Silent Comedy: Featuring Keaton, Lloyd & Langdon

[Mighty Jack]

Lloyd's Talkies

Welcome Danger 10/12/29
I wonder if the original silent version exists? Harold filmed this as a silent, but changed his mind and changed it into a talkie. Because of that he had to reshoot many scenes. Though the film made money, it is not well received. Making it the first poorly reviewed film Lloyd ever made. I’ve not seen it and have not been able to locate any copies.



Feet First (1930)
Lloyd plays an ambitious shoe clerk, Edgar Cowhide? LMAO! This is Harold’s 2nd talky and it’s a lot like one of his silent features. We see a few of his stock players and he reuses a couple of old gags –the biggest being a climb up a building that’s nowhere near as brilliant as the one seen in “Safety Last”. The bit loses something when you hear the grunts and groans as Harold struggles, plus the timing isn’t as sharp. Overall, “Feet” is funny at the first, but it loses steam as it goes. Plus the way the black character is represented is offensive (even if it was a product of the times) and hearing Lloyd call him charcoal was an uncomfortable moment for my modern ears and sensibilities. Quality and laugh-wise I’d say this was a 50/50 tossup.




Movie Crazy (1932)
I’ve found that I enjoyed many of Harold’s talkies, and Movie Crazy I’d rank right up their with his silent classics. It’s a darn funny flick and in truth, I laughed more during this picture than I did during “Safety Last” (which many rank #1). Sure he’s getting a bit long in the tooth to be playing the “young man” anymore, but the story, about a guy with stars in his eyes who heads to Hollywood, is a ton ‘O fun. Seattle born Constance Cummings does a terrible accent, and doesn’t have Jobyan’s warmth or charisma, but she has some nice scenes with Harold and was popular among fans.

On a sad side note” Though Clyde Bruckman (one of Keaton’s co-directors) was credited as the director, his alcoholism had become such a problem that most of the direction and gag writing were done by Lloyd himself. Later in life Bruckman started working for the 3 Stooges, but unable to come up with fresh ideas, he stole bits from Keaton and Lloyd. Lloyd sued and won after he stole a gag for the Stooges “Loco Boy Makes Good”. Lloyd sued him a few years later, when Bruckman stole the same gag AGAIN for a film. In the 50s Clyde moved onto television, and yes, once again he was sued for stealing other comics routines (adapting and retooling was common and accepted practice in the silent era, but doing a signature gag verbatim was considered theft). Not only that but he was handing in old scripts, not even bothering to read or rewrite them.

3 strikes and your out, Clyde was unable to find work in Hollywood. Even director/producer Jules White had nothing for him. Despondent, Bruckman borrowed a gun from Keaton, saying he was going hunting. He went to a café, ate a meal he couldn’t pay for and then shot himself.

[Mighty Jack]

The Cats Paw (8/7/1934)
One of the talkies – It’s a different role for Lloyd, who plays a young man who lived most of his life with his missionary parents in China. He returns to America, a fish out of water, looking for a bride and ends up getting elected Mayor by an unscrupulous group who hope to use Lloyd as their personal puppet. The man proves to be too honest and their ploy backfires.

This film leans on story and character rather than gags and was the first time Harold paid for an outside property - the rights cost him 25,000. It was also the first movie to lose money for the comic. Though they didn’t considered one of his best, many critics at the time liked the film, and I enjoyed it as well. While it runs overlong, there are laughs and the story is entertaining (though some of the racial aspects made me uncomfortable).



The Milky Way (2/7/1936)
This on the other hand is considered one of Harold’s best talkies, though it too failed to light a fire at the box office. Directed by the great Leo McCarey, Lloyd plays a mild mannered milkman who is transformed into an egotistical boxer after he knocks out (so the press believes) the current champion in a street fight.

It’s a cute film with a great cast (including Adolph Menjou and his real life wife, Verrre Teasdale). The scene where Harold trains for the first time was hysterical and there was the memorable improvisation done with the colt in the cab (the whinnies were actually voiced by McCarey). Milky Way was released the same year as Chaplin’s “Modern Times” and is the perfect blend of Lloyd’s physical style and McCarey’s screwball leanings. Unbelievably the original print was destroyed - thankfully Lloyd had a copy stored in his private vault, otherwise this treasure might have been lost forever.

Professor Beware 7/29/38
I’ve been unable to find a homemade copy of this or caught in on TV. And as of yet, it has not been released on DVD



The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
Preston Sturges’ attempt at a creative comeback was an inspired idea. Bring Harold Lloyd out of retirement to play his character from the “Freshman”, 22 years later. Unfortunately the execution of said idea was lacking.

The marriage between one of the great physical comics, with one of Hollywood’s most brilliant wordsmiths, is an uneasy one. While Lloyd does a decent job wrapping his mouth around Sturgess’ serpentine lines, and has good rapport with his sidekick Jimmy Conlin. And Preston still is an impressive weaver of words. There is a problem with the timing, it’s as if Sturges has become so enamored with his own tongue that he simply cannot, or will not edit when it becomes excessive. Sometimes even great dialog has to be sacrificed in order to serve the pacing of the film. The man who struck that balance so brilliantly in films like Sullivan’s Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero, Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, among others, has lost his way as Diddlebock rambles and meanders and lingers on scenes -. Milking ideas long after they’ve become tiresome.

There are a handful of laughs, a few cute ideas (how he falls in love with every sister who comes to work for the company he toils for) in the middle of the long-winded bar scene Preston manages to wring some laughs when Lloyd spies himself in a mirror. I enjoyed the ode to “Safety Last” when Lloyd, Conlin and a lion named Jackie wind up on a ledge. I also thought Margaret Hamilton (The Wicked Witch in Oz) was good in her brief scenes as Harold’s sister (complete with the same horn rimmed glasses). Overall though, I find this kind of a bummer. As a fan of Preston and Harold I know both are made of better stuff than this. Diddlebock is a mild diversion at best.

Also: DVD picture looks terrible and sounds worse (what did I expect from a cheese factory like Alpha – they slap a print on there and restoration be damned). Harold didn’t own this, as he did his other films. The Freshman itself, released in 1925, looks cleaner than it does on this release.

