Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Max Davidson Comedies (1927-1931)

Contents: Why Girls Say No (1927), Jewish Prudence (1927), Don’t Tell Everything (1927), Call of the Cuckoo (1927), Should Second Husbands Come First? (1927), Flaming Fathers (1927), Love ’em and Feed ’em (1927) [surviving footage], Pass the Gravy (1928), Dumb Daddies (1928), Came the Dawn (1928), The Boy Friend (1928), Hurdy Gurdy (1929) and The Itching Hour (1931).

This collection focuses the films of comedian Max Davidson at the Hal Roach Studios. Popular for playing Jewish characters and exploring themes of everyday life for the immigrant American, Davidson was star of a successful series of short comedies for the Roach studio.

The collection includes ten silent comedies, as well as the first Roach talkie comedy and an early sound film from the 1930s.

This PAL DVD collection has been produced by Filmmuseum München under the supervision of Stefan Drössler. The source material is generally excellent, with some footage inserted from good to very-good 16mm reduction prints.

The silent films are presented with music scores composed and performed by Joachim Bärenz and Christian Roderburg, Günter A. Buchwald and Stephen Horne. The sound films are presented with their original soundtracks.

Don’t Tell Everything (1927) is presented from two good to very-good 16mm reduction prints. A significant amount of dust remains in the picture of one of the prints, with dust, speckling and other minor flaws.

Flaming Fathers (1927) is presented from a restoration assembly of three good 16mm reduction prints. The compilation results are reasonably good, with some dust, speckling, and other print flaws remaining.

Jewish Prudence (1927) is presented from an excellent but incomplete 35mm print, with intertitles and missing footage sourced from a good 16mm reduction print. Some long vertical scratches are seen in the main material.

Love ’em and Feed ’em (1927) is presented from an very-good but fragmentary 35mm print that is in active nitrate decomposition. Missing footage is represented by still photographs and expository intertitles. Just a hint of the final film.

Should Second Husbands Come First? (1927) is presented from a fair but worn 16mm reduction positive. The print has pronounced film grain, significant scratches, scuffing, dust and speckling, and other flaws.

The Boy Friend (1928) is presented from a very-good 35mm duplicate negative with mild dust, speckling, emulsion chipping and scuffing, frame jitters, scratches, and other print flaws.

Came the Dawn (1928) is presented from an incomplete 35mm print with light dust, speckling, scuffing, and pronounced nitrate decomposition late in the film. Missing footage is represented by still photographs and expository intertitles.

Dumb Daddies (1928) is presented from an incomplete 35mm print that is marred by dust, speckling, emulsion scratches, and other flaws. Missing footage is represented by still photographs and expository intertitles.

Pass the Gravy (1928) is presented from a very-good but incomplete 35mm print, with inserts from a 16mm duplicate reduction negative. The 16mm materials are worn and show dust, speckling, filmbase scuffing, and other flaws.

Hurdy Gurdy (1929) is presented from a very-good 35mm duplicate negative, with some dust, speckling, schmutz, and other print flaws remaining. The synchronized sound is the original Vitaphone sound-on-disc soundtrack for the film.

For our comparative reviews of the other films, see our Call of the Cuckoo on home video and Why Girls Say No on home video pages.

Supplemental material includes a second Davidson short sound comedy from 1931 with Louise Fazenda, Spec O’Donnell and Irving Bacon presented from a very-good 16mm reduction print; an insert booklet with bilingual essays (German and English) by Richard W. Bann, Steve Massa, Stewart Tryster and Stefan Drössler, plus a PDF containing information on Max Davidson, scripts, still photographs, and reviews (accessed via computer with DVD drive).

We enthusiastically recommend this home video collection despite the condition of some of the surviving prints. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This Region 0 PAL DVD edition is available directly from . . .

Other silent era STAN LAUREL films available on home video.

Other silent era OLIVER HARDY films available on home video.