Harry Langdon Movies
After working several odd jobs, Harry Langdon joined an Omaha medicine show and went on to spend 20 years traveling with minstrel shows, circuses, burlesque, and vaudeville; he had some success with a comedy act called "Jimmy's New Car." Langdon was in his late 30s when he joined Mack Sennett's film company in 1923. He quickly appeared in numerous two-reel comedies, in the course of which he developed his own screen persona: his childlike face covered by traditional pantomime white make-up, he wore a tightly buttoned jacket as though he were a boy who had outgrown it. Juvenile in appearance, he played the bewildered, clumsy, wide-eyed simpleton out of step with the behavior of normal adults, eerily baffled by erotic situations and naively trusting in the world's goodness. The character caught on, and by 1926 he was one of the Big Four of American screen comedy (along with Chaplin, Lloyd, and Keaton). His best work was done in collaboration with director Harry Edwards and writer Frank Capra. Langdon's enormous success fuelled his ego, and after a year or two he dispensed with Edwards and Capra and took sole responsibility for his films. Langdon was soon fired by his film company, after which he returned to vaudeville for almost two years. When he returned to Hollywood, the sound era was underway and he was out of touch with prevailing fashions. He went on to appear in numerous films as a character player, and also starred in dozen of talkie shorts, never reclaiming his earlier popularity. ~ All Movie Guide
The fourth of Oscar-winning short-subject director Youngson's comedy compilations (the earlier ones were Golden Age of Comedy, When Comedy was King, and Days of Thrills and Laughter) is, amazingly, almost as full and fresh as those earlier efforts, containing highlights from such silent comedy classics as Chaplin's Floorwalker, Easy Street, Pawnshop and, best of all, Rink; Buster Keaton's Balloonatic and Daydreams; Harry Langdon's Smile Please, and the prototypical Laurel and Hardy team-up, Lucky Dog. Youngson's choice of material is unquestionably fine, and equally satisfying is the quality of the film clips, courtesy of archivist Paul Guffanti. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1940
Back at Hal Roach Studios for the first time since 1938's Block-Heads, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star in the uneven but generally rewarding A Chump at Oxford. The boys are cast as street-sweepers who hope to better their lot in life by attending night school. Fate intervenes when Stan and Ollie are instrumental in the capture of a bank robber, whereupon they are rewarded by the bank's grateful president (Forbes Murray) with an all-expenses-paid education at England's Oxford University. Arriving on the venerable old campus dressed in Eton jackets, our heroes are pounced upon by a group of prankish students and subjected to all manner of practical jokes. After spending most of the night trying to escape from a maze, Stan and Ollie are installed in their "new quarters"-which turns out to be the bedroom of the Dean (Wilfred Lucas). This sort of collegiate nonsense comes to an end when it is discovered that simple-minded Stan is actually Lord Paddington, the brainiest student and finest athlete that ever attended Oxford. According to Meredith the valet (Forrester Harvey), His Lordship wandered away from the university upon being rendered an amnesiac by a blow on the head. An accidental tap on the noggin restores Stan to his aristocratic Lord Paddington status, whereupon he beats up a crowd of bullying students and deposits them one by one in a nearby ditch. Though Ollie is aghast to learn that Stan-er, His Lordship-has no recollection of their previous friendship, he decides to stay on at Oxford as Paddington's manservant. After having been humiliated once too often by his vain and condescending employer, Ollie angrily packs his bags and prepares to head for home, when yet another bop on His Lordship's skull causes him to revert to lovable, bumbling old Stan again. Originally intended as a four-reeler (running approximately 45 minutes), A Chump at Oxford was completed in the spring of 1939, whereupon Laurel and Hardy were loaned out to producer Boris Morros to star in The Flying Deuces. When shooting was finished on the latter film, the team was summoned back to Roach to film a 2-reel "prologue" for Oxford, bringing the film's running time up to 63 minutes. The new