Harry Langdon ...The Forgotten Clown (The Strong Man / Tramp, Tramp, Tramp / Long Pants)
by Frank Capra, Harry Edwards
List Price:
Our Price: $16.69
You Save: $13.26 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Gertrude Astor, Harry Langdon, Priscilla Bonner, Robert McKim, William V. MongDirector: Frank Capra, Harry Edwards
Brand: Kino International
Writer: Harry Langdon
Writer: Frank Capra
Writer: Arthur Ripley
Writer: Gerald C. Duffy
Writer: Hal Conklin
Writer: J. Frank Holliday
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 193 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 1732
Studio: Kino Video
Product features:
- HARRY LANGDON:THE FORGOTTEN CLOWN (DVD MOVIE)
Movie Reviews of Harry Langdon ...The Forgotten Clown (The Strong Man / Tramp, Tramp, Tramp / Long Pants)
Movie Review: LONG PANTS
Summary: 5 Stars
Long Pants is the film in which that annoying breed known as "slapstick lovers" start their crusade against the "weird" Harry Langdon. Long Pants is also the film that the collaboration between Langdon and Frank Capra came to a crashing halt, due to aesthetic differences which involved the development of Langdon's character. Langdon and writer Arthur Ripley wanted to take the character into darker territory. Capra vehemently objected and was fired by Langdon, with Langdon anonymously finishing up directorial duties.
Slapstick, as an art form, dates badly and frequently induces more groans than laughs today. Chaplin`s more ambitious efforts, with (balanced) pathos and dramatic story, telling are of far more interest than his earlier straight-up slapstick efforts for Sennett. Keaton`s inventiveness and occasional forays into surrealism hold up as his best work and can, up to a point, prove fuel for those arguing for his superiority. Seen today, Langdon was right in his endeavor to make his on-screen characterization darker, more idiosyncratic, more unique, even if naive critics whine that Langdon simply "ceased to be funny" and just "got weird." It is Langdon's weirdness that set him apart from the beginning and, while I would probably not, overall, place him in the ranks of a Chaplin or Keaton, I would argue that Langdon etched an influential persona that secures his position as one of the great silent clowns and defies the "forgotten" label often attached to him.
Contemporary audiences, unable to relate to 1927 mores and customs, will certainly find the initial premise of Long Pants unintentionally bizarre in itself. Harry's father (Alan Roscoe) feels it is time for his boy to grow up and buys him his first pair of long pants, initiating Harry into manhood. Harry's mother (Gladys Brockwell) is very weepy eyed over the prospect, feeling her little Harry is far too young for long pants and wearing them will only bring trouble. She is correct, as Harry is, psychologically, still a boy. Once Harry loses his short pants (and stockings--an amusingly `creepy' image) and then dons his long pants, he spies a beautiful, exotic woman in a broken down car outside. Mother's predicted "big trouble" begins its course.
Actually, this is a bad boy habit already formed in Harry, even before his initiation into long pants status, which mama must have sensed. In the opening scene, Harry is lustfully looking at girls from his attic window.
Harry jumps on his bicycle to get a closer look at this woman in the car, who is in fact the wanted criminal Bebe Blair (Alma Bennett). Bebe is temporarily stranded due to a flat tire. Her chauffeur is fixing the problem when Harry arrives. Unknown to Harry, Bebe is smuggling nose powder for her criminal boyfriend. Harry wheels around Bebe's car, showing off his newly acquired long pants along with his considerable bike riding skills. Bebe is equally annoyed and amused by this man-child stranger. She gives Harry a kiss in an effort to get rid of him, but, of course, Bebe's wet lips have the opposite effect on poor Harry. Bebe vamps him and he is now convinced that he must marry Bebe.
Harry's mother and father have different plans. They want Harry to marry Priscilla (Priscilla Bonner, who starred with Langdon in Capra's popular Strong Man from the previous year). Indeed, Priscilla is the type of gal to bring home to mama; the only problem is, compared to Bebe, Priscilla seems to be a bit dull. Priscilla and Harry's parents are insistent on the wedding taking place despite Harry's new-found infatuation for Bebe. When Harry finds out that his "true love" Bebe has been caught and imprisoned, Harry decides the only thing left to do is kill Priscilla. Here, Langdon foreshadows dark hued man-child types such as Steve Martin (when he counted) and Pee Wee Herman (Stan Laurel, often compared to Langdon, was simply a neutered version). Watching little Harry fantasize about murdering his bride in the woods on their wedding day can be as disconcerting as amorous little boy Pee Wee looking up girls' skirts with a mirror tied to his shoe.
