This weekend we celebrate movie comedian Harry Langdon's birthday (June 15), as well as the natal anniversary of fellow silver screen laugh-getter Stan Laurel (June 16).
Shall pay tribute to these iconic comics after noting two excellent classic cartoon and comedy screenings this weekend, including a Saturday matinee at the Metrograph in Manhattan.
Saturday Afternoon Cartoons: Down on the Farm
Metrograph; 7 Ludlow St. NYC
Saturday 6/15/24 at 12pm noon
The press release elaborates: Down on the Farm is a selection of vintage animated shorts exploring country life among funny barnyard animals. Come enjoy a live action little human girl's adventure among the cows and chickens; a famous cartoon rabbit's follies with a mechanical cow; an unnaturally large and clumsy duckling's unlikely heroism; a beloved wise-cracking sailor visiting his girlfriend's new farm; and more.
Spanning the 1920s through to the ’50s, this assortment showcases classic characters such as Alice in Cartoonland, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Popeye, Baby Huey, Farmer Alfalfa, and others. 60 min. film program plus Q&A.
Reserve seats now:
https://metrograph.com/film/?vista_film_id=9999003814
*** ALSO
That Slapstick Show: The Animated Marx Brothers
Q.E.D. Astoria; 27-16 23rd Avenue, Queens
Sunday 6/16/24 at 4:30pm
The next entry in this screening series offers a rare glimpse of classic cartoons featuring New York City's favorite sons, Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo—a.k.a. the Marx Brothers!
We will be joined by ragtime musical artist, Charlie Judkins for mood music throughout the evening and a special halftime performance by Miss Maybell. Approx. 75 minutes of films plus intermission and musical performances. Programmed by Nelson Hughes and co-hosted by Tommy José Stathes.
Space is very limited at QED—it can only accommodate approx. 40 guests. Guarantee entry by purchasing advance tickets:
https://qedastoria.com/products/that-slapstick-show?event=2024-06-16T16:30:00
We're wild about a few Harrys, past (Harry Ruby, Harry Barris, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, Harry Caray, Harry Nilsson, Harry Dean Stanton, Harry Chapin) and present (Harry Connick, Jr. and favorite legal eagle podcaster and former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman of Talking Feds). Paramount among those Harrys - and he made movies for Paramount at one point - was the brilliant comedian and character actor Harry Langdon (June 15, 1884 – December 22, 1944).
Mr. Langdon, not even the only silent movie comedian named Harry we go for in a big way - there's also director-writer-comic Harry Sweet (1901-1933) - starred in vaudeville, silent films (1923-1928) and talkies (1929-1944). The comedy-crazed crew here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog count him among the funniest, most daring and most original performers to ever make movies. He also remains to this day the most controversial of all the silent and early sound era comedians, right up there with such unabashed grotesques as Larry Semon, Jimmy Aubrey and the Kalem Studio's scuzzy and deliberately excessive "Ham & Bud" (played with truly rancid relish by Lloyd Hamilton and Bud Duncan).
As the words unorthodox & unconventional describe Harry Langdon's modus operandi, and that means his essential characterization, acting and comic timing are unusual, ultra-quirky, idiosyncratic and at times really bizarre, he remains #1 on the list of "love 'em or can't stand 'em" movie comedians. There's no middle ground - classic movie and comedy fans either find Harry irritating and unbearable or fall-down hilarious, unbelievably funny. This silver screen comedy aficionado is emphatically in the latter group.
Rule of thumb #1 for appreciating the Langdon cinematic universe: accept that Harry's mind does not work in anything remotely resembling a conventional way - and just roll with it! Am very much not a fan of the phrases "little elf" and "baby dope fiend" as descriptions of the Langdon character, but do concur with "space cadet."
After starring in vaudeville presenting the famous and very elaborate "Johnny's New Car" sketch, Harry Langdon began his silver screen career, first with Sol Lesser then starring in short subjects for Mack Sennett Productions.
Don't buy the conventional wisdom regarding Harry Langdon's career in both silent and sound films and take the unpopular view that he was both better in talkies than Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton (thanks a lot, MGM), but also generally very good overall, right up to his last appearances in features for Hal Roach Studios, PRC and Monogram. An exception to this would be many of Harry Langdon's later Columbia short subjects, which reflect Jules White's unending attempts to produce Three Stooges comedies with every performer starring in 2-reelers for The Shorts Department.
