Fiddlesticks (1927)
** (out of 4)
Decent two-reeler has Harry Langdon playing the "wimp" of a rather tough family who would much rather play music than get a real job. Once he's kicked out of the house he tries to find work as a musician but he's so bad that often people just throw things at him. This here gives a junk collector a few ideas. FIDDLESTICKS comes from producer Mack Sennett and for the most part it's a watchable film, although there simply aren't enough laughs to make it work. As was usually the case, Langdon pretty much plays his typical weak character who gets pushed around by pretty much everyone. He's certainly a character all to his own and I thought the film at least did a good job at showing how determined the character is no matter how bad of a musician he is. The first half of the film really doesn't contain any laughs as we just keep hearing what a poor musician the man is and then in the second half is when we meet the junk collector. This little twist in the story is actually a clever one but I just don't think it ever gained any laughs. Langdon is certainly good in his role as is Vernon Dent who plays a double role. It's just too bad the story didn't have a few more laughs worked into it.
