Long Pants.

Review #2542: Long Pants.

Cast: 

Harry Langdon (Harry Shelby), Gladys Brockwell (His Mother), Alan Roscoe (His Father), Priscilla Bonner (Priscilla, His Bride), Alma Bennett (Bebe Blair, His Downfall), Betty Francisco (His Finish), and Glenn Tryon (Glenn Tryon) Directed by Frank Capra (#102 - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, #319 - It's a Wonderful Life, #456 - It Happened One Night, #1356 - Meet John Doe, #2036 - The Strong Man)

Review: 

Sure, why not? You might remember that Harry Langdon had made his way to feature films with the release of 1926's Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) and The Strong Man, which saw him directed by Harry Edwards and Frank Capra, respectively. Langdon served as producer on this film for First National Pictures, with Robert Eddy and Tay Garnett being credited as writers while Arthur Ripley came up with the story. Capra related briefly about the making of the film in his autobiography, noting that the publicity that came with the success of The Strong Man eventually bubbled over into making Langdon develop a considerable ego; he was quoted as stating that Langdon's screams for more pathos was misguided because the pathos "is in your comedy" rather than trying for pathos, while Langdon derisively called Capra a director he made out of a "two-bit gag man". Langdon booted Capra right as the film was about to finish (after getting into an argument over daring to need the lead actor's hands for an insert shot). The movie (at one point with the working title "Johnny Newcomer") was a decent hit with audiences (as claimed by Capra) and critics. Langdon worked with Edwards once more with His First Flame (1927) before Langdon became personally involved with directing with Three's a Crowd (1927). A rumor spread around from the First National Pictures lot (from Langdon, who else) that Capra wasn't actually a director and that Langdon did all the work. Desperate to stay around, Capra did For the Love of Mike (1927) and wasn't even paid for the eventual flop, went through a divorce, went back to the gag work and landed upon Columbia Pictures for what became a lengthy association starting with That Certain Thing (1928)*.

Work with me on this premise: A relatively young man (note: Langdon was actually 43 when this came out) has been wearing knee-pants (or "knickerbockers", as they say*) for years and years until at last, he gets a pair of...long pants. I guess the clothes really do make the man, because he quickly finds himself falling for a femme fatale from the big city who happens to have a mob boyfriend. Hijinks ensue for the runtime of 60 minutes (since it is a public domain movie, there are a few copies that are a little shorter or don't even have music, incidentally). There are a few moments that invite the idea of Langdon going into darker territory, mainly because on his wedding day, he tries to escape it the best way he can: trying to shoot the bride. Naturally, he gets stopped because of a goofy hat and gets spooked by someone doing target practice. It is a strange little movie when you think about it, what with people growing up in a flash because of pants, falling for bad girls into a life of crime and, eventually, wind up back into the "normal" world. The best gag is probably when Langdon tries to get a "policeman" to move that sees him fake a fire and other various things only to try and take a swing at just as an actual policeman takes his place. Langdon has been a slippery one to really appreciate, and this is probably the one that probably best defines that strange ability to go for a different type of humor that wasn't necessarily based on his baby-faced nature but something murkier with basically a goof type of character. Sometimes it is funny, and other times it just flies over with the pace of a one-winged mosquito. One focuses on his oddball stuff more than say, Bonner or Bennett, which is mostly on par with the usual average silent comedy in terms of just rolling with the gags over who goes where (yes, crime does pay, even for women). If you like what you saw from Langdon's earlier features, you'll be fine here, even if it is a bit of a hit-or-miss kind of movie in actually getting to the point beyond, well, pants. You never know until you seek it out...

   

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*It really sounds like a joke, but this is straight up what Capra put in his autobiography: Capra got told Columiba wanted to see him because Harry Cohn was looking at a list of unemployed directors and saw "C" for Capra listed first and said "God picked Abraham because his name came first. Good enough for me. Send for Capra."

*Knickerbockers you say?

The Strong Man.

Review #2036: The Strong Man.

