The ambiguity of the title refers to Harry Langdon's true girl and also a "heroic" act Langdon performs before the fade out. This film, written with Frank Capra's participation, is unusually poorly plotted. He has a gold-digger after him, but then another girl who's actually interested in him. His uncle works at a firehouse and has sworn off women, but as viewers later see, that is not entirely the case. Harry witnesses what appears to be a married couple arguing in a home, creating a lot of smoke (literally) between the couple, but ultimately the scene yields few chuckles. There are a couple of scenes which are funny: when Harry wears women's clothing in public as a result of an encounter with a pickpocket and the whole scenario at the end with him rescuing his beloved from a "fire". The camera is nearly static throughout the film with mostly stationary framing and point of view shots, indicative of a low budget. All in all, this is an average silent comedy from the time period it was made in and several notches below the big three at the same time: Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd. ** of 4 stars.
Review of His First Flame
