The comedy of the ‘silents’

Press, 17 April 1980, Page 15

The comedy of the ‘silents’

The silent cinema quickly learned to make people laugh; and simple slapstick soon grew into rich visual comedy. “Hollywood,” the British series "on TV2 tonight, studies the four great comedians of the American silent film era —- Harrv Langdon, Harold Llovd, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Mack Sennett developed a style of knockabout comedy based on the French pioneers, Pathe Freres. He also employed many English comedians who were steeped in the music hall and pantomime .tradition. Charlie Chaplin was one of these. But he was bound for more subtle comedy and in 1921 made “The Kid,” using the 4-year-old son of a vaudeville comic. Chaplin saw in Jackie Coogan something Of himself when young, and drew from him

a remarkable performance. Harold Lloyd rivalled Chaplin as a box office attraction, though his film character, once he had developed it, was entirely different: a solemn, middle-class young man. eternally facing desperate odds. Buster Keaton appeared as a stoic in the face of stupefying trials and tribulations. A child of vaudeville, Keaton was also a skilful comedy director, engineering numerous spectacular comedy disasters. Harry Langdon’s style was slow and deliberate. His child-like innocence made him a star — but, alas, it was to be shortlived. “Comedy — A Serious Business” gives a view of what was then the “lighter” side of Hollywood — an era of perfect visual comedy that ended with the coming of sound.