footage consisted of a reworking of the boys' 1928 comedy From Soup to Nuts, with temporary servants Stan and Ollie unintentionally wrecking a dinner party held by Mr. and Mrs. Vandevere (played by veteran L&H supporting players James Finlayson and Anita Garvin). The patchwork stucture of A Chump at Oxford works against its overall effectiveness, but the scenes in which Stan Laurel undergoes a complete change of character as the genius-level Lord Paddington more than make up for the film's earlier shortcomings. One of the students (the tall, mustachioed one) is played by Peter Cushing, in his second Hollywood film appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
- 1931
In this WW I comedy, several young men decide to join the army. Each one has his own reason for joining up. Songs include: "Forever," "Qui, Qui," "Honey Boy," "Ja, Ja, Ja," "Side by Side." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lotti Loder, Harry Langdon, (more)
- 1941
This 48-minute Hal Roach "streamliner" represents a rare directorial assignment for veteran Hollywood choreographer LeRoy Prinz, who also produced the film. Johnny Downs stars as Bob Sheppard of Quinceton University, who is appointed by his frat brothers to get even with the snotty sorority gals at all-female Marr Brynn U. This requires Bob to dress up in drag as a "blonde bombshell" and to enter Marr Brynn's annual beauty contest. When he's not flouncing around in curls and crinolines, Bob spends his time romancing pert co-ed Virginia (Frances Langford). The supporting cast ranges from silent-comedy veteran Harry Langdon to leggy newcomer Marie Windsor. The film's four musical numbers (representing approximately 25 percent of the running time!) include the Oscar-nominated "Out of the Silence". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frances Langford, Johnny Downs, (more)
- 1935
Having fallen from grace at Paramount, musical comedy star Nancy Carroll retreated to Columbia Pictures, known in 1935 as "the Port of Missing Stars." Though Carroll does no singing in Columbia's Atlantic Adventure, she is still a charming and delightful screen presence. The actress is cast as Helen, the oft-neglected fiancee of hotshot reporter Dan Miller (Lloyd Nolan). When he tries to keep his appointments with Helen, Dan is fired by his newspaper. Hoping to get back in the good graces of his boss, Dan boards an ocean liner in pursuit of the man responsible for the murder of the District Attorney. It must needs be that Helen is also on board this ship, as is a gang of jewel thieves, leading to more than a few perilous situations for the hero and heroine. Silent film comedian Harry Langdon, who like Nancy Carroll was considered a fading star in 1935, is hilarious as Dan's photographer pal Snapper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy Carroll, Lloyd Nolan, (more)
- 1926
Baby Face Harry Langdon is a videocassette collection of selected Mack Sennett two-reelers starring pasty-faced comedian Harry Langdon. Langdon's character can best be described as an overgrown baby (with all the bad attributes of infancy as well as the good), and as such he seemed an unlikely candidate for stardom in the mid-1920s. But with Charlie Chaplin between pictures, movie audiences turned to Langdon for large dollops of character comedy seasoned with pathos. Many of Langdon's silent short subjects for Mack Sennett Studios were scripted by Frank Capra, and most were directed by Harry Edwards, a mediocre talent who did his best work with Langdon (who, in turn, trusted Edwards without question). The highlight of this collection is Saturday Afternoon (1926) a near-perfect three-reeler in which Langdon escapes his domineering wife for an afternoon of carefree abandon with his pal Vernon Dent and two flirtatious flappers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1944
A lesser East Side Kids effort, Block Busters looks more like an elongated 2-reel comedy than a 6-reel feature. This time, Muggs (Leo Gorcey), Glimpy (Huntz Hall) and the rest of the Kids set about to "Americanize" affable young French refugee Jean Rogers (Frederick Pressel). But after a disastrous baseball game, Jean is chased out of the neighborhood and told not to return. Eventually, the Kids patch things up with Jean and play a championship game on behalf of their sick friend Tobby (Bill Chaney). Featured in the cast are Leo Gorcey's then-wive Kay Marvis, his father Bernard Gorcey (in a dry run for his Bowery Boys character Louie Dumbrowski), and, sadly, former comedy great Harry Langdon, wasted in a minor role as an undertaker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, (more)
- 1938
- NR
Twenty years after the Armistice, doughboy Stan Laurel continues guarding a trench in France--simply because no one told him the war was over. His rescue coincides with the first wedding anniversary of his old pal Oliver Hardy. Heading to town to pick up a gift for his wife (Minna Gombell), Ollie discovers that Stan has been located and is now residing at the Veteran's Home. The two buddies share a warm reunion, whereupon Ollie invites Stan home to enjoy a "big thick juicy steak" prepared by Mrs. Hardy. As a result of Ollie's hospitality, Stan inadvertently wrecks Ollie's brand new car; the boys spend half the afternoon trudging up and down 13 flights of stairs; Ollie gets into a fight with belligerent Jimmy Finlayson; Mrs. Hardy angrily walks out on her husband; the boys manage to blow up the kitchen while preparing their own meal; and Hardy's beautiful next-door neighbor (Patricia Ellis) ends up minus her dress in Ollie's steamer trunk, with both Mrs. Hardy and the neighbor's husband, big-game hunter Billy Gilbert, converging upon our bethumped heroes. Essentially a remake of the 1929 Laurel and Hardy two-reeler Unnaccustomed as We Are, Block-Heads is a brilliant parade of virtuoso comedy turns. The best bits of business include the mountain of bean cans representing Stan's two decades in the trenches; the "white magic" gags involving Stan's pulling down the shadow of a window shade, producing a glass of water from his pocket and smoking his thumb like a pipe; and an uproarious "black" joke involving Ollie's mistaken belief than Stan has lost a leg in the war. The film sustains its high level of humor for 56 of its 57 minutes, faltering only in its disappointing closing gag (borrowed from the 1928 short We Faw Down). Among the writers of this chucklefest was former silent comedian Harry Langdon. Erroneously announced in 1938 as Laurel and Hardy's final feature, Block-Heads was indeed the last of the team's genuine classics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
- 1941
In this comedy, funny Langdon and Rogers end up working at a bean factory and getting into deep trouble when they accidentally lose an irreplaceable bracelet in a can. Now, before it is too late, they must somehow find that can out of a thousand that look just like it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1926
Harry Langdon's first directing attempt, Three's a Crowd, had just been released when his former boss, producer Mack Sennett, released this short subject which features Langdon in the lead. The exhibitors' trade papers virtually leapt on this release and sang its praises -- "far better than some of his productions since he graduated into the feature class," Film Daily proclaimed. Fiddlesticks does offer a lot of what's best about Langdon, including his wistful quality in the midst of gags and other mayhem, and distills it into two reels. This admittedly does give this (and many of his other shorts) a richness that some of his lesser features lack. The premise of the film couldn't be more simple: Harry fancies himself a cellist and he goes out into the world with his instrument. Unfortunately, audiences don't exactly welcome the fledgling musician -- wherever Harry plays, he is pelted with old shoes, broken alarm clocks, and the like. But his luck changes when he joins forces with a junk dealer. The more Harry gets pelted with junk, the more the partnership flourishes. Eventually Harry is able to return home a success. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon
Al Jolson's "comeback" picture Hallelujah, I'm a Bum is an offbeat Depression-era concoction with script by Ben Hecht and S.N. Behrmann and music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Jolson plays a genial hobo who wanders happily around Central Park, neither seeking nor accepting honest employment. He is imbued with a sense of responsibility when he rescues pretty Madge Evans from committing suicide. Evans, suffering from amnesia, falls in love with Jolson, completely forgetting her "regular" beau, mayor Frank Morgan. When she regains her memory she heads back to Morgan, leaving Jolson sadder but wiser, and prompting him back to his carefree existence. Much of the dialogue is spoken in rhyme, in the manner of an operetta--though there's nothing Romberg-like about such lyrical phrases as "Hoover's Cossacks." Former silent-film comedy star Harry Langdon has some choice moments as Egghead, a communist streetcleaner, while composers Rodgers and Hartshow up in unbilled cameos. Because the word "Bum" has different connotations in different lands, this film was released in England as Hallelujah, I'm a Tramp. The reissue version, titled Heart of a Tramp, has been severely re-edited, doing considerable damage to the carefully interwoven rhyming dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Jolson, Madge Evans, (more)
