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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh Look at a Forgotten Genius, November 19, 2008
This review is from: Harry Langdon: His Life and Films (Paperback)
Harry Langdon is considered by many silent film buffs as the fourth genius of silent comedy--behind Chaplin, Keaton, and Harold LLoyd. Now, Bill Schelly has brought the life and times of this forgotten king of comedy to vivid life in this wonderful new biography. With meticulous skill, Schelly follows Langdon from his early days with circuses and medicine shows, to stardom in vaudeville, and in motion pictures. Langdon became a comedy star of the first magnitude with Mack Sennett, then went on to produce his own feature productions at First National. But Langdon's meteoric rise was followed by an even more precipitous fall; after the tremendous success of his first two First National efforts, TRAMP, TRAMP, TRAMP, and THE STRONG MAN, Langdon's next four feature pictures were all box office disasters--and his stardom was lost. Many film scholars attribute this to the fact that, puffed up with his success in pictures ("He's greater than Chaplin!" screamed a lot of critics) Langdon fired the one man who was the most instrumental to his success--writer and gag man Frank Capra (whatever became of him?) With great sensitivity and fairness, Schelly examines and analyzes the reasons for Langdon's great success, first in vaudeville, then through a "golden dozen" series of shorts with Mack Sennett, and his first two highly acclaimed feature productions. Schelly documents Langdon's cataclysmic fall from grace, and his later career in short subjects, supporting parts in B films (including one high profile supporting part in a prestigious A with Al Jolson that failed to resurrect his career), and as a gag writer for other comedians such as Laurel and Hardy. Langdon's often troubled personal life is also detailed with great compassion and sensitivity, and many previously unknown facts are brought to light. There is a generous supply of wonderful photographs to supplement the text. In the end, Schelly has told a poignant story of triumph and tragedy and done full justice to the life story of a wonderful and unique comedian, one of the funniest and oddest personalities in the history of the motion picture. ROBERT SUMMIT
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A GREAT BOOK FOR ALL CINEMA FANS, November 7, 2008
This review is from: Harry Langdon: His Life and Films (Paperback)
My interest in silent films and comedians brought me to this book. I wasn't much aware of Langdon's career when I started this book, but Bill Schelly turned me into a fan by the end of his superb bio. This is really a book for any fan of cinema, as it is chock-full of information about how moviemaking worked in the silent era through the 40s. Langdon's bittersweet tale was absolutely fascinating in all of its convolutions. Schelly obviously did an incredible amount of research to write what must have been a labor of love, and yet it is not a dry bio at all, but one full of life, and obvious affection for his subject. Highly recommended!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Long overdue, but worth the wait, June 4, 2009
This review is from: Harry Langdon: His Life and Films (Paperback)
When William Schelly first wrote a biography on Harry Langdon in the early 1980's, it received mixed reactions; many critized it for being to abrupt in its reflections on the comedian's status and development as a performer, and that it offered too little information about his personal life. I can't say whether or not this criticism was deservedly as I haven't read the book. What I do know is that Schelly with this second edition, published some twenty-five years later, has done both Langdon and his fans full justice. The author's writing is crisp and engaging, and covers Langdon's career thoroughly, without dwelling on irrelevant details. He is able to capture the essence of Langdon's triumphs and disappointments through an historical perspective, revealing an impressive amount of information about the movie industry at that time which, I assume, makes it quite easy to follow even to newcomers of the "Little Elf."
Langdon left home at an early age for a career in vaudeville, which led to a fair amount of fame with his "car-sketch" for twenty years or so until he signed up with comedy producer Mack Sennett in the mid-1920's and, within a couple of years, became one of the greatest movie stars of the silent era; by late 1926, critics compared him to Chaplin. Just two years later, however, the beloved clown was washed-up and was forced to shift direction from starring in successful features to appearing in cheap two-reelers. Largely thanks to the memoirs of director Frank Capra, whose bitterness of being fired by Langdon obviously never vanished, it has been the accepted view for decades now that the success went to the comedian's head, and that he couldn't really achieve success without the guidance of others. Schelly does not out-right deny all of these charges, being critical to Langdon's choices at times, but puts several of Capra's sentiments heavily to question; indeed, it's ridiculous to believe that a comedian who'd been working on his own in vaudeville for twenty years should know as little about comedy construction as Capra claims. It seems more likely to me that Langdon at one point reached a creative block, probably caused partly by the public's high expectations of him, and didn't manage to find a solution before it was too late.
Although Langdon is most well known for his silent work, he actually appeared in more sound films, as the author points out, and these are given as much attention as his greatest triumphs of the 1920's. The main focus is on Langdon's career, as it should be in my opinion, but we are given insights into his life behind the screen every once in a while as well, complimented by excerpts from interviews with his third and last wife Mabel. The most telling revealations about Langdon as a man are given in the last few chapters, when the comedian seemed to have come to rest with the fact that he wasn't a star anymore and instead concentrated on his family and whatever work that was offered him. The final weeks of Langdon's life makes for quite sad reading, as we are told how Harry Jr. went into his father's room, while the latter was in a coma, to tell him that his tenth birthday was soon coming up.
The myths about Langdon being a spoiled man without insight into himself as a performer has been the general view for long enough. With William Schelly's book accompanying the superb Langdon dvd-set released by Facets last year, we are finally granted a more balanced view of this - yes, I say it! - comic genius.
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