It has been written and stated by various film historians, critics and fans that there are four huge icons of silent film comedy that stand above the rest. These are Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Harry Langdon. Though most silent films buffs agree strongly with the first three, many argue with the inclusion of Harry Langdon in this list. People have tried to replace his part in the big four with comedians such as Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Larry Seamon and various others. However I strongly feel that Harry Langdon deserves his place as one of the top four silent film comedians and in this post I hope to show why.
Now I am not going to pretend that Harry Langdon is not an acquired taste and that every silent film fan will enjoy him. The truth is his comedy is quite surreal and will even make some viewers' uncomfortable. Part of this uncomfortableness comes from the fact that his character is so vulnerable. When faced with life threatening danger most silent film comedians would flee or fight. Harry does neither he simply stares at the danger and doesn't move. Instead he is trying to understand the danger rather than avoid it. This wouldn't be a big deal if Harry didn't live in such a harsh and cruel world. Harry did not exist in the same reality as the Keystone Cops, where all the violence had no threat behind it. Harry lived in a world that wanted him dead. The person trying to kill him would even be his so called "love interest" in such films as
Solider Man and
Lucky Stars. He would survive his near death experiences, not because of anything he does, but rather simply because of dumb luck. Even after the danger in
Lucky Stars or similar films, he remains unaware that anyone tried to kill him. This dark subject matter being played in a very threatening manner can leave many people confused and uncomfortable rather than in laughter. However for others such as myself this only makes his films more fascinating and stand out as something truly unique in screen comedy of this era. His films' were brilliant dark comedies at a time when hardly any other film artist was doing this type of humor.
If you can't tell from the previous paragraph Harry Langdon is possibly the most unique silent film comic. While most of the silent movie comics get huge laughs from making big reactions, Harry would get his laughs from not reacting. In a scene in
Feet of Mud for instance Harry accidently knocked the head off of a dummy that he believes is a real person. Now any other silent film comedian would have either tried to put the head back on, get rid of the evidence before anyone sees or just run away in fear. Harry does none of these things instead he simply vacantly stares at the dummy as if he is wondering just how that could of happened. The film has built up what in any other comedy would obviously lead to a big reaction, however Harry being Harry has completely destroyed our expectations and instead gave us a punch line (or lack of one) that is much funnier and more unique than what we were excepting. A similar scene occurs in
Remember When. In this film Harry accidently sits on a beehive. While this would obviously lead to the comic running around waving his arms and trying to shake the bees off if Harry Langdon wasn't the star instead to Harry it is a minor irritation, and he instead scratches himself wondering what is making him itch. Harry Langdon was not just another comic but an innovator of movie comedy. He broke every rule, but preserved and made great art. Charlie Chaplin reinvented film comedy and everybody followed suit. Langdon may not have had the same impact on the art, but that is because his innovation was I doing things no other comic would do. Chaplin definitely slowed down the pace that film comedy would go at, but moving as slow as Langdon's comedy did would be a huge risk, and something that would make many film artists uncomfortable to try. This is not a put down to either comic as I am a huge fan of both of them, but simply an explanation of the difference. For a short time Harry Langdon was one of the most popular stars of the silver screen. Many hailed him as the new Chaplin and no less than Mack Sennett would refer to him as "the greatest talent I ever worked with". After Langdon's departure from his studio, Sennett tried to make some films with others in a Langdon-like role. However no one could be Langdon other than Langdon. These films not only were below the quality of Langdon's own work, but simply did not even feel like Langdon. Harry was so unique that not a single other film artist could ever properly imamate him. Chaplin had many imitators, Langdon had very few, because it was hard for anybody to truly define why he was so funny. No one could possibly understand Harry's comedy, but everybody laughed at it just the same.
Something that is unjustly held against Harry Langdon is the idea that he didn't create his own character, but rather that character was created by Frank Capra. Capra wrote and directed some of Langdon's best films and in his autobiography gave himself credit for creating Langdon's character as well. He told the story of how at the Mack Sennett studio what to do with Harry Langdon was being discussed and Capra brought up that he had been reading a book called
The Good Solider Švejk and how the main character in that story was protected from evil not by his own violation, but because God was watching over him. Capra then (still according to himself) came up with the phrase "the little elf whose only ally is God" and with that Harry's character was born. This whole story is completely ludicrous. Langdon's screen career was already underway at the time Frank Capra would first start working with the comic. In fact by the time Capra started writing for Harry Langdon, Harry had already stared in the shorts
Luck of the Foolish and
All Night Long, both of which show Langdon's character fully developed. Even before this character became so well developed in these films, little glimpses of the Harry character would show up in otherwise typical Mack Sennett films featuring Langdon. In
His New Mama there is a scene in which Harry is leaving a note for Santa Claus and shyly and carefully doing so as if someone was watching, much like the character we would later know. In
The First Hundred Years Harry walks up a flight of stairs on a spooky night holding a gun without a barrel. He knows the barrel is gone and he is holding it in a very ineffective way. Harry has no intention of using the gun, but he knows there is someone in the house and with this he is supposed to have a gun. It doesn't matter if he uses it or not, he knows he should have a gun and that is enough for him. These are definitely scenes quite different from how any other silent film comedian would have done them and it is easy to see the Harry character peeking his way through into these films. Capra went on to saw that after Harry fired him, Langdon's films become unbearably bad. Harry would become his own director and according to Capra, Langdon understood his character so little that these films would become embarrassing. These films were for quite a while not available for public viewing and many silent film fans took what Capra said for the truth. It was known these films did horrible at the box office and readers saw no reason not to believe what Capra said. However now it is possible to watch both
Three's a Crowd and
The Chaser, two of the movies Langdon directed. It turns out these are actually really great movies and show a very well developed character of the same caliber as the Capra directed features,
The Strong Man and
Long Pants. Despite this though their are many who will not give this films even a chance, because they believe what Capra said so completely. As it is these films still hurt Langdon's reputation today, by many people who refuse to watch these movies. Though there might be some people who still dislike these movies if more people gave them a chance they would find that Langdon's self-directed films are works of a great artist at the top of his game.
With all this said I feel strongly that Harry Langdon fully deserves his place in the top four movie comedians of the silent film era. His films are some of the most unique, funny and brilliant comedies of the silent era.
-Michael J. Ruhland
