His First Flame (1927)
Channel: The Cinema Cellar
Date: 2023-06-09

'His First Flame is a 1927 American silent comedy film starring Harry Langdon and directed by Harry Edwards. Additional cast members include Natalie Kingston, Ruth Hiatt, Vernon Dent, and others.

Cast
Harry Langdon as Harry Howells
Natalie Kingston as Ethel Morgan
Ruth Hiatt as Mary Morgan
Vernon Dent as Amos McCarthy
Bud Jamison as Hector Benedict
Dot Farley as Mrs. Benedict
William McCall as President of the College
Irving Bacon as Man Who Jumps Out of Window (uncredited)
Margaret Cloud as Minor Role (uncredited)
Evelyn Francisco as Minor Role (uncredited)
Christian J. Frank as Minor Role (uncredited)
Thelma Hill as Girl Who Jumps Into the Hoop Net (uncredited)
Thelma Parr as Girl Who Drops Handkerchief Outside Firehouse (uncredited)
Elsie Tarron as Minor Role (uncredited)

Critical reception
When the film was released, the film critic for The New York Times, Mordaunt Hall, liked the film and wrote, "Mr. Sennett and Mr. Langdon do their parts in this nice mile of fun. Mr. Sennett, who failed as a blacksmith and amassed millions as a maker of film humor, deserves no little credit for the hilarious situations in this picture. And Mr. Langdon is to be congratulated on a generous supply of sad smiles and wide-eyed effects...Mr. Langdon is at his best in this humorous piece of work. The heroine is impersonated by Natalie Kingston, who, while she does not appreciate Harry's wisdom, is attractive."

In a review of Langdon's collective work, critic Michael Barrett discussed the film and wrote, "His First Flame was Langdon’s first feature, made for Sennett but not released until 1927 to cash in on his First National hits. Its central feature is a romantic triangle between rich idiot Langdon, his gold-digging fiancee Kingston, and his woman-hating uncle Dent. In a segment of very dark humor on the joys of domestic violence, Harry witnesses two simultaneous donnybrooks in neighboring houses, one in the foreground and the other in deep focus in the background. This is one of the set’s clearest examples of Langdon’s tendency to exploit humiliation and unease, an area of comedy that crosses into an audience’s discomfort zone. Among these early works, this daring sequence is perhaps the clearest application of Agee's warning (or celebration) about Langdon’s strange territory, though Agee was probably thinking most of the homicidal feature Long Pants."

Directed by Harry Edwards
Written by Frank Capra
Arthur Ripley
Produced by Mack Sennett
Starring Harry Langdon
Natalie Kingston
Cinematography Ernie Crockett
William Williams
Edited by William Hornbeck
Distributed by Pathé Exchange
Release date 
May 3, 1927
Running time 48 minutes
Country United States
Language Silent (English intertitles)'

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_First_Flame