Harry Langdon was subsequently the closest of all the comedians not named Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd to attaining a kind of mega-stardom in silent features, even though his sensibility is by far the darkest of the group. Frank Capra, Arthur Ripley and Harry Edwards were key collaborators and created the first Langdon feature film, His First Flame, for Mack Sennett Productions. Saw a couple of Harry's silent features (Tramp Tramp Tramp, The Strong Man, Three's A Crowd, The Chaser - alas, Heart Trouble remains a lost film) on the big screen courtesy of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and a couple more courtesy of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. Tramp Tramp Tramp, The Strong Man and Long Pants are on the Harry Langdon: The Forgotten Clown DVD release.
To suggest that there is much disagreement among comedy geeks and silent film buffs regarding Langdon's silent features remains quite the understatement! Watching the Harry Langdon silent features, this writer finds Long Pants to be the one that (in his opinion) is an utter misfire and just doesn't work on any level. There's confusion over whether his character is a boy or a man and the scene with him attempting to bump off his girlfriend (and failing miserably, as Harry has difficulty completing any action) elicits stunned silence even from the select few among modern audiences who love Langdon, oddball humor and silent screen comedy at its most surreal.
This scene takes that "just roll with it" viewpoint regarding Harry's utter weirdness - and that same "not of this universe" quality seen seven decades later with Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean - a step too far. Thought this might have been a response to a similar plot point in Murnau's SUNRISE, but that film didn't get released theatrically until September 1927. Buster Keaton's take was that this was intended as a sendup of Theodore Drieser's best-selling 1925 novel An American Tragedy. That makes sense but was lost on audiences then and now. Thus, Long Pants was Langdon's first box-office bomb; the "OMG - the little fellow's a psychopath" response sent his box-office appeal plummeting and began his rapid downfall as a feature film star. One imagines this was also the cause of the enduring and acrimonious break between Langdon and director/writer/collaborator Frank Capra.
The feature which was Langdon's directorial debut, Three's A Crowd, offers glimmers of his potential abilities as a unique filmmaker alternating with first-time director mistakes, remains one of those "love 'em or hate 'em" titles.
As is The Chaser, which stars a particularly randy version of Harry.
Most controversial would be the aforementioned series Harry starred in for Hal Roach Studios in 1929-1930.
Here is Harry's first talkie short subject, a promotional piece for the Roach series co-starring Thelma Todd and Eddie Dunn. It attempts to reassure audiences that Harry's on the comeback trail - and also confirms that his characterization is really out there, even more so with sound.
Said Hal Roach Studio series still remains quite the Rorschach Test for classic comedy buffs. Have seen them referred to as "ghastly" and "among the worst two-reelers ever made," but remain among the few who strongly disagree with that assessment. Reviewed the Harry Langdon At Hal Roach: The Talkies 1929-30 at length in a post, New on DVD: Langdon vs. Microphones at The Lot Of Fun, back on April 17, 2020.
The Langdon and Charley Chase talkies produced in 1929 by Hal Roach Studios present an overlooked but essential chapter of silver screen comedy history - and of the transition from silents to talkies. Harry Langdon At Hal Roach: The Talkies 1929-1930 is a followup to previous DVD releases by The Sprocket Vault of Hal Roach studio films featuring director-writer-comedian Charley Chase and the series co-starring Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts.
In these films, the Harry Langdon seen onstage in vaudeville (and his circular dialogues with himself) are actually featured in a talkie. While Harry can be seen babbling onscreen in many of his silent starring vehicles for Mack Sennett Productions, the Hal Roach series presents the rare instance in which Langdon's stream-of-consciousness patter is seen and heard onscreen.
Said loopy patter, which for many in itself is an absolute deal-breaker, would not be seen in Harry Langdon films after The King (1930), his last short subject for Hal Roach.
The Harry Langdon Hal Roach talkies, invariably, elicit two diametrically opposed responses (even from diehard classic comedy buffs): "this is A SCREAM!" or "this is the worst thing I've ever seen!"
We tip our battered top hats associated with Max Linder to all involved at Sprocket Vault in making the Harry Langdon At Hal Roach: The Talkies 1929-30 DVD release a reality: Kit Parker Films, Richard M. Roberts, VCI Entertainment and the late Ron Hutchinson of The Vitaphone Project.
