Edward Sedgwick | The Passionate Plumber / 1932

plumbing for love

by Douglas Messerli

 

Laurence E. Johnson and Ralph Spence (screenplay), Edward Sedgwick (director) The Passionate Plumber / 1932

 

I was first drawn to this comic vehicle by a commentator who observed that, while the story was centered upon a love triangle between wealthy playboy Tony Lagorce (Gilbert Roland) and two women, socialite Patricia Alden (Irene Purcell) and the hot-headed Spanish Nina Estrada (Mona Maris), that because of plot circumstances lead Roland, a recognized Hollywood bisexual, instead becomes obsessed with the plumber Elmer E. Tuttle (Buster Keaton).

     The plumber, discovered almost naked in Patricia’s bathroom by Tony while Elmer is attempting to fix a leak, indeed does become a kind of obsession with the caddish lover, particularly when Patricia attempts to make Tony jealous by playing along with his assertions that Elmer is her lover.

     The film’s first major action involves a duel between Tony and Elmer, in which the plumber, having never before encountered such an event, attempts to follow the lead of his would-be killer, with a great display of dramatic flair and swish of how to properly drape one’s cape before dropping it to pace off for the kill. Tony, ultimately, prefers dueling with swords, but Elmer—who has created a kind of early laser gun which he hopes to sell to the military of the French government—obviously prefers guns. At one point, through his second, Julius J. McCracken (Jimmy Durante), he proposes a way to make both parties happy: Tony should use a sword and he employ a gun. Finally, a local hunter, firing his rifle, scares off all parties involved.

     Inevitably, the relationship between the two does not end there, particularly when Patricia later hires Elmer to continue playing the role of her lover in order to make Tony so jealous that he will leave his wife. Elmer is slow to catch on, Patricia carefully explaining to him that she wants him to stay with her at all times and kiss her whenever Tony attempts to approach. He is never to leave her side but remain there as an intrusion.

      Taking his job seriously, Elmer in fact follows her instructions carefully, finally intruding upon the situation even after Tony and Patricia make up and hope to return to their love affair. Indeed Elmer, who refuses to leave her side, becomes a kind of haunting figure for both Tony and Patricia since he never leaves their side and interferes every time the lovers attempt to come together again. But it is obsession that has nothing at all to do with their sexuality, and is a trope used in hundreds of such films involving heterosexual romances, particularly since Elmer soon discovers, as will Patricia before the film ends, that they really love one another. The intense involvement between the two males has very little to do with queer issues, even if their interchanges are comically queer.

       But do not despair, there are still a few remarkable gay moments in this pre-code movie.

  When living with Patricia, we find Elmer, who obviously has not arrived at her estate with a suitcase of clothes in hand, dressed in her definitely female pajamas, and as Tony arrives, we observe in the background, Elmer going through her closet as he inspects several of her lacy nightgowns as possible costumes in which he might don for a night of sleep or perhaps just for bedroom lounging.

       At another point, to momentarily get rid of him, Patricia demands that he take her small dog for a walk, which after a series of comic gestures, ends with him standing in front of the women’s beauty salon to which she has retreated, a beret upon his head, holding the miniature dog, looking to all the world as a poof having just left the hairdressing salon as either an employee or perhaps a “special” customer.  A passing man cannot resist laughing at the pansy, as Keaton stands firm enduring the mockery with the look of stoic befuddlement for which the actor is so very famous.

 

       It turns out that Tony has been lying to both women, telling each of the them that the other was his wife, the way heterosexual cads have often employed their various mistresses to keep themselves from being forced to the wedding alter by demanding lovers.

        Elmer finally settles the situation by calling up Tony and asking him to come over. By accident, Nina has arrived at Patricia’s mansion to fight it out, and with both of them present Elmer forces the women each in different nearby closets as he meets up with Tony do discuss his love affairs. The cad makes it clear not only that he has played his trick, but openly admits that he finds both women empty-headed and shallow. Perhaps Tony really does prefer the company of his bête noire, Elmer, but as soon as the women are released he hasn’t a chance to display any appreciation to the plumber let alone affection. Patricia immediately claims Elmer as her true love, and Nina, evidently used to abusive language, declares that she still loves the cad, and obviously will force him down the marriage aisle to prove it.

      Why Durante or the wonderful Polly Moran as the serving girl Albine in love with him are in this film is never explained. He does get one wonderful line, worthy of the Marx Brothers; regarding Keaton's laser gun, he responds, "It'll be the greatest invention since Einstein discovered them relatives." Otherwise, his and Moran's roles are so attenuated that it almost appears that the screenwriters and director Edward Sedgwick forgot about them after a few early scenes in the film.

      I might just comment, that if the reasons I was led to this film were not of LGBTQ interest, the movie itself still contained its share of gay incidents, proving that there is a gold-mine of LGBTQ films out there still to be discovered.

 

Los Angeles, December 9, 2023

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (December 2023).