Comedy: A Serious Business
- Episode aired Feb 26, 1980
- 49m
The art of silent comedy is highlighted with a focus on the work of the four great clowns of the era: Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Harry Langdon.The art of silent comedy is highlighted with a focus on the work of the four great clowns of the era: Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Harry Langdon.The art of silent comedy is highlighted with a focus on the work of the four great clowns of the era: Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Harry Langdon.
Photos
- Self - Narrator
- (voice)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
Marion Mack: In this picture, I was always supposed to be some sort of a dumb Dora type of a gal who was trying to help Buster but getting in his way. So, they said, When Marion gets in the proper position, let's let the water spout go and knock her down. I didn't know they were going to do it, so that scene is not acting becaue the force of the water was very great. It's good that we didn't have sound movies at that time!
- ConnectionsFeatures Making a Living (1914)
- Soundtracksi'll Be Loving You Always
(uncredited)
Composed by Irving Berlin (1925)
Instrumental version heard during clip from "The Strong Man"
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.
- dglink
- Apr 7, 2019
Details
- Runtime49 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1