20th Century-Fox Dynamo (February 1960)

CHARLES CHAPLIN STAN LAUREL OLIVER HARDY HARRY LANGDON “WHEN COMEDY WAS KING” BRINGING BACK THOSE HILARIOUS YEARS “When Comedy Was King” is a nostalgic pre- sentation of silent motion picture comedy, a style and form of humor that reached its full flower in the 1920’s and that passed, seemingly, all too soon when films became audible. Although taken for granted, silent screen comedy, time has disclosed, was a true and unique art. By transcending the laws of space, time and distance, it utilized the camera to its fullest capabilities. By soaring above the language barrier, it carried laughter from the United States throughout the rest of the world. “When Comedy Was King” is an inclusive docu- ment, spanning the period from Mack Sennett in 1914 to the sophisticated era of the Hal Roach comedies of 1928. “When Comedy Was King” brings back to reel life every one of the really first rank comedy clowns, with one unavoidable exception. Among them are: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Harry Langdon, Ben Turpin, Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, the Keystone Cops, Charlie Chase, Edgar Kennedy, the famed Mack Sennett bathing beauties, Andy Clyde, Chester Conklin, Snub Pollard, A1 St. John, Jimmy Finlay- son, Mack Swain and Billy Bevan, along with two all-time great stars, Wallace Beery and Gloria Swanson who had their beginnings in comedy. The uncovering of the material, together with its rejuvenation, selection, editing, assembly and the addition of sound effects, narration and an 81-minute original musical score, was the culmina- tion of 18 months’ work. In that time some 2,500 reels were screened. Much of the material was pre- viewed before invited audiences so that their laugh- ter could serve as a guide in reducing thousands of feet of film down to the eight reels that comprise “When Comedy Was King”. “When Comedy Was King” is divided into seven parts. Part One. which also serves as a background for the main title and credits, shows Charlie Chase and his family visiting a typical neighborhood movie theatre of the early 1920’s. After a series of mishaps, they finally turn their attention to the show, and upon that screen of almost two score years ago is flashed the main body of the picture. Part Two deals with “The Good, Old Days At Keystone”, Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studio where American film comedy was born and where the viewer gets his first view of a 24-year-old Charlie Chaplin, madcap Mabel Normand and her roguish partner, Roscoe (“Fatty”) Arbuckle, Wallace Beery, Gloria Swanson who, at that time, was Mrs. Beery. Part Three brings back onto the screens the second of silent comedy’s three completely or- iginal clowns: white-faced Harry Langdon, the trustful “infant” in a wised-up world. Part Four is a nostalgic examination of Hal Roach, master of inventive comedy, humor largely dependent upon objects. Part Five, “The Great Stone Face”, presents the third of the three outstanding comedy talents: Buster Keaton. Part Six explores “The Wacky World Of Mack Sennett” who thrived on the comedy of surprise. In this section Ben Turpin, Billy Bevan and the Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties cinemati- cally again come to life. Part Seven, “The Fiddle And The Bow” is de- voted to Laurel and Hardy. As the last scene of Laurel and Hardy, in this Part Seven, fades out, “When Comedy Was King” returns to its beginning: the neighborhood theatre of the 1920’s, the audience of three decades ago pouring from its seats . . . into a new world that so desperately seeks and needs respite from the grim realities of the day. JiMMY FINLAYSON CHARLIE CHASE ROSCOE (FATTY) ARBUCKLE