(Harry Edwards, US 1926, 62 min.)

Making his feature debut, legendary comedian Harry Langdon plays a hobo who enters a cross-country walkathon. This charming comedy with some jaw-dropping stunts was co-written by Frank Capra and features Joan Crawford as Langdon’s love interest. Preceded by the great Charley Chase in MIGHTY LIKE A MOOSE (Leo McCarey, US 1926, 23 min.). Live piano by Philip C. Carli.

Program Notes

In the years 1926 to 1927 Harry Langdon reached the peak of his popularity; a truly meteoric rise even for Hollywood and sadly relatively short-lived. Having just signed a contract with First National, Langdon, with fellow colleagues Frank Capra, Arthur Ripley, and Harry Edwards produced three hits in a row. The first of these, Tramp,Tramp,Tramp, from 1926, was the comic’s first feature film.

Harry Langdon came to cinema relatively late in his career. He first graced the screen in 1923 with several shorts for Principal Pictures having worked throughout the 1910s and early 1920s in a mildly successful vaudeville act with his wife. Enticed away to Mack Sennett’s Studio, Langdon was soon put to work, churning out numerous two-reel shorts. Keeping to the well known Sennett comic formula, these early Langdon-Sennett comedies were broad and frenetic, with stories often made up of a series of random, disparate gags. Unlike Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, who developed their own material, Sennett had a team of gag writers working for his star. Amongst these was a young Frank Capra, just starting his career. This team worked with Langdon, creating a stronger on-screen character, concentrating his mannerisms and sensibilities, first tried out during his stage career, into a more consistent and motivated form.

Langdon’s act was based on a childlike innocence. Capra described the character: “His whole appearance was that of an overgrown child, although he was pushing forty … He had no brains, he had only goodness, and only goodness got him out of every situation … He had no ally but God.” His comedy was the antithesis of Chaplin and Keaton’s energetic slapstick. Extremely paced, Langdon could spread a simple gag over several minutes. “He was a great pantomimist—you could hold a camera on his face for five minutes, and he would just keep the audience in stitches, doing absolutely nothing … Langdon played scenes delicately, almost in slow motion. You could practically see the wheels of his immature mind turning as it registered tiny pleasures or discomforts.”

With the help of his production team, Langdon’s shorts became very popular, and Harry an audience favorite. Many of his short subjects even gained top billing over the main feature at theaters. Langdon’s salary was raised and he began receiving offers from other studios. In 1925 he signed a million-dollar contract with First National Pictures in a deal which gave the star complete creative autonomy and financial control. He was given a contract for three feature-length films, with an option on three more. He was also to receive a percentage of the profits.

Tramp,Tramp,Tramp was based on the then popular cross-country walking races. Harry winds up mistakenly entered into one such race with prize money at stake which could save his family otherwise certain eviction from home. The film features several big comedy set-pieces, including Harry’s escape from a rampaging herd of sheep, which leaves him dangling unwittingly by his coat over a sheer drop of many hundred feet. Another sees him battling the force of a terrific cyclone, a scene which probably inspired the famous ending of Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr. two years later. Cast opposite Langdon was Joan Crawford, in only her second year of films, appearing in her first significant role.

Tramp,Tramp,Tramp was very successful at the box office, boosting Harry Langdon’s star appeal yet further. Critics were also favorable. The Photoplay review praises the star’s comic talents. “This picture takes Langdon’s doleful face and pathetic figure out of the two-reel class and into the Chaplin and [Harold] Lloyd screen dimensions. Not that he equals their standing yet, but he is a worthy addition to a group of comedy makers of which we have entirely too few. Langdon has graduated and this picture is his diploma.”
Harry Langdon’s next two films, The Strong Man (1926) and Long Pants (1927), both directed by Frank Capra, were even bigger hits. With success grew his ego and he began claiming directorial and writing credit in interviews without recognizing the important work of others. Langdon became convinced of his own talents and ended up firing his writing and directorial team. The following films, written, directed by and starring Harry Langdon were critical disasters and big box office flops. The public stopped attending his films. In his autobiography, Mack Sennett summed up Langdon’s career. “He was a quaint artist who had no business in business.” He finished up the rest of his career in numerous low-budget shorts produced for Columbia and Educational. He died in 1944, aged 60.

~James Layton, Student, L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation

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