Humorous Flights (1929)
* (out of 4)
If you don't know the name Donald Ogden Stewart then that's okay because most people have forgotten him. If you want to see an example of his work then you can check out this short, which is included as an extra on the Kino disc of Robert Benchley shorts. It's worth noting that this is an extra just so those who bought the Benchley disc can see some of his impersonators. This film has Stewart playing a speaker at a women's club who is there to talk about birds yet right from the start he messes one thing up and it just continues from there. Fans of Benchley will know that he made a couple early films for Fox where he's basically just giving a speech but getting laughs from messing up. This film follows that mode and in fact rips off the setting of Benchley's THE SEX LIFE OF THE POLYP. This short is a complete misfire for a number of reasons but you can start with Stewart who doesn't appear to have a comic bone in his body. Perhaps he was nervous or perhaps he just didn't go on film too well but his timing is off and every laugh he goes for falls flat on its face. It's worth noting that I didn't enjoy this routine when Benchley was doing it but Stewart is ten times worse and there's really no point in anyone sitting through this thing.