Cast: 

Harry Langdon (Paul Bergot), Priscilla Bonner (Mary Brown), Gertrude Astor (Lily of Broadway), William V. Mong (Holy Joe), Robert McKim (Mike McDevitt), and Arthur Thalasso (Zandow the Great) Directed by Frank Capra (#102 - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, #319 - It's a Wonderful Life, #456 - It Happened One Night, #1356 - Meet John Doe)

Review: 

"If there is any shortcut to fame and fortune in motion pictures, it is as a gag man. Here you may jump to the top overnight, after the short probationary period, which is long enough to show you whether you have the stuff that makes gag men." - Frank Capra

"Comedy is a satire of Tragedy...deliciously comic moments, on the outside, are full of sad significance for those who realize the sinister characterization of the situation.” - Harry Langdon

In 1926, Frank Capra made his feature film debut as a director. But I'm sure when you think about Capra, you think first of those iconic films he did in the sound era such as It's A Wonderful Life (1944). But the story of Capra is one with plenty of interesting turns beyond just being a television staple every year. The son of Roman Catholics who left Italy for America when he was five, Capra studied chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology but found himself having to do quick little jobs to get by during and after college, one of which involved selling books. He entered the film industry because when a film studio opened up in San Francisco, he implied he had "film experience" that got him into the door of directing various little films and getting himself other jobs, and one of those was as slapstick comedy director for the famed Mack Sennett, which he did in two separate stints in 1918 and 1924, with other stints in between including Hal Roach's Our Gang. Sennett, who had his own film stage and studio with Keystone, was once known as "King of Hollywood's Fun Factory", and various people appeared in Sennett productions that ranged from Harold Lloyd to Gloria Swanson (of course, the apparent talents of the actor vs. influence of Sennett is an interesting point to raise). Capra would direct his first film (12 minutes) with the independent Fireside Productions in 1922 with Fultah Fisher's Boarding House, which he also wrote, casted and edited based on the poem "The Ballad of Fisher's Boarding-House" by Rudyard Kipling. And then of course there is Harry Langdon. The Strong Man is one of two films that he made as star and producer with Capra, with the other being Long Pants (1927). In 1925, Langdon had signed a deal with First National Pictures that let his corporation (named after him) have full creative control to produce movies.

Admittedly, Harry Langdon was basically forgotten by me for a long time when it comes to mentioning the big names of the silent comedy era. Remember that his first feature was Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1925), which was a success for the man once referred to as "The Little Elf". But Harry Edwards did not return to direct the next Langdon feature due to going overbudget. Online spelunking reveals several writers, with Arthur Ripley credited for the story while having Hal Conklin and Robert Eddy being labeled as "adaptors" and Reed Heustis for titles to go along with other writers with Tay Garnett, Clarence Hennecke, James Langdon, and Tim Whelan. One thing I can say about Langdon is that breaking into film when one is nearing their forties is quite remarkable. The Iowa native had honed his craft within medicine shows, vaudeville, and stock performances, so he obviously had an in-route to being a film presence that could both differ from the usual expectations that had come from being in league with Mack Sennett for the short films (i.e. Langdon was not a frantic comic) and the comic presences of the time that rivaled him in stature (to put it in perspective, in a film essay for 1949, Langdon was thought to be one of the four kings of silent comedy but the first biography of Langdon did not come out until 1982). All of this makes for saying he was a worthy pantomimist that makes for a useful team with his director in Capra (who knows who came up with a lead character being a Belgian emigrant) that does within careful pacing for a generally sweet feature. It is warmly funny in a way that feels entirely his own within an episodic structure (roughly five of them) with a handful of highlights, whether that involves him asking around just who "Mary Brown" is on every corner to the point where he falls under the situation with a vamp that leads to an amusing chase in a big house. Of course, the sequence involving him trying to help with a cold while on a packed trip that leads to him picking the wrong batch to rub over his chest (cheese!) is likely the most amusing sequence in execution that rewards timing. While Bonner does not have as much screentime as one might think about when it comes to doing a silent comedy with a "love interest", she does fine with the material presented here, with the sequence of the two meeting each other in town and sharing just who they've been since "The War" being a sweet little moment in understanding. By the time the film gets to its climax (for a film that runs at 75 minutes) involving a big coat and a cannon, the movie has shown the talents of its star within clownish rhythm that will please fans of silent comedy in what they see from one of the big names that came across at the right time for it.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp.

