Discuss Franklin Pangborn
Discuss → People → Franklin Pangborn → General
Hilarious actor who definitely deserves some discussion
posted by genplant29STAFFMOD on February 14, 2020 at 10:53 PM
Wikipedia perfectly describes the wonderful Franklin Pangborn (1889-1958):
Franklin Pangborn...was an American comedic character actor famous for playing small but memorable roles with comic flair....//....He...appeared in scores of feature films in small roles, cameos, and recurring gags. // Pangborn played essentially the same character: prissy, polite, elegant, highly energetic, often officious, fastidious, somewhat nervous, prone to becoming flustered but essentially upbeat, and with immediately recognizable high-speed, patter-type speech. He typically played an officious desk clerk in a hotel, a self-important musician, a fastidious headwaiter, an enthusiastic birdwatcher, and the like, and was usually put in a situation of frustration or flustered by the antics of others....// Pangborn was an effective foil for many major comedians....
Anytime he turns up in an old movie, he's an immediate treat, as he was so distinctive, memorable, and entertaining.
Although the '30s and '40s were Mr. Pangborn's acting heyday, he began in movies during the silent era, starting in 1926. I actually have the DVD of his second-ever movie, the hilarious Exit Smiling, in which he has a very funny supporting role as an effeminate stage actor who, in the play he's performing in, is supposed to be the manly hero (as you can perhaps guess, the stage performance goes into total free fall, what with all the antics!). Suffice it to say, his character is entertaining to the max in that - like also in all his movies.
Some facts about Franklin Pangborn (short video).
Please check out the following list of titles and celebrities I've created TMDb threads for: https://www.themoviedb.org/list/118052
Reply by wonder2wonder
on February 15, 2020 at 11:53 AM
Here's a videoclip of him as Cecil Lovelace:
"Exit Smiling (1926)" - videoclip
With so many credits, it's no surprise that he has also appeared with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in two movies - discussed here and here, and in another four with only Rogers.
Reply by genplant29
on February 15, 2020 at 6:16 PM
Thanks for including the links, wonder.
Here's a crisper, cleaner print, with dedicated score, for much of the same specific Exit Smiling footage as at your link above. (Pangborn's at 1:24, etc. - though his funniest scenes are later in the movie.) The clip and music is as seen and heard in the beautiful-condition WarnerArchive restored print that I have. (I've during the last ten years been quite a collector of DVDs from the wonderful WarnerArchive Collection.)
Reply by QuitePleasant
on February 15, 2020 at 7:48 PM
Franklin Pangborn, often at RKO, sometimes 20th or Paramount....
Franklin Pangborn - invariably an enjoyable entertainer, sometimes in a small part, but never as a small screen presence!
Reply by genplant29
on February 16, 2020 at 1:22 AM
Great comments and list, Quite!
There's an excellent The Boston Globe article, from 20 May 1939, about him. It makes evident that, besides the general public so enjoying him on the screen, so did everyone who knew him in person: Mr. Pangborn was very well liked and sounds to have been a terrific guy. I bet he was a real delight and highly entertaining to be around!
He was in so many popular, highly-regarded, well-remembered movies that he has a decidedly impressive resume. He added something wonderful to each of those films.
Reply by QuitePleasant
on February 16, 2020 at 7:27 PM
Very nice links, W2W and Gen!
This Boston Globe article says it all, and Franklin's not nearly at his peek by its 1939 review although he's certainly performed many outstanding film characters by then.
For those just tuning in, we already know that Franklin's two turns with Ginger and Fred appear in....
While his four with Ginger apart from Fred occur in...
In Vivacious Lady, he shares that memorable banter with Charles Colburn at the hotel desk, Charles demanding Franklin to allow him into the elevator to head up to Ginger's room (where Beulah Bondi and James Ellison) are already visiting).
In Carefree, Franklin's requesting silence to announce the onset of the country club's skeet shoot, while everyone's attention focuses elsewhere. "Please? Please? Please?" - his well delivered line.
P.S. - Don't know how that panoramic view encapsulates that clause within that previous response. Must have done something wrong there - or else discovered some function hitherto undeclared.
Oh well. It sorta resembles a "Spoilers Alert" parameter.
Reply by genplant29
on February 16, 2020 at 9:00 PM
"Pangie" (what he kept being called in The Boston Globe article) got to play a character with one of the very best names ever: J. Pinkerton Snoopington!
Yeah - I had wondered how you created that neat effect! Ditto the double column of "bullets" preceding listed things!
Ah - figured it out: Simply precede a typed line with at least four blank spaces, then proceed otherwise normally. However many blank spaces you precede the line with will determine how far from the left margin the line begins, when posted. But fewer spaces than four will simply post like any other time (normal flush-left margin). Learned something new here today! Not that we'll ever necessarily have need for that effect - though it's good to know about, nonetheless.
Reply by QuitePleasant
on February 16, 2020 at 9:22 PM
Heh
Hollywood should have at least accommodated his Shakespearean direction with a stab at Twelfth Night, right?
Franklin certainly has that well-likable, cordial, congenial, embraceable persona, sort of like Bob Newhart-esque.... Or maybe Bob's rather sort of Pangie-esque, huh? ...At least beloved by cast and crew and fans alike even when their mile-a-minute wise-cracking tops the rest of our very modest attempts by comparison.
Reply by genplant29
on February 16, 2020 at 9:35 PM
I cheated: I pressed "Quote" for your post that had that in it, then looked to see what looked different about that particular line than any other line; it was those blank preceding spaces.
Reply by QuitePleasant
on February 16, 2020 at 9:52 PM
hmmm