The Bell Hop

For a few years in the 1920s, Larry Semon's comedies were very popular. However, his films are pretty much forgotten today for a variety of reasons. Some of this has to do with the quality of his films but much of it probably is because Semon killed himself in 1928! As for me, I've respected most of his comedies because the stunts were so spectacular but the film often lacked polish or even coherent plots. This is definitely the case with "The Bell Hop".

The film is set in a hotel--which is no surprise. The desk manager is played by Oliver Hardy--hidden under a ridiculous mustache. Semon plays the bell boy. Throughout the film there are a ton of stunts--many of which look insanely dangerous (especially at the end of the film). But there is a problem--often the set-up for the stunts make absolutely no sense at all. For example, in one scene a child reaches into a bowl and pulls out a salamander and plays with it. The salamander gets down Semon's shirt. But the viewer cannot help but ask "why is there a bowl of salamanders in the lobby of a hotel?!". Likewise, the same sort of confusing jokes occur when a gallon-sized bottle of ink is spilled. Who has a HUGE bottle of ink like that AND how could it possibly get dumped on someone?! In fact, little of the film really makes sense and it's a case of plot being fit around the jokes instead of the other way around. Not a particularly good or memorable short.