Series: All Stars w/Harry Langdon Director: James W. Horne, Charley Rogers Producer: Hal Roach Titles: H.M. Walker Photography: Len Powers Editor: Richard C. Currier Sound: Elmer Raguse Stars: Harry Langdon, Thelma Todd, Dorothy Granger Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Released: 14 June 1930 Length: 2 reels Production No.: S-31 Filming dates: February 7-22, 1930 Rating: 6/10

The King

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"Where is the king?" - the queen demands to know. The royal advisor consults with a guard who tells him the king was fishing but is now hunting in the woods. Cue Harry Langdon - dressed more like a clown than a king - trying to shoot a tin can off a wall. After three failed attempts where he hits a window, a plant and the guard's hat, he simply throws a slipper at it instead. The royal advisor tells him that his presence is requested by the queen in the throne room. The queen's lady-in-waiting, Dorothy Granger also relays the message, poking her cleavage in the king's face and looking irrestistable and making him look very awkward. The queen and her entourage come outside the palace to find the king in the arms of the other woman and he makes a run for it. The queen catches him and bends him over her knee on a bench and begins spanking him (this would not be a punishment for some men!) whilst he consults with his advisor. As the king walks back to the palace a second maiden approaches him and after some small talk she kisses him. In a cringey scene that follows, the king fires his gun, falls down and pretends to be mortally wounded. He and the advisor walk back to the palace where they admonish a guard for winking (yes I think I spelt that right) at the advisor's wife. But the king goes one better and grabs her by the breasts at least three times (see favourite bit) as he tries to avoid getting splashed with the water the advisor is throwing in their direction to rouse her from her fainting. As she starts to come around she asks the king to "kiss me again". Her husband is immediately irritated!

The queen becomes equally irritated with the king and launches a physical attack on him. He finds himself flying across the floor, under a rug and head-first into a wall. The queen accuses him of chasing women and chains him to her before ordering him into bed. With their beds separated by a curtain the queen starts to undress (typical that we only watch HIS side of the screen as opposed to hers, you know, because we can't get enough of Harry Langdon!) He fiddles around for a while before threatening to peak at her through the curtain but she warns him not to try it. He does try it (you can't blame him really), but she slaps him (that must have been some marriage!) He yanks at his end of the chain which sends the queen sprawling all over the bed on the opposite side of the curtain, with Thelma trying (not too hard) to keep her breasts from flying out. She unhooks him as she sneaks off to have a bath (again, something we are deprived of seeing!) as the king leaves the room. Outside he is met by the advisor's wife again who takes the bracelet and puts it on her wrist, without realising the other end is attached to the king. When she hears her husband coming the king tanks the woman into his bedroom and accidentally stands on her dress which is torn away from her body. She quickly dives into the bed half naked as her husband enters the room and begins asking the king questions about sorting out the sleeping arrangements. A rat crawls into the bed and the king does his best to improvise to stop the woman from being seen but his plan fails. The advisor picks the king up and throws him out of the window and into the pond. Two guards deliver him back into his bed where the queen has one last surprise for him. She makes sure he isn't going out that evening with a vase smashed over his head!

Favourite bit This isn't even accidental. Langdon deliberately grabs Geneva Mitchell's tits.

Trivia • Copyrighted April 21, 1930. • Filmed in German as Der Konig. • This was the eighth and last film that Harry Langdon made for Hal Roach. Each of them were released under Roach's 'All Star' banner. Langdon would later re-appear in three features for Roach, beginning with There Goes My Heart in 1938, followed by Zenobia (1939) and All American Co-Ed (1941). • The film made its DVD debut in 2020 thanks to Kit Parker. • The scenes outside in the royal gardens (with the castle walls and pond) was shot on the Hal Roach back lot. • When Harry Langdon is trying to shoot the tin can on the wall the first shot he fires hits a window, which sends its shattered glass down onto the ground. Given that subsequent shots were fired from the same position, the glass would have fallen inwards rather than outwards. • It's always nice to see when Thelma Todd appears in a film that the beautiful Dorothy Granger is on hand to upstage her. • Wow, in a scene I absolutely couldn't believe I just saw with my own eyes: when the Royal advisor reveals the maiden to be his wife, Harry Langdon very deliberately grabs her breasts SEVERAL TIMES when Parrott isn't looking! How the hell did that get past the censors! My opinion • Harry Langdon is actually marginally watchable in this one. The problem with his solo scenes are that they are too long and tedious. That said, this entry was quite entertaining for the most part.

	Harry Langdon The King
	Thelma Todd The Queen
	James Parrott Royal advisor [*disputed]
	Dorothy Granger Lady in waiting
	Eleanor Fredericks Maid
	Geneva Mitchell Royal advisor's wife
	Otto Fries Guard
	Brad Michigan Guard
	Cy Slocum Guard
	Charles McAvoy Guard

CREDITS (click image to enlarge)

SHOT ON THE BACK LOT (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: Jesse Brisson (identification of Geneva Mitchell, Eleanor Fredericks) The identification of Cy Slocum is my own observation This page was last updated on: 10 September 2024