Note: This was produced by Howard Hughes. Howard was one of the only people I know of who stated that he didn’t like working with Lloyd. Why? Because Harold had money, so much money that he didn’t have to kiss Hughes ass and could tell him where to stuff it.

There’s a great story about the premier of the film. Hughes delayed the release for years, re-edited it and shot new scenes (including a bit with a talking horse) and released it as Mad Wednesday. After this showing Howard entered the bathroom and found Lloyd there washing his hands. Howard supposedly asked the comedian, “Well, Harold, what did you think of my edit?” to which Lloyd replied, “I could have cut it better with an axe”

I don’t know if this is true, or a Hollywood legend, but I love it. Mad Wednesday has yet to be released on DVD, there are VHS copies but I have not seen this cut and can’t comment if it’s an improvement or not.

Harold’s Oscar



While Harold stopped making movies as an actor, he did get into production and do radio. Later in life he later put together 2 compilation films from his career, which did very well.

Harold had many hobbies; most notably he was an avid photographer and used to take 3D pictures, many of them nude… which were collected in a book.



He was a smart fellow, very good with money and was set for life financially. Living on a large estate he called “Greenacres” (which later was used in films like Westworld and The Loved One).

He was a straightforward, good guy, active with charities and the Shriners. I feel he comes off intelligent but rather ordinary in real life, he was very superstitious. Though he stayed married to the same woman throughout his life. Harold was a womanizer as well as a workaholic, and that was difficult for his wife Mildred, who struggled with depression and alcoholism from time to time. Thankfully she had some very dear friends who supported her and gave her company. From every indication the 2 did appear to love one another… but Lloyd simply couldn’t –or wouldn’t- control his wandering eye.

Lloyd battled prostrate cancer for 2 years (Mildred had died 2 years earlier) and on Valentines he was told the end was near. He retreated to his bedroom and died 3 weeks later, on the afternoon of March 8, 1971, at the age of 77.

[Mighty Jack]

Harry Langdon



Baby faced and abstract - Harry Langdon seems to have become the man of mystery in the silent era. There are so many critical extremes in exploring Langdon’s skills. Zealots act as if he were Christ almighty (and often do as much harm as good to their cause, in print and commentary, Harry-fanatic Richard M. Roberts passive/aggressive posture towards those who don’t –in his words- “get it” and his incessant whining about Frank Capra is particularly irksome). On the other hand, detractors tow the company line and parrot criticisms leveled by Frank Capra or pet theories brought about by author (and fan) Walter Kerr.

Close study shows that Harry was a popular vaudevillian (He left home at age 12 to join a medicine show and had a long career as a comedian). He played in some of the bigger theaters and got noticed by studios who engaged into a bit of a bidding war for his services. Harold Lloyd tried to get Roach to sign him but they couldn’t agree to a contract, and for a while he wound up with Sol Lesser. He eventually made his way to Mack Sennett in 1924 (what an odd paring that -Chaotic Sennett with minimalist Langdon). An Early snippet of a film Langdon made before signing with Sennett (therefore before Sennett’s style could be imposed on him) bears no resemblance to the baby/man he became. And it does take a while before that figure will emerge. Director Harry Edward’s was an early collaborator and his quieter style fit Harry like a glove. Later writer Arthur Ripley and director/writer Frank Capra would join in and the brain trust was formed.

Harry with Mack Sennett


In his autobiography, Capra pretty much takes credit for the creation of Langdon’s character and states that the clown’s downfall was due to the fact that he didn’t understand that character. This maddens the Langdon-Zealots, who whine incessantly about the apocryphal nature of this tale. They point out that Capra didn’t receive screen credit for about a year after Harry joined Sennett and therefore wasn’t creatively involved at day one. But the truth is we don’t know the whole truth. Though I don’t believe Capra did it all and Langdon contributed nothing… Frank could very well have been working with Sennett as an uncredited gag writer and did help in the formation of this passive figure. In “Rashomon” style twists, there could be kernels of truth in his story. They might be only kernels, but they need to be considered. Never the less, even when merged with other people’s stories (including the likes of Harold Lloyd, who was an early fan and implored Langdon to slow down on film – indicating that this ‘slowness’ was part of Harry’s original vaudevillian style) the truth about Harry is cloudy at best,

What we do know is that over the years the baby/man character emerged and with Edwards, Capra and Ripley - Harry filmed 3 feature length hits and came to be known for his slow reactions and child like behavior. Indecisive in movements… Langdon was a complete original, but he was also kind of a creepy figure (watching a man, who acts like a child, lust after a woman, gives off an odd vibe). Ripley’s darker tones, combined with Capra’s ambiguous under shading and Langdon’s minimalism makes for an odd, though unique mix. This ‘strangeness’ could have alienated theatergoers and might offer one explanation for the downfall. (and to me, Harry is at his most creepy with Capra in the Captain’s chair - especially in “Long Pants”).

Frank Capra made his directorial debut with Langdon


Edwards was lost after “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp” - taking the blame for the film going over budget. And after several arguments, Langdon fired Capra and went solo (keeping Ripley as a writer). He then directed 3 commercial (and often critical) failures and his contract at First National Pictures was not renewed. After this, he did continue to work on a smaller scale. He filmed some shorts for Educational and Columbia (the Columbia shorts are lost to this day – but considering how poor the Keaton films were at Columbia, I don’t harbor much hope that Langdon’s releases are any better) He wrote for other acts such as Laurel and Hardy, he even filled in for Stan Laurel in a film when the comedian was in a contract dispute.

Known as “the Fourth Comedian” from the silent era lets look first at his Mack Sennett shorts…

[Mighty Jack]

The Langdon Shorts: Part 1

Picking Peaches (2/3/1924) and Smile Please (3/2/1924) Peaches (Harry’s first filmed, but second released) is more Mack Sennett than Langdon. Directed by Erle C. Kenton (who later filmed Charles Laughton’s “Island of Lost Souls”) There are a couple laughs and it’s not the horrible train wreck of his next release. “Smile Please” is a mess, random and nonsensical. It jumps from one busy, unrelated scenario to the next. Smile is unfunny and one of the worst shorts from Harry or any other comedian. At this point Harry is like a man searching for an identity; sometimes he’s Chaplin, sometimes he’s brash Sennett, none of it fits. Once in a while we’ll see the bewildered figure pop up now and again.

