By grim coincidence, quite a few of the cast members of 'Crazy to Act' died before age 50; some of them at quite young ages indeed. Leading man Matty Kemp lasted into his nineties, but his career didn't last much longer than 'Crazy to Act'.
This is a comedy movie ABOUT making movies, and it commits several intentional errors about 1920s Hollywood that audiences of the time would catch. We encounter references to actors named Pola Pickford and Adolph Mahjong (there was a Mah Jongg craze in 1920s America). Apparently Lon Chaney starred in 'Three Weeks' (sic). I laughed at a reference to a movie called 'The Mare's Nostrils', but how many modern viewers will catch this as a parody of the 1926 epic 'Mare Nostrum'?
Pretty Ethel St John (Mildred June) loves handsome Arthur, but her artistic muse 'craves expression in the movies' ... or maybe that's her ego doing the craving. Ethel's mum wants her to marry wealthy Gordon Bagley, who's willing. Ethel implies she'll wed Bagley if he first makes her a film star, but it's clear she has eyes only for Arthur.
Quite a few of the 'gags' here were already tired in 1927, with the cameraman holding the camera wrong or cranking at the wrong speed. Jack Cooper, who plays the moustache-twirling villain in the film-within-the-movie, implausibly retains the phony 'tache (and the Snidely Whiplash body language) in the screening room afterward, when he's presumably no longer in character.
More positively, I was deeply impressed by the performance of little Barney Hellum as the hapless helmer of that camera, and by Thelma Hill as the director's wife and assistant. Actress Hill was quite attractive, but her character here isn't meant to be ... so she ties back her hair and wears enormous eyeglasses. I well and truly dislike it when a pretty actress is uglified to play an unattractive woman; why don't they cast an unattractive actress instead? Elsewhere, when Ethel's character jumps out of an aeroplane, the use of a male stunt double in female costume is more obvious than it needs to be.
In the (literally) large role of Gordon Bagley, Oliver Hardy shines. The character he plays here is streets apart from his later tie-twiddling 'Ollie' role, and Hardy expertly conveys several emotions here which he would get little chance to use as the larger half of the world's greatest comedy team. When Bagley gazes at Ethel in mute adoration, I very nearly wept at the expression on Hardy's face. What a great actor he was! Too bad that his bulk kept him typecast.
SPOILERS COMING. The final gag deeply annoyed me. Arthur and Ethel elope in his car, and Arthur uses one arm (and his lips) to make love to her while his other hand guides the wheel. A motorcycle cop tells him to use both hands ... so, of course, he takes his second hand off the wheel and puts both hands on Ethel. Sorry, but the highways of the real world are already full of idiots who think they can do other things when they should concentrate on their driving ... so I couldn't laugh at this.
'Crazy to Act' has some funny gags -- I'll rate it 6 in 10 -- and is an interesting example of Hardy's career pre-Laurel, but the funniest performances here are given by Barney Hellum and Thelma Hill. Why didn't either have a significant movie career?
This is a comedy movie ABOUT making movies, and it commits several intentional errors about 1920s Hollywood that audiences of the time would catch. We encounter references to actors named Pola Pickford and Adolph Mahjong (there was a Mah Jongg craze in 1920s America). Apparently Lon Chaney starred in 'Three Weeks' (sic). I laughed at a reference to a movie called 'The Mare's Nostrils', but how many modern viewers will catch this as a parody of the 1926 epic 'Mare Nostrum'?
Pretty Ethel St John (Mildred June) loves handsome Arthur, but her artistic muse 'craves expression in the movies' ... or maybe that's her ego doing the craving. Ethel's mum wants her to marry wealthy Gordon Bagley, who's willing. Ethel implies she'll wed Bagley if he first makes her a film star, but it's clear she has eyes only for Arthur.
Quite a few of the 'gags' here were already tired in 1927, with the cameraman holding the camera wrong or cranking at the wrong speed. Jack Cooper, who plays the moustache-twirling villain in the film-within-the-movie, implausibly retains the phony 'tache (and the Snidely Whiplash body language) in the screening room afterward, when he's presumably no longer in character.
More positively, I was deeply impressed by the performance of little Barney Hellum as the hapless helmer of that camera, and by Thelma Hill as the director's wife and assistant. Actress Hill was quite attractive, but her character here isn't meant to be ... so she ties back her hair and wears enormous eyeglasses. I well and truly dislike it when a pretty actress is uglified to play an unattractive woman; why don't they cast an unattractive actress instead? Elsewhere, when Ethel's character jumps out of an aeroplane, the use of a male stunt double in female costume is more obvious than it needs to be.
In the (literally) large role of Gordon Bagley, Oliver Hardy shines. The character he plays here is streets apart from his later tie-twiddling 'Ollie' role, and Hardy expertly conveys several emotions here which he would get little chance to use as the larger half of the world's greatest comedy team. When Bagley gazes at Ethel in mute adoration, I very nearly wept at the expression on Hardy's face. What a great actor he was! Too bad that his bulk kept him typecast.
SPOILERS COMING. The final gag deeply annoyed me. Arthur and Ethel elope in his car, and Arthur uses one arm (and his lips) to make love to her while his other hand guides the wheel. A motorcycle cop tells him to use both hands ... so, of course, he takes his second hand off the wheel and puts both hands on Ethel. Sorry, but the highways of the real world are already full of idiots who think they can do other things when they should concentrate on their driving ... so I couldn't laugh at this.
'Crazy to Act' has some funny gags -- I'll rate it 6 in 10 -- and is an interesting example of Hardy's career pre-Laurel, but the funniest performances here are given by Barney Hellum and Thelma Hill. Why didn't either have a significant movie career?
