Comedy: A Serious Business

I love this Brownlow/Gill series--it is truly amazing, painstakingly made and worth seeing every minute of it. However, this one on the silent comedy greats is rather weak--and seems even weaker when you compare it to the later Brownlow/Gill series on three of the four 'genius' comedy stars it highlights. But before this, the film does an overview of two great comedy producers--Hal Roach and Mack Sennett. Both great men are discussed way too quickly and both deserved less rushed treatment (for example, little, if anything, is told about Sennett's relationship with D.W. Griffith or the latter part of his career when he lost his studio). Also, I had a BIG problem with saying that Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton and Langdon were geniuses. The first three--definitely. But Harry Langdon's films were NEVER in the same league as the other three men--never. The other three were innovators, made some perfect comedies and should be admired today. On the other hand, Langdon never made a great film, made a few excellent films and also made a lot of crap after he left Frank Capra. I do appreciate how they let Capra vent a bit about Langdon and his ego, however. But the man, no matter how talented, never made a film to come near the quality of Chaplin's "The Gold Rush", Keaton's "Our Hospitality" or Lloyd's "The Freshman"--or MANY other films this trio made. Langdon's best was probably "The Strong Man"...good but not genius.

Despite my rant (and I am right about this), I did enjoy the show. I just think they should have stretched this to at least two episodes and omitted Langdon. Or, talked about Langdon and the second-tier comedians like him.

Hollywood: Comedy - A Serious Business (1980)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This entry in the series takes a look at laughter as well as those comedy legends like Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Charles Chaplin and Harry Langdon. This documentary pretty much gives each man a little over ten-minutes as we learn about their styles and see clips from dozen of their films. The first part of the film shows us a few clips from Mack Sennett and Keystone. Frank Capra gets interviewed for a good portion here as he worked with Sennett and discusses a few nice stories about he and D.W. Griffith. Capra also worked with Langdon during a famous part of his career but those expecting some dirt to fly won't find it here. What happened between Capra and Langdon has become part folk lore now but the director really doesn't throw any dirt and instead goes a more classy route. It's funny that the Chaplin segment shows a lot of his shorts and then THE KID but skips over the majority of the features. Jackie Coogan gets the spotlight here and gets to tell some great stories about what type of director Chaplin was and how he was discovered. The Buster Keaton sequence has a stuntman talking about how he never knew of anyone filling in for the star and we get to see some nice clips from STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. and a couple others. The Lloyd sequence features a vintage 1968 interview with the man himself and we hear what type of comedian he thought he was. This episode is pretty good, although it should be noted that director Brownlow would eventually expand this in other documentaries on Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd. All of them are highly recommended and really round out this episode.

The episode starts out with Mack Sennett and talks about how he was the initial master of visual comedy in film. Of course the big three silent comics are mentioned - Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton. These three are popular to this day thanks to youtube and plentiful DVDs and Blus of their work. Even Sennett had a Blu Ray set put out in his honor.

It talks about how Chaplin started out with Sennett, but quickly moved on to bigger contracts and was soon the highest paid performer in the world. Chaplin was great at business, not so good at marriage, thus his fortunes sustained him past the transition to sound and he did not have to work at such a frantic pace, delaying his sound film debut until 1940. Chaplin did not appear for this documentary because he pretty much shunned the press from the time he left the United States in the early 50s until his brief Academy Award appearance in 1972.

Lloyd initially was doing a character called "Lonesome Luke", but realized it was too Chaplin-like, and went on to form his own unique optimistic persona that went well with the roaring 20s. Lloyd was good at business and marriage. So good that his fortune was very much intact as the sound era approached, and after making a few talking films in the 30s that are good to very good, he pretty much vanished from the public eye. Lloyd actually appeared in the documentary to talk a little about his career, although this was archival footage since Lloyd died in 1971.