His New Mamma (6//22/1924). This short is missing film, in including opening scenes where Harry’s new ‘gold digger’ mamma is flirting with him, which sets up the reason why his father is suspicious of the son. In this one I can see more of the innocent in Harry’s performance but he’s still too aware and assertive. The ending falls into standard Sennett chase sequence. The First 100 Years (8/17/1924) is another fragmented film. Harold is a married man fighting off criminals in this standard Sennett style short. It’s odd to see Harry move frantically like this, only occasionally do we see his classic slow reactions. It was funny when he shows a ghost the note he’s reading.

The Luck O’ the Foolish (9/14/1924)
Harry Edward’s directs and Marceline Day, so good in Keaton’s The Cameraman, plays Harry’s wife. The first scene where he has to go back to work as a cop after his money is stolen is pure Langdon. He imitates and waves at a fellow officer, offers his handshake but receives nothing but air. Also the bit where Harry tries to escape the glare of a flashlight is a gas. This is the 1st short I enjoyed.



The Hansom Cabman (10/12/1924)
Marceline Day returns (BTW she was Alice Day’s twin sister. Alice was Harry’s leading lady in a few early shorts). Harry gets into all kinds of trouble with various women. Aside from the gag where he’s seen striding atop a car (or 2 or 3), I found it a bland effort.

All Night Long (11/9/24)
We are seeing more of that Langdon personality come to the fore. Told in flashback, Harry happens upon old army buddy(?) Vernon Dent, who recounts his downfall and Landgon’s rise among the ranks.

Feet of Mud (12/7/1924)
A short told in 2 parts. The first reel offers up a funny bit with Harry playing football. When it came to making the simple act of running funny, Buster Keaton had few peers. But Langdon’s got a funny way of walking too - though his trot to the end zone isn’t over done, it’s funny non the less. The second half concerns Harry trying to win the hand of his girlfriend and working as a street cleaner –the street cleaner scenario has been done by all of the great silent clowns, and it’s fun to see how each one approaches it. In the end, Langdon winds up in China Town, saves the day and gets the girl.

The Sea Squawk (1/4/1925)
The title is a take off on the famous “Sea Hawk”. Harry plays an immigrant in kilts who gets tangled up with jewel thieves aboard a ship. The bit about baddies hiding their booty on an innocent is a well-worn premise in the silent era, but here it takes on a new spin as the villain forces Harry to swallow a priceless ruby as a detective conducts a search. The short uses a lot of familiar ideas and many Sennett-style gags. Though not a laugh riot, there are cute moments.



Boobs in the Wood (2/1/1925)
And now the second piece of the puzzle is in place: Though Arthur Ripley might have contributed uncredited gags (as Frank Capra could be doing at this point) this was his first full script for Harry. Ripley’s black humor is in evidence here and would quickly become a staple of the Langdon Filmography. This is a pretty funny short as we see Harry go from logger to feared bouncer in a bar. How a baby-faced guy becomes the “Crying Killer” is all part of the fun.

His Marriage Wow (3/1/1925)
Vernon Dent is memorable as Professor McGlumm, his grim visage played off of concerned Harry is a hoot. It’s a simply told tale of a man getting married and the gloomy Professor offering words of darkness and then later, a wild Sennett style ride through the streets.

Note: That’s Georgia Hale (Gold Rush) standing next to bride to be as she swoons.

[Mighty Jack]

Plain Clothes (3/29/1925)
And now Frank Capra joins Director Harry Edwards, Writer Frank Ripley and receives his screen credit as a co-writer - the Langdon dream team is in place and Harry’s character is in full bloom. Here, he plays a detective on the skids, looking to do good by busting up a crime ring. Signature Langdon moves are in constant play – such as how he’s ever helpful, even to those who are repossessing his office furniture!

The print suffers from some decomposition but the laughs are plentiful.

Of note: His girl friend’s mother is played by Jean Hathaway, mother to Henry (the man who directed John Wayne to his Oscar in “True Grit”)

Remember When (4/26/1925)
Capra might have contributed here, but he doesn’t receive screen credit as Keaton’s collaborator Clyde Bruckman joins in as writer for this short. And it is a funny one - Predating Chaplin’s “The Circus”, and Harry is rather Chaplin-like as a tramp who joins a circus after the troupes boss (Vernon Dent) catches the hobo inadvertently doing something funny and acrobatic. Unbeknownst to Harry his old gal pal from their days at an Orphanage is now a member of this circus… as the bearded lady!

There are 3 significant DVD collections to chose from


Lucky Stars (8/16/1925)
Directed by Harry Edwards from a story by Arthur Ripley and Frank Capra. A fortuneteller informs Harry that he is ruled by a lucky star, which will guide him to love and riches. Classic Langdon touches are present: That hint of darkness, Harry as the distracted innocent (especially in the funny bit where he is distracted by a glass of beer). Frequent costars Natalie Kingston and Vernon Dent are present as the vamp and a Medicine show huckster. This was a decent effort all told.

Saturday Afternoon (1/31/1926) 3r
This is pure child like Langdon, with all the hesitations; minimal reactions and distinct hand gestures that made him famous. He plays a henpecked husband who steps out with a gal (with a couple of nice lamps). SA was a riot from start to end, my favorite of his shorts I’ve seen (a few have been lost through time). The premise would be heavily drawn from in his feature “The Chaser”. And it would also influence Laurel & Hardy’s style of humor. If you are looking to sample Harry’s work, this is essential viewing.

Fiddlesticks (4/1/1926)
Harry has hit his stride and this is another goodie with Langdon playing a poor (and in poor, I mean he plays badly) musician who makes his mark through music. Vernon Dent is seen in 2 roles, as the music teacher and later the junk man who befriends Harry. Though, like many of Langdon’s later shorts, the story just ends without much of an ending so to speak, what comes before is very funny indeed.

