The Rent Collector
About The Rent Collector
Babe Hardy runs a tough street. He cheats a settlement worker, Norma Nichols, out of a food gift and throws the rent collector, William Hauber, out of a window. Hauber quits. Larry Semon, chased by a policeman after a woman falls through a manhole he covered with his coat, takes the job. He dumps Hardy's furniture into the street, is captured with Nichols, then gets her out by car. Hardy ends in the mud, and Semon drives the car over a cliff.
Cast & crew
More about The Rent Collector
Larry Semon and Norman Taurog directed and wrote the two-reeler. Semon and Albert E. Smith produced it for Vitagraph, which also distributed the short. It was filmed around March 1921 and released on May 23, 1921.
Themes
Background
Vitagraph released the short in May 1921, while Semon was still making two-reel comedies for the company and Hardy was playing heavies in them.
Making
Semon takes the rent-collector job on screen after a chase dumps him into a real-estate office. The gags run from a coat laid over an open manhole to furniture thrown into the street.
Preservation
A print exists. One recovered in the 1990s was later issued in a French DVD set; that copy lacks the opening fight and Hardy kicking Frank Alexander.
Notes
- For years listings put Stan Laurel in the short with Oliver Hardy. The film has only Hardy, billed as Babe Hardy.
- Norma Nichols plays the leader of the Society Girl Settlement Workers. Eva Thatcher is the landlady, Frank Alexander a thug, and Pete Gordon the barber.
- A French DVD collection, volume 67 of 96, carries a print that is missing the opening street fight.
- Silent Era records that a print was recovered in the 1990s. In the United States the film is in the public domain.
Scenes
- Semon lays his coat over an open manhole and the woman he meant to help drops through it.
- Hardy throws the first rent collector out of a window.
- Semon heaves the boss's furniture into the street, then drives a car off a cliff after the getaway.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Rent Collector (1921).webm)
