The Pride of Pikeville (1927)
** (out of 4)
Ben Turpin plays a Europeon ladies man who finds himself in America. On a train he gets the attention of a young woman (Thelma Hill) desperately trying to get a husband. When she's caught flirting with him, her gun totting father (Andy Clyde) demands that the two get married. THE PRIDE OF PIKSVILLE is yet another two-reeler from Mack Sennet that should have been cut in half. As I go through his shorts from this era it's pretty clear that a lot of them simply don't feature enough laughs to carry a 20-minute running time. I suspect that if you took the jokes that did work and put them into a 10-minute film then it would be a lot more entertaining in the end. There are a few funny moments scattered around but the majority of them deal with shots of the cross-eyed Turpin looking serious or trying to give women sexy looks. There are a couple funny moments during a sequence where some bad guys are trying to get on the train but everything else is pretty much a miss. Turpin gives the type of performance you'd expect to see from him. I always enjoy watching him but there's no question that he doesn't always get the best material. Clyde has a few nice moments but not enough to help save the film.