Soldier Man (5/1/1926)
3 reels so it’s somewhere between a short and a feature, this was likely filmed before Saturday Afternoon though it was released later. Soldier is loosely based on the “Prisoner of Zenda”, with Langdon playing both the drunken cruel King and his kind hearted look-a-like (a soldier). Langdon and his team are completely in tune with what makes Harry tick (and therefore what make’s him funny). For one, Harry always chooses food over sex. In one hilarious scene his Queen attempts to seduce her King, but he’s more interested in the sandwiches. Even when he eventually gives in and kisses her, his eyes are wide open and focused on the plate of food. Langdon also interacts a lot with mannequins, talking with them because he thinks they are real. We get a couple of those situations here. My favorite bit though, was with a cow that he believes has swallowed dynamite.

There is at least one scene here that the Marx Brother’s will use in their film “Duck Soup” – One indication (among several) of how this funny short left its mark on other comedians of the era.



Eddie Quillan (Catalina, Here I Come)
After Langdon left Sennett, Mack had this amiable young vaudevillian take his place, often duplicating the same scenes. Though youthful, Eddie was not baby like at all. He had a breezy, winning screen personality and I took an instant liking to him. Quillan remained a fixture in small roles throughout his life, he can be seen in classics like “The Grapes of Wrath” and Clark Gable’s “Mutiny on the Bounty” and later shifted into television (he can be seen in everything from Andy Griffith to Little House on the Prairie)



Vernon Dent
Imposing Dent could play friend or foe to Langdon, but even at his nastiest I always suspected that this guy was a sweetheart. He gave off that vibe. In reading biographies that turned out to be true, he was a gentle, caring man that people loved. A mainstay in silent and talkies, he can be seen in a wide variety of film but is best known for his work with Langdon and later, the 3 Stooges.

Though he was about 11 years younger than Harry, the two became fast friends, and after Langdon’s untimely death, Vernon took to looking after his son Harry Jr. and helping his widow when she struggled through financial difficulties. Though the two were frequent co-stars, Langdon had wanted to form a comedy duo with Dent, ala Laurel & Hardy, but his star had fallen and it never came to be.

Dent had a great singing voice (heard in Langdon’s “Hooks and Jabs”) and was a solid actor who could handle a variety of roles. Sadly, he suffered from diabetes, which caused him to go blind later in life. He never lost his upbeat spirit; in fact few friends knew he was losing his sight. Vernon died from a heart attack on November 5th, 1963 at the age of 67.


Up next: Langdon moves on to full-length features…

[Mighty Jack]

Landgon’s Features

His First Flame (Produced 1924, released May 3rd 1927)
Harry’s first feature is still missing around 8 minutes of footage (It’s speculated that there was a dream sequence with a Harry as a baby in a carriage – and the dinner scene with hubby & wife ends abruptly). Though it was produced in the middle of his shorts era (before “Lucky Stars”), it wasn’t released to theaters until after “Long Pants” and it isn’t one I’ve heard spoken of. It’s not as good as “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp” or “Strong Man”, but there are highlights.

The premise: Harry has fallen for the wrong girl and his firefighting relative (Vernon Dent) wants him to break it off. Most of the bigger laughs come during a domestic quarrel with Langdon stuck in the middle (there’s a funny sequence where he believe husband and wife have indulged in the drink), also the bits with Harry at a couple of fires. I though it was funny how he lights a match in a smoky room in order to see. Later he scoops up buckets of smoke that he empties outside.



Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926)
Here Langdon courts Joan Crawford. He's playing a shoemakers son who is trying to save his fathers business. In an era of sight gags, Tramp sports one of the funniest title cards I’ve ever seen, when Harry tells his dad, “I’ll get the money in 3 months if it takes me a year!” In truth this has so many amusing title cards it could have been made into a talkie.

Though “Strong Man” earns more kudos for Langdon, I actually think this is funnier. Harry’s nervous ticks are a hoot. Crawford -very young- is unrecognizable without the arched eyebrows and Hollywood gloss, and was actually quite appealing (I’ve never been a fan of hers in the past). The film features a town being destroyed, which was something Keaton would do in Steamboat Bill Jr on a larger and more successful scale.

Unfortunately - while the movie was a hit, it signaled the first step in Langdon’s fall, as Harry Edward’s was blamed for cost overruns and was let go. Langdon’s long time director and an important part of the team was gone and writer Frank Capra would slide into the directors chair for the next film.

Of Note: Harry made an appearance on the Colleen Moore film Ella Cinders, playing himself on the set of Tramp. It’s a very funny bit, where he helps Moore get away from studio guards (Kind of what Harold Lloyd did in the “Our Gang” movie, Dogs of War)



The Strong Man (1926)
This film, considered by many to be Harry’s best, was the directorial debut of Frank Capra. In it, he is the captive of a circus strong man, becomes the victim of a con-woman and later takes on the town scoundrel for his true love. The movie shows off Langdon’s signature style: He was a great pantomime, with a jerky gracefulness in his slow movements. He was a sometimes innocent, taken advantage of. That baby face of his, accentuated by makeup which provided thin lips and arched brows and gave him the appearance of a man/child. Which was kind of disturbing in many ways: When he is struck by the con-woman, you feel bad the same way you’d feel bad seeing a puppy being kicked. When he strikes a guy who insults him, it’s like an infantile tantrum. And when the man/child woo’s his (blind) love? Well… it’s kind of icky. Still, it’s a good movie and Harry brings down the house, literally, at the end.

Chaplin, who naturally would have been drawn by the sentimental appeal of having a blind woman as the love interest, indeed mines that angle in his feature, “City Lights’

Long Pants (1927)
The lesser of the 3 hits – Director Frank Capra’s flick is an odd bird. Harry plays a boy, who apparently is old enough to marry. He receives his first pair of long pants and promptly goes out and performs tricks on his bicycle to impress a woman… who is on the lam after smuggling “snow”. Harry falls for her, but he’s set to marry another childlike gal. Langdon’s solution to get out of the wedding and go to his bad girl (now in prison), is to take his would be bride out to the woods to shoot her! It’s not like Harry isn’t freaky enough on his own - add to it his (and Ripley’s) leanings toward black comedy and it’s a pretty skewed dark little world he’s constructed. Here we get a story with drugs, prison breaks, shootouts and a strange man-boy who contemplates murder. There are laughs, the scene in the woods was actually pretty funny, if you can get past what he’s attempting to do with that gun. And of course, there’s Harry, flummoxed by a mannequin in a pretty cute sequence.

Up next – what goes up, must come down…

[Mighty Jack]

Three’s a Crowd
Langdon channels Chaplin. Playing a man who longs for a family who happens upon a pregnant woman in the streets. Harry cares for her and her newborn, shows unconditional love. He finally has his family, until the redeemed husband returns and takes it all away.

Harry made his directorial debut on this picture and the end results have been widely panned. I didn’t think was as terrible as I’d read, but neither is it very good. It has rough patches; uneven edits that make for a disjointed narrative. Some of this might be Harry’s fault, others might have been studio mandated (they cut out an opening dream sequence).

The scenes where a pigeon carries a love note for example, is out of the blue. Who wrote the note and for whom, the reaction of the characters indicate Harry wrote it, but we never were shown this. Later on in the movie we see Harry usher out a bunch of men from this room. Again this scene isn’t given any context, who are these men and why did Harry have them in there? We can assume they were tramps Langdon was giving shelter from the storm, but we can only make assumptions as there was no set up, or any scene that showed that Harry might be the kind of person who would do such a thing. It’s one thing to be abstract, it’s quite another to be out and out sloppy.

Langdon’s minimalism comes to full flower on this picture. While Buster Keaton could appreciate a subtler, quiet moment, Harry took things to a whole new level of stillness. In fact, sometimes, Three’s a Crowd is almost so quiet it becomes a still photograph. Harry’s ‘baby’ aspects are there, though not as much at the fore. There still is a naiveté to the character and he still seems, as always, on the verge of sleep.

This is not a happy tale (Langdon and writer Ripley often liked to lean on the dark side). Audiences know Harry isn’t capable of taking care of a wife and child, though his character doesn’t understand this and that leaves a cloud of sadness over the production. Most of the movie is confined to a single room and perhaps owing to claustrophobia and the abstractions, I felt a certain emotional detachment throughout.

I’m not certain of Langdon’s intent. It has a bleak outlook and there’s pathos, but if Harry wanted me to feel sympathy, it didn’t happen. Neither do the artistic flourishes reach levels of inspired genius; so that part of it doesn’t satisfy either. All told it comes off like Langdon’s bush league attempt at doing Chaplin. Crowd wasn’t the train wreck I expected, but it is flawed and even my abstract mind couldn’t derive a lot of pleasure from the film.

Oh, and the commentary is annoyingly overcooked and lacks objectivity. The guys a Langdon-zealot and a way, waaay over the top apologist. It’s as if he believes that if his voice is strident enough and he strings together words like ‘sublime’, that we can be bullied into hailing Harry as our Lord and savior too. The opposite happened with me, I started laughing at the excess. He calls this film a masterpiece… okay dude, throttle down and keep it in your pants. “City Lights” is a masterpiece, “The General” is a masterpiece - “Three’s A Crowd” was an okay film, but it’s nowhere near farting distant to a masterpiece. Girlfriend, please!



The Chaser
While funnier than his last feature, the film is marred by frantic edits and poor pacing. Harry plays a married party animal, hassled by his wife and mother in law. After a brouhaha, Harry is taken to court and is ordered by a Judge to dress and act like a woman so that he can appreciate his wife. This goes the complete opposite direction from his last feature. The arty approach is replaced by slapstick antics and in the middle of this storm is our sleepwalker Harry (who, at one point, manages to wake up and fight off an amorous salesman with a rare burst of energy)

Harry’s skills and timing as a director is still in need of some polish (why the medium shot insert when he’s laying on the floor? That edit broke up the momentum of the gag). And I know Langdon has a languid style, but at times I was bored with it all. Still, a few cute and funny bits are to be had – I laughed at the golfing scene when Harry mirror’s the other golfer by throwing down the club, then he wags his finger and scolds the ball. There are odd moments as well; the bit at the end where the women faint whenever they are around Harry was just… bizarre and out of the blue.

Hearttrouble
This is Langdon’s lost film and so far, copies have yet to resurface. A press kit reveals that Harry plays of the son of German emigrants who attempts to show his love for his country by enlisting in the military - only to be rejected by the recruiting office for a number of ailments. Never the less, he manages to become a hero in the war effort. The press kit promised romance, big explosions at the end, lots of school children and a horse. Reviews at the time seem to indicate that he was showing some improvement as a director but the movie received little distribution, failed at the box office and that was the end of Harry’s short burst at the top.

[Mighty Jack]

One of Harry’s “lost” films


It s said that Langdon was not a nice man to work with while he was on top. Later, humbled, it’s said he mellowed out. He was also very shy and kept to himself, which doesn’t help when you want to direct… a practice that forces you to engage with people.


After the contract with National ended, he finally joined with Roach but was fired after 8 shorts. What I’ve seen of Langdon’s early talkie work, he spoke with a high voice and rambled like a child on acid. Talking nonsense, giggling, before letting forth with a sudden child like “Uh-OH!” It was embarrassing and unfunny as hell. At least Lloyd and Keaton still made quality and often-funny talkies; they could deliver a line hilariously, but Langdon was pretty rough early on.

Like Keaton and many other silent stars, he then ended up with Educational and later, Columbia. Of the Educationals I watched, Harry finally settled down and kept his jabbering gibberish to a minimum. Hooks and Jabs (1933) -written by and co-starring Langdon’s friend Vernon Dent- was good (Harry ends up in a bar full of scoundrels and fights former top Heavyweight contender, Frank Moran, who can be seen in the season 1 MST3K ep, “The Corpse Vanishes”) better than this was a short titled Knight Duty (1933).

What was good about “Duty” was that it was almost a silent picture, which suited Langdon to perfection. Letting his body language do the work worked like a dream. The subject matter was also inspired, as Langdon is on the run from cops inside a museum full of dummies and waxworks. Langdon had often interacted with mannequins in his past; it’s odd no one came up with this idea before.

Harry would continue to work, it’s not like he was unwanted. I’ve seen the musical Hallelujah I’m A Bum! (1933) which is considered his best –though flawed- feature length talkie. I enjoyed the picture, Al Jolsen stars as a smiling hobo, known as the “Mayor of Central Park” – he’s always bubbly and leads a band of happy bums and it is kind of weird to hear them all sing –in essence- how wonderful it is to be a homeless alcoholic. He later saves a woman from drowning, falls in love but has to give her up when he discovers she’s his friends gal.

Harry has a small but memorable part as a street cleaner with radical political ideals. The movie also stars Frank Morgan, of “Wizard of Oz” fame. One funny bit of dialog has a drunk Morgan say “There’s no place like home”


After this he did a couple of movies with Charley Rogers, which were well received.

Langdon also did a lot of what they called “Poverty Row” pictures. A few of these low budget movies have their fans, but most feel they varying between fair to bad. He also wrote for Laurel and Hardy, who he befriended. “Blockheads” borrows from Harry’s own “Soldier Man” and Stan Laurel had very much adopted Langdon’s slow, child like style. When Laurel was in a contract dispute with Roach, Harry filled in on the movie Zenobia as Oliver Hardy’s co-star.

To sum it up: The contradictory stories about who was responsible for his success and what lead to his fall from grace makes the truth difficult to ascertain. I think part of it was that baby/man figure had a limited appeal. Plus I (and many others) feel the quality of his feature films slipped considerably after the first 2 hits. Walter Kerr offers that fans rejected him after he broke some unwritten ‘code of character’ with his directorial debut, “Threes a Crowd” – the problem with that theory is that the movie didn’t do well at the box office- Therefore many fans rejected him BEFORE they’d even seen the picture. Still others argue that Harry just arrived on the scene a bit late. The silent era was at an end, Keaton’s movies at this point were bombing and even Lloyd, though making hits, was seeing less return at the box office. But that doesn’t take into consideration “Laurel & Hardy” who also united for silent films late in the game, but blossomed into greater popularity during the talkies.

Personally I think Langdon was a comet, one of those talented people who burst on the scene, light up the sky for a brief but spectacular moment in time and then just as quickly, they fade into the night. They might continue on in some capacity, but rarely reach those dizzying highs again. Langdon was to silent comedy what Sandy Kofax was to baseball or Joe Namath was to football.

Harry Langdon died of a cerebral hemorrhage on December 22, 1944 in Los Angeles. He was 60 years old.

[Mighty Jack]

Griffith, Hamilton, Semon etc
It’s interesting to read old Variety or New Yorker articles and see ‘so and so’ hailed as the new Chaplin - or that the “big 3 had better watch out” because there was a new challenger to their respective thrones. Many of these acts, even the great ones, would shine at the top for 2 or 3 years and then lose steam. In the end, there would be no sustained 5th member to the club; no new Chaplin from among this group.

Never the less, there is brilliance to be found on the fringes. There are folks who put out a steady run of shorts, others who released a handful of delightful features. And yes, there were some popular acts that seem pretty shallow and well, dumb these days. Here’s a look at the good, bad and the ugly…



Lloyd Hamilton
Started out as one half of the “Ham and Bud” comedy team. But he took off when he went solo and for a while it was thought he’d be a worthy challenger to the big 3, but when his 2 features, “His Darker Self” and “A Self-Made Failure” (both filmed in 1924) tanked and he found himself undone by alcoholism (Newspapers at the time often reported his arrests for drunken brawls he was involved in) that glowing prediction proved not to be.

Most of his films were destroyed in an Educational Studio’s fire. One sadly lost film was titled “Robinson Caruso ltd.”. It was highly praised by critics upon its release in 1921. Chaplin said that Hamilton was the only comedic actor he was ever jealous of and Keaton praised him as the funniest comic he’d ever seen. His shtick? The big, burly comic played a sissified boob who suffered one indignity after another. His most praised shorts include The Vagrant (1921), The Roscoe Arbuckle directed The Movies (1925) and his most celebrated, Move Along

Hamilton did make the move into talkies, but his increasing drinking problem was harming both his professional and personal life. In 1935, Lloyd died at the hospital after suffering hemorrhages in his stomach.



Raymond Griffith
The “Silk hat comedian” as he was known - knocked around for several years, on the stage (where he lost his voice and from that point on, could only speak in a whisper), to the circus and vaudeville. He was with Sennett for a spell, acting and writing, and bounced from one company to another before gaining notice in dramatic roles in the early 20s. Around 1924 to 1926 the tux wearing Griffith gained momentum with several popular comedies. “Paths to Paradise” and the civil war based “Hands Up!” The career started a slow slide in 1927 and with the talkies he was near done as far as being in front of the cameras (he continued working as a producer). In his last film, a talkie, he played an injured solider (who could barely speak) in “All Quiet on the Western Front” in 1931. Griffith died of a heart attack at age 70, Nov 25th 1957.

Paths to Paradise
Unflappable Griffith was part of a small lineage that began with Max Linder, the suave, smooth and dressed to the hilt type. Path’s concerns competing master thieves (Griffith and Betty Compson) who team up for the heist of a lifetime. I found the humor low key, it’s more along the lines of those romantic comedies you might see a Cary Grant or David Niven star in. And while Griffith has his ardent fans, he comes off rather blah, not very personable to me, and I didn’t care for the movie. The film ends with the crooks leading police on a high-speed chase to Mexico, but that wasn’t the final sequence. Apparently the film is missing the last reel. In the end the woman decides she wants to go straight and return to America, so Griffith immediately turns the car around and starts the whole ordeal all over again in reverse.

Lupino Lane
A graduate of the English music halls he known more as a stage actor, but he did have an audience in silent films, starting with 1925s Maid in Morocco (Be My King was also popular) He was known for his acrobatic style and for this scissor lift, where he’d fall, legs splayed and then glide up using only his legs. In 1930 he left Hollywood to devote time to film and stage in England. I watched, Only Me (1929), a knockoff of Keaton’s “The Playhouse” in which he goes to a show and plays all the parts. It’s nowhere near as funny as Buster’s film, and despite a few interesting bits with the camera (as when it pulls close in on a singer), not as inventive. According to Walter Kerr, Lane had a limited bag of tricks and he pulled out the same one’s frequently.

Lanes Wiki




Larry Semon
Was a cartoonist and vaudevillian that rose to great heights and fell just as fast and hard. His main problems were twofold: His extravagance - he loved making big movies with big effects but they were costly and soon he found himself in debt. He also fell into a groove and failing to come up with anything fresh or new in his films, he lost the favor of critics and fans. He hoped to rebound with his dream project the “Wizard of Oz”, but that expensive project failed as well. Larry took whatever work he could to pull himself out of the hole he was in, but it was no avail. He was bankrupt and later, while back on the vaudevillian circuit, he had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized in a sanitarium, where he died from tuberculosis.

The Grocery Clerk (1920)
I wonder if Larry was attempting his own version of Arbuckle/Keaton’s Butcher Boy? The first half is similar to that one, right down to flour bags thrown at people’s faces. This short features big explosions and impressive swinging stunts, but it doesn’t feature a lot of laughs. It’s just kind of noisy.

I also watched Golf – which showed off Semon’s trademark love for special effects (a squirrel grabs a gun and take a shot at Larry) and big explosions. While its visually impressive for its day, I still don’t find Semon all that funny,



Charley Bowers
Resembling Buster Keaton, Bowers was an animator whose surreal shorts in the late 20s combined slapstick with animation. Inventive and fascinating with plenty of Rube Goldberg-like devices, Bower’s work was forgotten as the years progressed, only recently rediscovered when 15 of his surviving films were collected on DVD,

Now You Tell One (1926)
A liars-club meets to tell wild stories; the best will be bestowed with an award. Charley gets pulled into their group and tells his story of an invention where he can grow anything, even a hat. This is an amazing film to watch, very sharp. The effects and animation show off a wild imagination. This was the first Bowers film I’d ever seen and it made me want to seek out his others. Buuut -

The main problem I had was that most of Bower’s shorts followed the same pattern. He has a dilemma and borrows things from other people to build a gigantic machine that fixes this dilemma. “Egged On” has him inventing an unbreakable egg, “Many a Slip” sees him trying to create a non-slippery banana peel. In “Now You Tell One” dozens of cats are born from a pussy willow. In “Egged On” dozens of baby cars hatch from eggs left on a car engine. Another problem is that most of these shorts don’t have a true resolution - they simply fade out. He did break the mold a couple of times. In Fatal Footsteps the machine he invents was a small pair of shoes that helped him dance the Charleston. Nothing Doing had fewer inventions and more slapstick as he becomes a cop in order win his gals hand in marriage.

So… who would I consider the 5th Beatle (so to speak) – Though Raymond Griffith has his champions (among them author Walter Kerr) he didn’t impress me much. Personally I’d go with Charley Chase, with Fatty Arbuckle a strong contender as well. Of the group mentioned in the above post it sounds like Hamilton needs to be considered. But with so much of his work lost, and that I’ve never been able to track down anything of his to watch for this piece, the jury remains out on the comic. I was also very impressed with Mr. And Mrs. Sydney. Hopefully someone is out there scouring the world for Ham and the Sydney’s films (lost or otherwise) and one day, both will receive their own DVD collection.

[Mighty Jack]

Laurel and Hardy?
Believe it or not I have had zero luck locating anything from this classic team. I don’t really feel like buying multiple box sets and Netflix is either missing films or they put them on “short wait” (which should be re-titled “Yeah, good luck getting these”). Though they achieved even more attention for their talkies, I’d still love to add the team to this thread, I’d love to review their careers and thereafter see where I’d place them among my favorites. Alas, that is not possible at this time.

I have seen films in the past, came across several of their solo shorts (as well as their work in other clowns movies) and have read about them and can offer a quick synopsis…

What is interesting about the duo is how they knocked about throughout the silent era but neither achieved much fame. Stan Laurel was very talented but unfocused. What I’ve seen of his early shorts was not funny or impressive. I found that he had very little in the way of screen presence. Oliver Hardy fared better on that front, but he was mostly regulated to co-starring roles as the near do well in-law or villain. The two wound up with Hal Roach and strangely it took Roach a while to see the comedic possibility in a teaming. Even when they were paired up it took time for them to jell as one.

When they did it was magic. The strange thing is that they came late in silent era, at a point when most acts were struggling to keep their audience. 1925 was a watershed year, led by Chaplin’s “Gold Rush” and Lloyd’s “The Freshman”, but gradually box office receipts started to fade. And yet this team managed to build a fan base and did it by using old familiar material. There was nothing original in their comedy, only how they reacted and played off of it was different. Stan Laurel forged a friendship with Harry Langdon and adapted Langdon’s slow, child like mannerisms and in a snap - he found a character and screen presence, as well as a dynamic partnership all in one fell swoop

Going against the grain -unlike most silent comedians- the two found even more success in the talkies and arguably are more known for their work in this era.

W.C. Fields?
Yup, he started out in silent era. The thing is… I can’t stand Fields. I have watched some of his top rated talkies, films that are hailed as all time comedy classics where I didn’t laugh once. I simply don’t like the man or find him funny in the least.

The Marx Brothers?
Though they made their mark in the talkies, they did try their hand at a silent film and it's the famously lost "Humor Risk", which might have co starred Lloyd's leading ladies, Jobyna Ralsten and (maybe) Mildred Davis. There are several stories about how this came to be 'lost', the most colorful had Groucho hating the piece so much, he made sure it was lost (some say he burned the print). The guys of course went on to forge a sucessful career during the talkie era.

The Queens of Slapstick
I watched a few and had hoped to do a write up on them, but it proved both an expansive and difficult endeavor. While it wasn’t too hard to track down films by Sennett’s Mable Normand - Bebe Daniel’s staring vehicles (ala “The Senorita”) offered me nothing but roadblocks. Even Colleen Moore proved difficult.

I did catch a few films here and there - Gale Henry (the Detectress) who started her own production company with her husband and starred herself in a series of shorts. And Alice Howell’s One Wet Night (1924) of whom Stan Laurel praised, but neither woman impressed me

Fay Tincher in Rowdy Ann


Of the good stuff: I didn’t mind “Know Thy Wife” with Dorothy De Vore and Fay Tincher was solid in Rowdy Ann (1918). I also watched the talented Phyllis Haver and Louise Fazenda share a loooong kiss in the decent “Hearts and Flowers”.

There was Mrs. Sydney and Flora Finch to consider, as well as the comedy teaming of Marion Byron and Anita Garvin to name a few.