All eight Harry Langdon Hal Roach 2-reelers, including the heretofore lost films Hotter Than Hot and Sky Boy, which still only exist as silents - the sound discs have yet to be found - are included in the 2-DVD collection.
So the lineup on the 2 DVDs is Hotter Than Hot, Sky Boy, Skirt Shy, The Head Guy, The Fighting Parson, The Big Kick, The Shrimp, The King.
Especially enjoyed the hilarious The Big Kick, much of which plays essentially as a silent and includes both way-out concepts and several scenes of astonishing pantomime by Harry.
In the famous/infamous THE HEAD GUY, Harry joins the ranks of such funny but polarizing latter-day comedy performers as Pinky Lee, Pee-Wee Herman, Andy Kaufman, Emo Phillips, Martin Short and Kristen Wiig. The short presents the Harry Langdon stream-of-consciousness dialogue at its most extreme. While the "sandwich and apple" sequence is the line of demarcation for many film buffs, count this blogmeister among those who laugh out loud throughout this scene in THE HEAD GUY, even though it is longer than the long version of Light My Fire by The Doors. Harry's m.o. is to build the tension in a scene by extending it - and this elicits quite the cathartic belly laugh when that tension is finally burst.
Harry worked as a supporting player in a couple of features for Warner Brothers in 1930-1931, with "The Oui Oui Song" from A Soldier’s Plaything being his most memorable scene - at least until his part in the 1933 Al Jolson vehicle Hallelujah I'm A Bum.
Beginning in 1932, Langdon co-starred with his buddy Vernon Dent in a bunch of excellent comedy short subjects for Educational Pictures and Paramount.
This series, produced in 1932-1934 by Arvid E. Gillstrom, successfully recaptures the spirit and tone of the mid-1920's Mack Sennett comedies. The Educational Pictures comedy shorts are much more relaxed than the Hal Roach films or the subsequent Columbias. In The Hitch Hiker and Knight Duty, this works beautifully.
Harry essentially plays his character silent and lets his perennial onscreen foil and offscreen best friend Vernon Dent do the talking in this series.
Unfortunately, the 1934 Paramount short subjects co-starring Harry Langdon and Vernon Dent produced by the same crew as the Educational series at this juncture are lost films.
The Columbia series is much much more hit-or-miss - prefer both the Hal Roach and Educational 2-reelers - but there are occasional good ones. HIS BRIDAL SWEET (1935) teams Harry with Billy Gilbert, who does a terrific job playing a raving lunatic. That's right, no kidding, BILLY is the crazy one in this scenario.
Harry returned to Hal Roach Studios to work as a gagman/scenarist with Laurel & Hardy and occasionally contribute character roles to Lot Of Fun features. Block-heads (1938) is the L&H feature with the most pronounced blending of the unique Harry Langdon and Stan Laurel comedy sensibilities. The links between Block-heads (1938) and Harry's 1926 Sennett film Soldier Man are numerous.
Due to the Columbia Shorts Department's penchant for casting everyone on the lot in Three Stooges style knockabout, this blogger is not a fan of Langdon's films from the 1940's, after his last work for L&H (Saps At Sea), so we will stop here. Must extend big thanks to the splendid Harry Langdon Archive YouTube channel (which, among many films, features the 1933 Lewis Milestone flick Hallelujah I'm A Bum, in which Harry has a prominent character role) curated by Nicole Arciola, as well as Archive.org.
As far as Mr. Laurel goes, back during those not-fun days of lockdown, posted a Happy Birthday tribute here on the blog, including wacky Larry Semon Vitagraph films Stan appeared in as a supporting player, as well as several of the pre-teaming solo comedies he starred in for Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson, Joe Rock Productions and Hal Roach Studios.
In 2024, we'll celebrate Stan's birthday by watching hilarious Laurel & Hardy films!
A good place to start with appreciation of The Boys is by purchasing this Blu-ray of L&H silents from 1927.
This Blu-ray traces their early development as a comedy team and the restorations look fabulous.
For advanced Stan & Babe knowledge, read the following masterpiece by L&H historian Randy Skredtvedt. The gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog could not recommend Randy's Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind The Movies more highly.
Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind The Movies is outstanding and includes many interviews with the team's collaborators and co-stars.
Harry and Stan, thanks a million for the laughs - we love you!
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