It is the contrasted imagery and characterization that is disturbing and hilarious. Harry's screen persona went further into the dark side with the 1928 film, The Chaser, directed by Langdon (in that film, Harry's man-child could be seen attempting suicide in drag).
Of course, nothing turns out as Harry hopes, but all still ends happily ever after for the Boy. Despite the happy conclusion, Long Pants ranks as one of the most authentically strange comedies of early cinema. In less than a year, Langdon would go several steps further, lose the up-beat ending, and propel his character into a total loser, Charlie Brown-type territory. Consequently, he would lose his too-easily shocked audience as well. Langdon was certainly ahead of his time and lost everything in his battle for individuality. However, the passage of time indicates little Harry won his standout war after all. He remains unique.
* MY REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT 366 WEIRD MOVIES
More Harry Langdon ...The Forgotten Clown (The Strong Man / Tramp, Tramp, Tramp / Long Pants) reviews:
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
Summary of Harry Langdon ...The Forgotten Clown (The Strong Man / Tramp, Tramp, Tramp / Long Pants)
HARRY LANGDON:THE FORGOTTEN CLOWN - DVD MovieIn an exceptional case of good timing, Harry Langdon emerged as a silent-comedy clown just as the careers of Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin were stagnant or (in the case of Chaplin) on extended hiatus. Along came Langdon with his own screen persona--a cherubic, innocent man-child in ill-fitting clothes, his weathered hat at a permanent tilt--and by the mid-'20s he was a critical and box-office smash. The three short features offered here represent the best work of this "forgotten clown," and although Langdon's slapstick was gentler and somewhat derivative, his endearing character was featured in delightful stories that earned his place in the silent-comedy hall of fame.
The Strong Man (1926) was Langdon's second and finest film; it's bracingly ambitious in both scope and story, and marked director Frank Capra's feature-film debut. Harry plays an unlikely World War I hero who immigrates to America to find his pen-pal sweetheart, posing as a vaudeville strongman as his love-struck odyssey spins through a series of increasingly audacious comedy set pieces. Langdon's debut feature, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926), costars Joan Crawford as the woman who's captured Harry's fancy, and he joins a cross-country walking race in an adventurous effort to impress her. The film's climactic cyclone scene is as impressive for its time as anything in Twister--and a whole lot funnier. Finally, 1927's Long Pants follows the familiar formula: Harry's misguided attraction to a brazen vamp (which tempts him to dispatch his unsuspecting fiancée) leads to a series of misadventures, but as always, Harry's innate goodness wins out in the end.
Langdon's career was never again as bright; he directed himself in subsequent, lesser films and his popularity rapidly faded. That makes this collection essential for silent-comedy aficionados; these films are the enduring legacy of Langdon's brief but shining time in the spotlight, and they should not be forgotten. --Jeff Shannon
Similar DVD Movies
W.C. Fields Comedy Collection, Vol. 2 (The Man on the Flying Trapeze / Never Give A Sucker An Even Break / You're Telling Me! / The Old Fashioned Way / Poppy)Universal Studios; Release date: 2007-03-20; DVD
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops:
WingsParamount; Release date: 2012-01-24; DVD
Best price: $15.06
Price in other shops:
Island of Lost Souls (Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-10-25; DVD
Best price: $16.09
Price in other shops:
Becoming Charley ChaseVideo Communications Inc.; Release date: 2009-07-28; DVD
Best price: $16.49
Price in other shops:
Chaplin At Keystone: An International Collaboration of 34 Original FilmsInfinity; Release date: 2010-10-26; DVD
Best price: $60.37
Price in other shops:
Laurel & Hardy: The Essential CollectionUni; Release date: 2011-10-25; DVD
Best price: $66.99
Price in other shops:
Three's a Crowd (1927) / The Chaser (1928)Release date: 2008-06-03; DVD
Best price: $15.88
Price in other shops:
Buster Keaton - Short Films Collection: 1920 - 1923 (3-Disc Ultimate Edition)Release date: 2011-07-12; DVD
Best price: $20.36
Price in other shops:
Lost and Found: The Harry Langdon CollectionFACETS VIDEO; Release date: 2007-12-26; DVD
Best price: $20.99
Price in other shops:
The Forgotten Films of Roscoe "Fatty" ArbuckleRelease date: 2005-05-24; DVD
Best price: $10.09
Price in other shops: