Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film - 08 Comedy - A Serious Business

[@voyaristika5673]

Why don't these videos have more views? All these pioneer's voices in one series are priceless. Thank you for making them available.

[@lindadeal3344]

Love these movies! Especially the ones about World War 1! So entertaining!

[@paulconnell893]

'The Kid'... floods of tears right now

[@RubyofTrinity]

"Orphanage" indeed. Chaplin grew up in the WORK HOUSE. He was one of the last generations to do so. Man. People were hardcore back then.

[@Grlsinger47]

@ Jonas U...Keaton shot at 0:52 is from "The Goat" (1921)

[@craigtalbott731]

“Ladies and Gentlemen: In spite of everything our enemies say, first off I want to tell you that our comedies are not to be laughed at!” - Samuel Goldwyn

[@MagiTailWelkin]

Frank Capra's assertion that Harry Langdon did not create his character and thus didn't full understand it is incorrect. Langdon had been writing his own material for the stage long before he enter the movies. The problem was that Langdon was not a director like Keaton and Chaplin, and thus was unable to translate his material to movie screen by himself. It's wasn't that Langdon misunderstood his own character, it was that he misunderstood the movies.

[@bostonblackie9503]

Great documentary but wish they had been able to run the films at the speed which they had originally been seen. It makes all the difference!

[@classiclife7204]

The old comedies were mostly run at higher speed for added comic effect, particularly the Sennett-produced ones.

[@awsome1605]

@@classiclife7204 This is true, the practice is known as undercranking. Old comedies frequently used this to heighten the speed of jokes. Many times when say Chaplin is running at a frantic pace it is because it was cranked at 14fps and projected at 24fps, giving it a quicker speed which was wholly intentional.

[@Nigelsmom2136]

Buster Keaton was brilliant.

[@bertrandgerard1723]

Aux éditeurs français ou à la tv française, please, le doublage existe en français

[@classiclife7204]

About the only time this documentary was seriously wrong about something: the comic "genius" of Harry Langdon. Let's be clear: they'd already done 30 minutes on Fatty Arbuckle, who was the REAL 4th genius of silent comedy. And they'd already mentioned Laurel and Hardy elsewhere as well (and they were mostly post-silent comedy, anyway). So, Langdon lucked out here. He's basically Chaplin without the timing. His inferiority is so evident when compared to the others that I'm surprised Brownlow stuck with the idea. Oh well - I do recommend the others, of course.

[@alexvokoun9272]

I think the idea was so show three guys who actually were geniuses and turned into legends, while Langdon was essentially a one hit wonder. So it was supposed to show the other side of the spectrum. But Youre right, the fourth genius was definitely Fatty Arbuckle.

[@awsome1605]

I agree that Arbuckle should be represented but Brownlow may be taking cues from James Agee's essay "Comedy's Greatest Era" which initially revived interest in silent comedians and listed Langdon as the fourth greatest.

[@garryferrington811]

The Robert Youngson compilations from the '60s offer more comics and footage. Some of them had their moments, too. Larry Semon had some good shorts.

[@SrAJones-ns7sx]

Maybe the Lloyd estate was stingy with footage; much better film they could've showed with him. Chaplin and Keaton snippets were much better and varied

[@meeeka]

He's not American but love Max Linder.

[@Grlsinger47]

My order of preference is : 1) Buster Keaton, 2) Charlie Chaplin, 3) Harold Lloyd. I tried to watch a Harry Langdon movie, but I didn't find him funny and it bored me so badly that I couldn't watch it all the way through .

[@classiclife7204]

Yeah, they'd already had to cover Arbuckle elsewhere, re: the scandal, so they couldn't cover him twice. So they dredged up this otherwise forgotten guy, Langdon - whom, by the way, I'd never heard of until I saw this series years ago, and I consider myself pretty well-educated in film. I would've advised Brownlow to have spent the minutes devoted to Langdon on the other 3 instead, particularly Chaplin, who could've had a whole hour-long examination, frankly.

[@melissacooper4282]

I remember seeing Harry Langdon co-star with Oliver Hardy in Zenobia. It was mediocre at best because Oliver Hardy and Harry Langdon didn't have that same chemistry as when Hardy worked with Stan Laurel.

[@SrAJones-ns7sx]

Arbuckle ANYTIME before Langdon....

[@classiclife7204]

@Lawrence Windrush I bet it's terrific. I'll look that up, thanks!

[@marcdelente2456]

Mack sennette disait tout doit avoir un rytme fou sinon je m ennui . Quand le parlant arrivera en 1929 progressivement il sera obligé de ralentir le rytme de ce comédies en 1936 il revendra ces studios. Comme certains acteurs quelques soit le genres vont sombré dans l anonymat Ceci dit dans ce document ont retrouvé beaucoups de scènes qui ont été monté sur le film de robert yougsont la grande époque. Sinon quand blinder vien retrouvé chaplin a Hollywood ça carrière est fini en france mais a Hollywood n ont plus il ce suicider avec ça femme. Un jour j'ai fait un festival sur le comique et maud Est venu elle ne ma rien sur son père . Et je l'ai laissé tranquille je pense que ça a du la blessé .