Harry Langdon ...The Forgotten Clown

Buy This Item Harry Langdon ...The Forgotten Clown  List Price: $29.95  Available from Amazon  $26.99  on 11-27-2008     Features Actors: Harry Langdon, Priscilla Bonner, Gertrude Astor, William V. Mong, Robert McKim Directors: Frank Capra, Harry Edwards Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Language: English Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Number of discs: 1 Rating: Studio: Kino Video DVD Release Date: September 2, 2003 Run Time: 193 minutes Average Customer Review:   15 Reviews 5 star:  (7) 4 star:  (8) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0) See all 15 customer reviews...   (15 customer reviews) Reader Reviews I'm not an especially big fan of silent movies, but I do have a soft spot (on my head) for silent comedies. Having recently purchased a Laurel and Hardy DVD, Amazon made the recommendation of this disc, and I decided to give it a try. The Strong Man (1926) Directed by Frank Capra has Harry as a Paul, clueless Belgian solider who gets captured and carried away by an enemy soldier. After the war is over, we see the two of them arrive in America, and the soldier that captured Harry is none other than The Great Zandow, a strong man by profession. Seems The Great Zandow has made Harry his personal assistant. Was this common practice back in the day? Making captured prisoners indentured servants? No matter...Harry is more concerned with finding a romantic pen pal who sent him uplifting letters during the war. This leads a particularly funny sequence involving a case of mistaken identity, a gangster's moll, and a wad of illicit cash. Later we see Zandow and Co. (Paul) travel to Cloverdale, a small, wholesome town that has suffered an invasion of hooligans. Seems they have taken over the main city building and turning it into a beer and dance hall, much to the dismay of the more pious members of the community. Well, The Great Zandow has been booked to perform in the hall, and on their arrival, Paul finds his female pen pal, but their meeting is cut short as the strongman gets drunk and Paul is forced to perform in his place, with disastrous results. This one, in my opinion, is the funniest of the three presented here, and also the best looking in clarity and definition. The next feature, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) has Harry as the son of a shoemaker and we find that they are having difficultly paying their rent and will be thrown out in the street in three months unless they come up with the money. Harry decides to go out and find a way to come up with the money, and stumbles into a major shoe manufacturers' promotional cross country walking race that will net the winner $25,000. Also, Harry becomes smitten with the president of the major shoe company's daughter, played by Joan Crawford. The race starts, and this leads to a number of comedic sequences, one involving a fence and a cliff, another involving stolen fruit and a prison chain gang, and so on. As the race comes to an end, watch for the cyclone scene, a truly inspired bit. The picture quality on this feature is not as good as the first, as there are some more noticeable flaws, but overall it's quite good, considering the age of the material. The third and last feature on this disc, Long Pants (1927), directed by Frank Capra, is kind of an odd, sometimes creepy feature with spots of comedy. This one seems to put people off, and it's understandable. This one has Harry living with his parents, and shows him in short pants (knee length). He's taken an interest in women romantically, but, being that he's still in short pants, the women consider him still a boy. For Harry's birthday, his father wants to give him a pair of long pants, but his mother objects as she thinks it will be some sort of corrupting influence on their son. In the end, she relents, and Harry gets his long pants. I have to say, it seemed really creepy seeing a 40ish man in short pants. Anyway, it seems Harry is betrothed to a local girl, but becomes smitten with another woman, one who is in trouble with the law for smuggling 'snow', among other things. She ends up getting jailed, much to Harry's dismay. On the day of Harry's wedding, he concocts a scheme to get out of the wedding, and here's where it really gets creepy. His scheme involves taking his fiancé out into the woods and shooting her dead. He attempts this, but comic mishaps ensue. The bear trap gag was truly a great bit. In the end, he's not successful, and basically ditches his family to goes to rescue this other woman. She manages to escape, hides in a crate, and Harry tries to get her out of town. I thought this whole sequence was quite funny, and made up somewhat for the earlier creepiness. Everything works out in the end. I read another review on this feature, and I think it hit the nail on the head in that the reviewer stated that some of the situations played out in this feature are out of Langdon's character, as we want to like him, but a fantasy about killing his fiance' doesn't really make for a likeable character. This feature has the worst picture quality of the three, especially at the beginning, when the picture seems very bleached and washed out. The quality does improve marginally throughout the movie, but never matches the clarity of the other two. Again, given the age of the material, all three are actually in pretty good shape. There are no extra features, but there are chapter stops for each film, and the total run time is around three hours (one hour for each film), so I feel I received a really good value, and was enlightened to a lesser-known comedic talent of a bygone period. Laurel and Hardy will always be my favorite, but there is always room for more. Cookieman108  Comment | Permalink |  function showYesNoCommunityResponse(uId,result,value) { var msgLayer = getElement("thanks" + uId); if ( result == "SUCCESS" ) { msgLayer.innerHTML = "Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided to other Amazon.com readers and reviewers. Your vote will be counted and will appear on the product page within 24 hours."; } else { showVoteErrorResponse(msgLayer,result,value); } } (Report this)

Harry Langdon ...The Forgotten Clown List Price: $29.95 Available from Amazon Price: $26.99 Updated on 11-27-2008.

SPONSORED LINKS

WEBMASTER RESOURCES

Increase your websites importance by offering your visitors one-click consumer reviews and purchase reviews for "Harry Langdon ...The Forgotten Clown" and similar Products from DVD Dispatcher. Just copy and paste the code into your page and add on-topic value to your site. Provide a link to this product on your website: Read reviews and get product information on <a href="Harry-Langdon-The-Forgotten-Clown-B00004Z4W3.htm">Harry Langdon ...The Forgotten Clown</a> Your Code will look like this: Read reviews and get product information on Harry Langdon ...The Forgotten Clown