But I simply couldn’t gather enough material to do a proper overview of the silent comediennes. Wouldn’t it be great if someone wrote a book, which included several DVDs loaded with shorts and features?

Anita Garvin was seen in many Laurel & Hardy and Charley Chase films


Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle
Apart from a few Sennett’s and the films he made with Keaton, I was unable to track down any of his later work. Fatty could have very well become one of the top comedy kings in the 20s. He was all set to start a new phase of his career when a woman, Virginia Rappe, died 3 days after a party he hosted. There was no evidence against the man, but there were a whole lot of people who wanted something… the woman who accused Roscoe wanted money or fame, the prosecutor was looking to become Governor and William Randolf Hearst was making big bucks selling newspapers.

Though he was acquitted and given an apology his career was in ruins. Friends gave him jobs but he was so broken and angry it became difficult, even for his best friend, Buster Keaton, to work with him. Considering his mindset, it’s impossible to judge his work from this time period as reflective of what he would have done had the trial never occurred.

10 years passed and Warner Brothers signed him to star in his first full-length feature. Sadly, that night he died in his sleep from a heart attack on June 29th, 1933 at the age of 46. For a fuller look at his career, here’s his Wiki

There is one last short to review – his 2nd one made at his own studio…

Reckless Romeo (1917)
Filmed after “The Butcher Boy”, it was lost for ages and many assumed Buster Keaton had a part in this as well. When it was found, Buster was nowhere in sight.

The story: Arbuckle comes home late and drunk, upsetting his wife and household with his antics. Fatty does drunk well, right up their with Chaplin. Romeo starts off with absurd flights of fancy. Fatty falls asleep in the bath, under a full tub of water! He wakes up hours later to no ill effect… other than a lot of water shooting from his ears. Later Fatty and family head to the beach. He gets beat up after flirting with a gal and has to tell his wife a tall tale, of course it all comes apart when his flirtations are caught on film.

Romeo is Roscoe acting like a big kid, and his wide smile never fails to brighten up the screen. The movie was inventive and fun and I had a lot of fun watching it.

And that, my friends, is it. I don’t know how many readers I actually had (believe it or not, most of the post counts are me, fixing typos. Truly – each post seems to go through 10 to 20 fixes!) but of those who stopped in I hope you enjoyed the read and that there are a few titles you’ll be seeking.

As for Chaplin? I could never do justice to the man as I lack the passion for his work (though I have oodles of respect and have enjoyed many of his movies). One person who does have that love and passion is Sol and you can find all the Chaplin you could possibly want at her outstanding thread.

[afriendlychicken]

Nov 24, 2009 2:51:47 GMT -5 Mighty Jack said:

Laurel and Hardy?
Believe it or not I have had zero luck locating anything from this classic team.

I have the complete silent and talkies of Laurel and Hardy on dvd excluding the awful 1940's MGM and 20th Century Fox films. The silent shorts are available from Image Entertainment. The dvd's are titled "The Lost Films of Laurel and Hardy." It include shorts they, separately, made appearances in, included Charlie Chase, Our Gang and Max Davidson. The talkies are available through Nostalgia Family Home Video and are called "Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy Classic Shorts" and are burned discs. The quality is actually very good and well worth the price. It's cheaper to buy these through Amazon then the companies home pages. I hope you are able to find these and enjoy the great films of these geniuses. I know I did.

[Mighty Jack]

An update...

American Slapstick: Vol 2, disc 1 offers up a bunch of rarities, though few real gems.

First, theirs a selection of early lesser known Harold Lloyd shorts, these are mostly fragments, interesting for their historical rather than comedic value

Luke Joins the Navy (1916)
By The Sad Sea Waves (1917 the Glass character becomes a life guard)
Bliss (1917)
Hey There (1918)
Don’t Shove (1919 – Lloyd goes skating)

There is also a grouping of the Hal Roach shorts after Harold left, which includes one with his brother Gaylord Lloyd (Dodge Your Debts). Gaylord is made up like Harold’s Lonesome Luke character. He’s not all that funny but I’m glad I got to see it.

The disc closes with a couple of Lloyd Hamilton shorts. I very excited to be able to finally watch Hamilton in action and while neither film was one of his big name pieces, these were the best shorts on the disc.

There was nothing amazingly special about either film; they were your basic variety pratfalls etc. But Hamilton himself has such a funny way about him, his looks and put upon expressions, the funny way he walks. It’s too bad most of his work was lost in a fire because I saw enough of a spark here to make me wanna check out more.

I saw both Jonah Jones and Breezing Along, of the 2 Breezing is the funniest even though it has cheap production values (you catch a glimpse of the truck that’s hoisting a flying man, killing the illusion) and again, it’s all pretty obvious material. In terms of style points he lacks Chaplin or Keaton’s marvelous imaginations. So why did both men admire Hamilton? Well, I haven’t seen his best-reviewed work, but from these shorts it’s not hard to like Ham because he’s so darn fun to watch. Even with simple material he’s a hoot.

Note: I did find a source for Hamilton's shorts.... it's not an official release and it's expensive -I might want to see these things, but I sure hate to spend this much to do so- but if money is no option, click here... Ham: The Lost Magic of Lloyd Hamilton

[angilasman]

I'd just like to say that this thread is what inspired me to see Keaton's films last spring and become a big fan of the man and his work. I even shelled out $130 for the Art of Buster Keaton boxed set!

Naturally, the moment I bought the set KINO decided to start slowly but surely releasing all of their Keaton material on Blu-Ray!


Anyone wanna buy a slightly used Art of Buster Keaton set?

[angilasman]

Between TCM, the oft-rumored DVD set, and now UCLA's restoration project I assumed I'd end up seeing all of Laurel and Hardy's talkie Hal Roach material sooner or later... but as for the silent shorts, long out of print and fetching high prices for individual discs containing only a couple of shorts each - well, they were low on my priority list.

But, much to my surprise, they're all now available legally streaming on Hulu!

[nondescript spice]

i'm bumping mj's awesome thread to wish buster keaton a happy 117th birthday!



he really left his mark in comedy and filmmaking. i've found i enjoy his shorts more than his features, but no matter which one you are into, he was one funny guy.