In the silent film days, Harry Langdon was very successful. Perhaps he wasn't as successful as the likes of Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd or Laurel & Hardy...but his films were enjoyable, often sweet and the public loved them. However, he had a problem that sometimes comes with success...he started having lots of folks flatter him and that he could do better elsewhere. Now, considering his director in many of his best early films was Frank Capra, in hindsight we know that he could NOT do better. What followed were years of progressively worse films. The biggest problem with the later films is that they looked as if they were written for anyone and they just happened to stick Langdon in the lead. This was particularly true with his films from Columbia. Many of their shorts were Three Stooges style films (after all, the Stooges were their hottest property in the shorts department)....and slapstick and violence were NOT the sort of stuff that made Langdon so popular in the 20s.
By 1942, Langdon had been with Columbia's shorts department for nearly a decade and he occasionally worked for other studios here and there (such as with Hal Roach Studios in the film "Zenobia"). Of all the different studios he worked for, the worst was clearly PRC...which was one of the worst studios in Hollywood. PRC had a reputation for making movies fast, cheap and, generally, crappy. There were some exceptions...but not enough. "House of Errors" is pretty much what I'd expect from PRC....a comedy that isn't very funny and which had too many plot errors--the effect of rushing a film into production and doing no re-writes on problematic scripts.
The film finds Bert (Langdon) and Alf (Charley Rogers) reporters. The boss wants them to get a scoop on the Professor and his new invention, a better, faster and more deadly machine gun. Considering it was made during the war years, such plots were the norm. However, the Professor doesn't want to talk to reporters, so the pair pretend to be servants and go to work for him. Not surprisingly, soon folks arrive who want to steal the Professor's invention.
I think that you could have substituted any other actor (or perhaps a potato) into Langdon's role and the movie wouldn't have been much different. Additionally, the notion of a super-weapon which has no government agents and guards watching it and protecting the Professor seems ludicrous. Overall, a dull film with hardly a laugh.
By 1942, Langdon had been with Columbia's shorts department for nearly a decade and he occasionally worked for other studios here and there (such as with Hal Roach Studios in the film "Zenobia"). Of all the different studios he worked for, the worst was clearly PRC...which was one of the worst studios in Hollywood. PRC had a reputation for making movies fast, cheap and, generally, crappy. There were some exceptions...but not enough. "House of Errors" is pretty much what I'd expect from PRC....a comedy that isn't very funny and which had too many plot errors--the effect of rushing a film into production and doing no re-writes on problematic scripts.
The film finds Bert (Langdon) and Alf (Charley Rogers) reporters. The boss wants them to get a scoop on the Professor and his new invention, a better, faster and more deadly machine gun. Considering it was made during the war years, such plots were the norm. However, the Professor doesn't want to talk to reporters, so the pair pretend to be servants and go to work for him. Not surprisingly, soon folks arrive who want to steal the Professor's invention.
I think that you could have substituted any other actor (or perhaps a potato) into Langdon's role and the movie wouldn't have been much different. Additionally, the notion of a super-weapon which has no government agents and guards watching it and protecting the Professor seems ludicrous. Overall, a dull film with hardly a laugh.