"[Harry] Langdon's magic was in his innocence, and Capra took beautiful care not to meddle with it...Langdon became quickly and fantastically popular with three pictures, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, The Strong Man and Long Pants; from then on he went downhill even faster." - James Agee
This film was just unpleasant. It was too long, plodding, and not very funny. There was only two inspired pieces of slapstick in the whole thing. The second one was an admittedly brilliant bit about hiding a woman in a large box that gets misplaced for an identical one containing an alligator. But the first? It involved Langdon's babyface persona trying and failing to straight up murder a woman who wanted to marry him. The whole sequence doesn't work. If the entire film had been morbid, maybe it would have. But the film operates under the same casual logic and tone as Langdon's other movies. So it just comes across as mean-spirited and cruel. I've had enough with Langdon. If somebody wanted to learn about his work, I'd recommend they watch The Strong Man (1926) and then stop.
5/10
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