Quand le rire était roi

If you enjoy watching silent-era, slapstick comedy films, then, you're in for some real good laughs while viewing "When Comedy Was King".

Produced by Robert Youngson - This 80-minute anthology documentary is a nostalgic tribute to the long-gone era of the sight gag where actions always spoke louder than words.

Featuring such well-known performers as the Keystone Cops, Ben Turpin, Buster Keaton, and Laurel & Hardy - The contents of this entertaining disc also includes 3 bonus shorts for your added viewing pleasure.

Oscar winner Robert Youngson actually got his start at Warner Brothers in the 1940s producing sports short subjects. He latched onto a terrific idea as this lead to award winning short movies about crazy, daredevil stunts tied to silent movies, particularly comedy.

The rest is history.

This is one of the earliest film documentaries on silent screen comedy icons, although some graduated to sound films with even greater success. However, Youngson clearly wanted to accentuate the golden era of screen comedians, via a series of historical clips which are outstanding.

More over, this film was instrumental in pushing for the preservation of silent movies. Many old films, dating back to the teens when this documentary was produced, were in need of remastering or had simply deteriorated to the point where they could not be saved. As much as this was a labor of love, this film made history itself.

Best of the best, and not surprising, are priceless clips of Charlie Chaplin, the outrageous Keystone Cops and Buster Keaton. Honorable mention to the early days of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, whose silent films were a prelude to their classic sound films.

Never to forget the great Fatty Arbuckle and his insane complications with pretty Mabel Normand. Fatty and Mable were the first screen male and female comedy team, and they shine.

The gang's all here, and you'll want to see this one again.

Remastered on dvd and blu ray for film completists and all us big kids who grew up on this stuff.

This film documents a wide range of silent classics with clips from Keystone comedies made by Charlie Chaplin in 1914 through Charley Chase's Movie Night (1929), which provides the framing sequence. Highlighted performers include Fatty Arbuckle in Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916), Harry Langdon in The First 100 Years (1924), and Laurel & Hardy in Big Business (1929). Other featured performers include Gloria Swanson, Snub Pollard, Anita Garvin & Marion Byron, Buster Keaton, Ben Turpin, and Billy Bevan. The narration is a bit incessant, but educational.

Really astonishing feature length footage of the greatest silent comedy stars and the stunt films that thrilled millions, all lovingly set in a nickelodeon and chapters for each personality and type of film. The voice over is the 'radio with pictures' type that suits and I guess seems like the Joe MacDoakes shorts or some inventor- cartoon narrator. The scenes are hilarious and exciting and reveal a rich heritage of silent movie history and the recognizable stars that made them justly famous. Each sequence is different and equally terrific. The Harry Langdon maid in the kitchen clip is fall down funny; My personal favorite is the awesome train stunt with Gloria Swanson tied to the tracks which had me screaming.

Robert Youngson's movie When Comedy Was King from 1960 shows us some great clips from the silent era.It is narrated by Dwight Weist.You can laugh with Charles Chaplin, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Ben Turpin, Billy Bevan, Snub Pollard, Buster Keaton and lots of others.Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy cause trouble to Jimmy Finlayson in Big Business (1929).In Hal Roach comedy A Pair of Tights (1929) Marion Byron is sent to get some ice cream while Edgar Kennedy and the gang waits in the car. Getting ice cream hasn't ever been as hard as it is to Marion Byron in this funny clip. When Comedy Was King offers you lots of laughter with these clowns of silent comedy.These clowns have been long gone and there will never be comedians like them again.