I have seen all of the silent features of Harry Langdon and thanks to Hal Roach month in January I was able to see some of his sound shorts to celebrate his birthday. 90% of the shorts that I watched could have been silent films. There were only a few verbal jokes, most were physical gags.
Buster Keaton is my favorite silent film star. There are a lot of similarities at least professionally between Keaton an Langdon. Both are Midwestern (Keaton-Kansas and Langdon-Iowa (I visited Council Bluffs and there is no memorial or plaque)). Both were Vaudeville stars. Both had film mentors (Keaton-Roscoe Arbuckle and Langdon-Harold Lloyd). Both were tremendously successful in silent films. Besides staring in the films, they both wrote and directed films. Keaton had his own studio and in my opinion a better director, but Langdon had Frank Capra. When sound came in they both went to small studios to continue to work in films. They both wrote gags and had small parts in major studio films. They both had tremendous respect in the Hollywood community.
Langdon is usually considered fourth after Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd (in alphabetical order). In this circle, fourth is not bad. There are so many lost silent comedy stars (Raymond Griffith anyone) who most people have not even heard of since their films no longer exist.
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