FRIDAY NIGHT MOVIE: EDGAR KENNEDY two-reelers

EDGAR KENNEDY (April 26, 1890 – November 9, 1948)

was a classic comic actor, known for the "slow burn"- an exasperated facial expression, performed very deliberately; Kennedy embellished this by rubbing his hand over his bald head and across his face, in an attempt to hold his temper.  Making his film debut in 1911, Kennedy appeared in about 500 films, working with some of the biggest film comedians in the United States, including Fatty Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang, The Marx Brothers, Charlie Chase, Wheeler & Woolsey; and was also one of Mack Sennett's original Keystone Kops.  

Kennedy's burly frame originally suited him for villainous or threatening roles in silent pictures. By the 1920s Kennedy was working for producer Hal Roach, who kept the actor busy playing supporting roles in short comedies. Roach also used Kennedy as a director on half a dozen two-reeler comedies.  

In 1930, Edgar Kennedy was featured by RKO-Pathe in a pair of short-subject comedies, Next Door Neighbors and Help Wanted, Female. Kennedy's characterization of a short-tempered householder was so effective that RKO built a series around it. The "Average Man" comedies starred Kennedy as a blustery, stubborn guy determined to accomplish a household project or get ahead professionally, despite the meddling of his featherbrained wife (usually Florence Lake), her freeloading brother (originally William Eugene, then Jack Rice) and his dubious mother-in-law (Dot Farley). Kennedy pioneered the kind of domestic situation comedy that later became familiar on television. Each installment would end with Edgar embarrassed, humbled or defeated, looking at the camera and doing his patented slow burn. The Edgar Kennedy Series, with its theme song "Chopsticks", became a standard part of the movie-going experience: 103 short subjects in all. 

#53 MUTINY IN THE COUNTY (5-3-1940 RKO Radio Pictures) co-starring Vivian Oakland, Charlie Hall, directed by Harry D'Arcy

#60 AN APPLE IN HIS EYE (6-6-1941 RKO Radio Pictures) co-starring Vivian Oakland, Charlie Hall, directed by Harry D'Arcy

#26 IN LOVE AT 40 (8-30-1935 RKO Radio Pictures) Florence Lake, Dot Farley, Jack Rice, director Arthur Ripley

#20 A BLASTED EVENT (9-7-1934 RKO Radio Pictures) Florence Lake, Dot Farley, Jack Rice, director Alf Goulding

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