I want to like Lupino Lane, and sometimes I do, but there are times when his casual approach to film-making leaves me frustrated. Lane, a second-tier comic during the golden age of silent comedy, was a gifted acrobat with a face perfectly suited to the screen: puckish and round, rather like a combination of Eric Idle and Paul McCartney. Lane came from a family of stage and screen performers (his cousin Stanley Lupino was Ida Lupino's father), and he clearly had the goods to be a first-rate comedy star, yet somehow his films -- or at least the ones I've seen -- are seldom as satisfying as one would like.
Drama Deluxe presents the star as an elegant tramp, even more elegant than Chaplin: he actually wears a silk topper and a monocle while riding the rails. Lane, or "J. Coddington Fish" as he is called, arrives at a small town train yard, disembarks, has a run-in with the law, and then lands a job as a "utility man" with a troupe of performers playing at a local theater. Ordered to plaster advertising hand-bills to a nearby fence, he makes a messy botch of the job. This leads to a brief thrill sequence when a section of fence gives way, and Coddington narrowly misses plummeting to the road far below. (Buffs will recognize the stretch of coast highway used in this scene, familiar from many a Sennett comedy.) Working backstage, Coddington bollixes things up further, and then when the leading man goes missing he is compelled to take his place. The stage sequences are the high point: Lane plays an inept Romeo to the Juliet of Kathryn McGuire (best remembered as Buster Keaton's love interest in two of his greatest features). Next he takes part in a tumbling act with two partners, and finally appears in drag as a ballerina. It's familiar stuff, but lively. You just know that the audience will enjoy Coddington's pratfalls and mishaps more than they would have enjoyed a smooth-running performance, and you also know the leading lady will somehow fall for him, and run off with him just in time for the fade-out.
There's nothing wrong with this film's premise, but the comedy routines feel curiously perfunctory, for the most part. The routine at the train yard is pretty much lifted from Buster Keaton, while the "thrill" sequence is too rushed to make much of an impact. Although the silent clowns often re-worked one another's material, Lane and his crew bring nothing new to the gags they employ here. Writer-director Norman Taurog had an extensive background in comedy, having worked with Larry Semon among others, and yet the gags in the first half of Drama Deluxe feel tired and repetitive: the filmmakers seemed to believe that if Lupino Lane falling down once is funny, Lupino Lane falling down three times is funnier still. To my way of thinking, and despite the man's physical dexterity, they were mistaken about that.
There are a number of Lupino Lane comedies more enjoyable than Drama Deluxe. He shouldn't be judged by this half-hearted effort; even the best comedians have their off days. Viewers looking for a better example of this talented clown's work should seek out the early talkie musical The Love Parade, directed by Ernst Lubitsch. In that delightful film, Lane is a wow!
Drama Deluxe presents the star as an elegant tramp, even more elegant than Chaplin: he actually wears a silk topper and a monocle while riding the rails. Lane, or "J. Coddington Fish" as he is called, arrives at a small town train yard, disembarks, has a run-in with the law, and then lands a job as a "utility man" with a troupe of performers playing at a local theater. Ordered to plaster advertising hand-bills to a nearby fence, he makes a messy botch of the job. This leads to a brief thrill sequence when a section of fence gives way, and Coddington narrowly misses plummeting to the road far below. (Buffs will recognize the stretch of coast highway used in this scene, familiar from many a Sennett comedy.) Working backstage, Coddington bollixes things up further, and then when the leading man goes missing he is compelled to take his place. The stage sequences are the high point: Lane plays an inept Romeo to the Juliet of Kathryn McGuire (best remembered as Buster Keaton's love interest in two of his greatest features). Next he takes part in a tumbling act with two partners, and finally appears in drag as a ballerina. It's familiar stuff, but lively. You just know that the audience will enjoy Coddington's pratfalls and mishaps more than they would have enjoyed a smooth-running performance, and you also know the leading lady will somehow fall for him, and run off with him just in time for the fade-out.
There's nothing wrong with this film's premise, but the comedy routines feel curiously perfunctory, for the most part. The routine at the train yard is pretty much lifted from Buster Keaton, while the "thrill" sequence is too rushed to make much of an impact. Although the silent clowns often re-worked one another's material, Lane and his crew bring nothing new to the gags they employ here. Writer-director Norman Taurog had an extensive background in comedy, having worked with Larry Semon among others, and yet the gags in the first half of Drama Deluxe feel tired and repetitive: the filmmakers seemed to believe that if Lupino Lane falling down once is funny, Lupino Lane falling down three times is funnier still. To my way of thinking, and despite the man's physical dexterity, they were mistaken about that.
There are a number of Lupino Lane comedies more enjoyable than Drama Deluxe. He shouldn't be judged by this half-hearted effort; even the best comedians have their off days. Viewers looking for a better example of this talented clown's work should seek out the early talkie musical The Love Parade, directed by Ernst Lubitsch. In that delightful film, Lane is a wow!