- 1928
A patriotic German American attempts to prove his loyalty to the U.S. (and also impress the gal he loves) by enlisting in the army during WW I, but unfortunately is rejected. This romantic silent comedy follows his exploits as he proves his mettle after accidently discovering a German base, single-handedly capturing it and freeing a U.S. hostage. Naturally the young hero's girl is delighted. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon, Doris Dawson, (more)
- 1926
Baby-faced comedian Harry Langdon plays a timorous fireman in His First Flame. Much of the action involves Langdon's efforts to impress the unimpressable Ruth Hiatt. She is so resistant to his "charms" that she can't even act grateful when he rescues her from a burning house. Filmed during Langdon's last year at Mack Sennett's studio, His First Flame was originally a three-reeler. It was expanded into a feature (using stock footage and outtakes) after the success of Langdon's official feature-film debut in First National's Tramp, Tramp, Tramp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon, Natalie Kingston, (more)
- 1944
Robert Lowery and the comedy team of Tim Ryan and Irene Ryan star in this pleasant musical-comedy about a jingle-writer (Lowery) attempting to turn his girlfriend (Dona Drake) into a band vocalist. Unfortunately, there is a case of mistaken identity and the bumbling recording studio owner (Tim Ryan) instead signs his dim-witted secretary (Irene Ryan). Everything works out for the best, of course, and rather than facing bankruptcy, Beacon Recording Company can launch no less than two new stars. In his penultimate feature film role, silent screen clown Harry Langdon is seen all too briefly as a perplexed recording studio manager. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dona Drake, Robert Lowery, (more)
- 1942
Former silent screen comic Harry Langdon earned above-title billing for the final time in his long career in this roughhewn but amusing World War II farce released by Poverty Row company PRC. Langdon and Charles "Buddy" Rogers are newspaper messengers helping reporter Ray Walker obtain an interview with journalist-hating inventor Richard Kipling. But before they know it, Harry and Buddy become unwittingly involved in plans to steal the professor's newest invention: a machine gun. A couple of munitions racketeers (John Holland and Guy Kingsford) concoct a scheme to drive down the price of the weapon but despite an ability to stumble over their own feet, the heroes manage not only to foil the plot but also reunite their reporter friend with the inventor's lovely daughter, Marian Marsh. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Few comedies of the 1920s were as bizarre and surreal as Harry Langdon's Long Pants. Having recently come of age, small-town-boy Langdon aspires to become a great lover, drawing inspiration from the romantic novels he's been reading since childhood. Falling hard for a "vamp" (Alma Bennett), Harry vows to rid himself of his childhood sweetheart (Gladys Brockwell) in the traditional literary manner by taking her into the woods and shooting her! Of course, he fails in this effort and flops even worse with the Vamp, who turns out to be a gangster's moll. After a bloody gangland shootout in which the Vamp is killed, a sadder-but-wiser Harry returns to the arms of his hometown girl, who has never quite figured out that she'd previously been a candidate for extermination. Written by future director Arthur Ripley, Long Pants is as kinky as any of Ripley's film noirs of the 1940s. Long Pants represents the second and final collaboration between star Harry Langdon and director Frank Capra, who was fired when Langdon wrong-headedly decided to become his own director, resulting in a series of career-destroying flops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon, Gladys Brockwell, (more)
