We are happy to see the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum present a two day tribute to one of the greatest and arguably the most original of all the comedians from silents and early talkies, Harry Langdon (1884-1944).
On the strength of a series of popular short comedies produced by Mack Sennett and the success of his first three First National feature films, Harry Langdon became a major star and rival to Chaplin for top box-office attraction in screen comedy in the 1920's.
Following an era dominated by Keystone slapstick, Harry presented a minimalistic and wholly unique style of comedy featuring his highly unusual "manchild-space cadet" characterization.
In this respect, Langdon, along with Charley Chase (who also began headlining comedy short subjects in 1924), followed the leads of Buster Keaton and Lloyd Hamilton away from the rough house knockabout favored by Mack Sennett, Henry Lehrman's L-Ko and Fox Sunshine comedies, Roscoe Arbuckle at Comique, Larry Semon at Vitagraph, Hamilton himself as part of Kalem's despicable scoundrel team of "Ham & Bud," and the early Harold Lloyd (in his "Lonesome Luke" series of 1915-1917) towards a less frantic and more nuanced approach.
The first day of the festival will concentrate on Harry's silent films, the second shall present two different programs of his talkies, one from the 1930's, the last from the 1940's.
In lieu of I Don't Remember and Cold Turkey, the Harry Langdon Film Festival will be showing The Stage Hand and The Head Guy. The latter is one of Harry's indescribably bizarre early talkies from his 1929 Hal Roach series and reflects his uncanny ability to be brilliantly original, irritating, uniquely funny, fearless, wildly flailing and a blazing comic genius within the same five minutes. Also on the bill on Sunday will be seversl of the Educational Pictures "Mermaid Comedies" series co-starring Harry Langdon and Vernon Dent; these are arguably Harry's strongest work in the sound era, and the only talkies that get the "little elf" characterization right.
There will be plenty of live presentations on Harry's 20 year career in movies and book signings throughout the weekend. Historians and authors will be offering live introductions to the programs, in addition to the recorded intros by Harry Langdon experts like Michael J. Hayde, Ben Model, Rob Farr and Jim Neibaur.
Here's the link for advance tickets. For more on Harry's career, the book Little Elf: A Celebration Of Harry Langdon by Michael Hayde and Chuck Harter delves into his films in depth and is highly recommended.
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