Buster Keaton is mentioned as the cerebral comic. He is also the comic who put the most gadgets in his fims, because Buster said that he would have been an engineer if not a comedian. Buster's vaudeville roots are mentioned. In fact, Keaton's family of origin might have starved had Buster not proven to be such a great child performer. Keaton was bad at business and at marriage. Thus he ended the silent era broke and considered a hopeless alcoholic and thus unemployable at the height of the Great Depression. Some of his silent films were almost lost as a result, but we also have quite a few good sound film shorts from the 30s and 40s because Buster had no nest egg and had to constantly keep working. They have some voice over by Keaton, but no interview because Keaton died in 1966.

Finally there is the comic you probably know the least about - Harry Langdon. Ironically, the person who does the most talking in this segment is director Frank Capra, who made Langdon a famous feature film comic. Getting a swelled head about things, Langdon chose to fire Capra and direct his own films. He failed and faded from the public consciousness. Capra insightfully commented that because Langdon had a comic persona handed to him, he did not understand that persona well enough to direct himself, unlike Chaplin who had invented the Little Tramp and could thus ably direct himself.

Some of what I wrote here was mentioned by the documentary, but most of the sound era information was left out. That was probably because there is an entire episode of this documentary, the last, that is dedicated to the transition to sound. But of course there is no room to talk about what happened to everybody.

Feature-length compilations like "When Comedy was King" and documentaries on Chaplin, Lloyd, and Keaton have examined various aspects of silent-film comedy. The subject matter and film clips that illustrate the comic geniuses at work during the silent era could fill a 13-part documentary on their own. Thus, "Comedy, A Serious Business," the eighth episode in the Brownlow-Gill documentary, "Hollywood," serves as little more than an introduction to the vast topic. Brownlow and Gill aim to profile four great comedians: Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin; and two great comedy producers: Mack Sennett and Hal Roach; during a 50-minute running time. An impossible task, even for the two skilled documentarians.

However, the episode does boast some priceless interviews and well-chosen clips that should whet the appetites of novice silent-film buffs, yet still engage serious enthusiasts. Comedy producer Hal Roach discusses his counterpart Mack Sennett's fun factory that turned out slapstick gems such as the Keystone Cops and other shorts that were often inspired by the Pathe Freres's trick photography. A former gag man for Sennett, director Frank Capra talks about Sennett and comedian Harry Langdon, while stunt man Harvey Parry explains the ubiquitous prat fall. The film clips alone make the episode worth watching.

During the Chaplin segment, French comic Max Linder is mentioned as an inspiration, and a rare clip of Linder meeting Chaplin depicts Linder imitating Chaplin and Chaplin imitating Linder. After some generous clips from early Chaplin shorts, Jackie Coogan talks at length about making 1921's "The Kid," in which a four-year-old Coogan stars opposite Chaplin. While Chaplin became the most popular figure in the world, others were on the rise. Harold Lloyd began as a Chaplin imitator with Hal Roach, but, once his character with the glassless spectacles had been established, Lloyd rivaled Chaplin at the boxoffice. Clips from such lesser-seen Lloyd films as 1921's "Never Weaken," where the comic maneuvers the scaffolding on a high-rise construction site and 1924's "Hot Water," where Lloyd rides a crowded trolley with a live turkey, illustrate Lloyd's athletic skills and comic genius.

Buster Keaton's early life is quickly covered, and the focus turns to Keaton's spectacular sequences such as the storm in 1928's "Steamboat Bill, Jr." and the locomotive on the collapsing bridge in 1926's "The General." Marion Mack, Keaton's leading lady in "The General," offers her reminiscences of the film and Keaton. The fourth, and least known, of the silent comedy quartet, the baby-faced Harry Langdon, appears in a segment from 1926's "The Strong Man," perhaps his best-known work; Frank Capra reveals that Langdon was the only one of the four who did not develop his own on-screen character.

While Brownlow and Gill bravely attempted a broad survey of silent-film comedy and included some good clips and interviews, the topic is immense and much is omitted, notably Laurel and Hardy and Mabel Normand. However, "Comedy, A Serious Business" will remind seasoned viewers of the delights of silent comedy and inspire new fans to seek out the shorts and features that immortalized the four comedy giants of the era.