Review #1784: Tramp, Tramp, Tramp.

Cast: 

Harry Langdon (Harry), Joan Crawford (Betty Burton), Edwards Davis (John Burton), Tom Murray (Nick Kargas), Alec B. Francis (Amos Logan), Brooks Benedict (Taxi Driver), and Carlton Griffin (Roger Caldwell) Directed by Harry Edwards.

Review: 

You may be wondering just what is so important about a movie like this, considering its inauspicious title. Well, it really is more about the star more so than the director, although the star and director generally should each have their own share of credit for when a comedy does as well as it should. So here we are with Harry Langdon, a presence in vaudeville and film for nearly four decades. Sure, folks will probably remember Chaplin, Keaton & Lloyd first as the silent comedy icons, but Langdon had his own measure of importance as a silent icon, albeit with less feature films to consider. The Iowa native started work in shows and stock companies as a teenager in the turn of the 20th century. A run in vaudeville was later followed his most famous association: Mack Sennett and his studio, where his pantomime act being quite popular in various short films. It was his work with Harry Edwards and writers Frank Capra and Arthur Ripley that is best known today. He also did a series of features in the latter part of the 1920s, for which three are generally known: this one, The Strong Man (1926), and Long Pants (1927) - the middle film incidentally was the debut of Capra as director. Langdon soon decided after two films with Capra to direct his own films; his three silent efforts (one short) did not fare well (although none are available to see for oneself), and the impending transition to sound in Hollywood likely did not help either; Capra once stated Langdon did not know why his persona was funny, while a producer once described him as "not so funny articulate". While he never became a major star after the end of the silent era, he did keep busy with roles (supporting ones in features and shorts) alongside writing until his death in 1944 at the age of 60. As for Edwards, this was one of only two feature films that he directed, since he was more of a shorts director (doing 150 of them in a three-decade career), although his reputation was not the highest, as his work with the Three Stooges would suggest - they made two shorts together before the group requested that he never work with them again.

Langdon has a persona was certainly interesting for folks to try and pin down about his appeal, one that certainly had a clownish and unique sensibility (one whose attempts at drawing amusement from his little gestures certainly seems different from Keaton). In a sense, it was a persona that was a bit child-like and perhaps just offbeat enough to generate laughs for the time. Of course, one may be wondering just what this film is about. Well, it is about a guy trying to help his dad save his shoe store and woo a woman by winning a cross country foot race across the country with a $25,000 cash prize. Yep, that's about it. The movie, running at an hour in length, is basically composed of a bunch of vignettes involving a child-like pantomime in Langdon going around getting into weird situations, whether involving sheep, prison work, or a cyclone. While one can see pretty easily why his persona may not have been long for the cinema world past the silent era (in terms of the time and as star), one can still find a good deal to appreciate about the efforts of Langdon and Edwards in crafting an energetic and quirky feature with plenty of interesting amusing sequences that he does well with, moving around with confidence and a face ripe for gesture to make useful gags. Strangely enough, it also features Joan Crawford in an early role, one in the midst of her attempts to promote herself as a film star that would merit success soon enough; she doesn't have much to really do, but she at least matches fine with Langdon in those attempts at warm chemistry. The segment with the prison (where he switches tools a few times) is quite amusing, although the cyclone sequence at the end does seem to be the most effective chuckler among the group of vignettes designed to show our quirky hero. The film ends with him playing a baby (because the two leads fell in love, as was pretty much every silent comedy of that time), which is probably just as weird to consider as it is to write that sentence, although it is amusing. At any rate, no matter where one considers Langdon's place in terms of the noted silent comics of Hollywood, one can't deny that Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) is a solid effort worth checking out.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Next Time: I Was Born, But... (1932)