers flare, misunderstandings compound, and Horton ends up scaling the outside of the house in nothing but his BVDs and a flamboyant leopard print fur coat. Because of course he does. The juggernauting client, having immediately fallen for Horton’s real wife, has invited her up to his room for some late night “dictation”. And good grief, she happily agreed to it. (Gasp!) Before he can fully give her his dictation, however, the Act III bedroom farcical chase breaks out. The angry prizefighter shows up looking for his wife. Fisticuffs galore! And someone’s got a gun… can this possibly end well for anyone??
As knotty as this feature length situation comedy gets with its not altogether original premise, whenever it hits the proverbial gas for its against-the-clock sprint to the train station or the farcical hallway jockeying back at the mansion, it never truly revs. First and foremost it’s Horton’s gamesmanship for appearing like a fool that keeps Poker Faces in the game. By the way, there never is a poker game or anything of the sort. The title derives from the showdowns of expressionlessness that La Plante and Horton get into throughout the film.
*****
Film critic, teacher, and author Adam Cayman does audio commentary duty for both films, providing mostly thought-provoking opinions and observations rather than a litany of facts and filmographies. They’re not the liveliest tracks, but there is an engaged pulse behind the information as it comes. The semi-frequent pause gaps don’t help, though. In any case, it’s very good on the whole to have Cayman on hand for these tracks.
Kino Classics has done a fine job of making these two lesser known silents available for collectors in high definition. Oh, Doctor! features music by Jake Monaco; Poker Faces features music by Zach Marsh. Both scores are quite good. A double feature Blu-ray release devoted to director Harry A. Pollard is exactly the kind of wonderfully unlikely release that has made Kino Classics a cinephile favorite for decades. Fans of Reginald Denny and Edward Everett Horton will absolutely not want to overlook this one.
