When Comedy Was King
When Comedy Was King
| 29 March 1960 (USA)
When Comedy Was King Trailers

A compilation featuring comedic stars of the silent era including Fatty Arbuckle, Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Charley Chase, and Laurel and Hardy.

Reviews
Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.
Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
dbborroughs This is one of Robert Youngson's compilation features from the early 1960's. Youngson took clips from the silent slapstick films and spliced them together in a nostalgic look back at comedy of yester year. Youngson turned out a good number of these films and they all work to varying degrees. Broad spectrum look at the comedy of silent days is an excellent look at the early days of comedy with looks at Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Snub Pollard (in the influential Its a Gift) and others. While not necessarily the best work of all of the performers, Chaplin has mostly his early Sennett stuff, which shows off why he was a star but isn't the funniest stuff he ever did, Keatons's Cops is cut up and while it is a really funny film, it may not be his best work either. Then again they are actually the things I would probably show someone to begin to foster a love of silent comedy. I like this film a great deal and consider it probably Youngston's second best film after Days of Thrills and Laughter. Definitely worth a a look
ptb-8 Really astonishing feature length footage of the greatest silent comedy stars and the stunt films that thrilled millions, all lovingly set in a nickelodeon and chapters for each personality and type of film. The voice over is the 'radio with pictures' type that suits and I guess seems like the Joe MacDoakes shorts or some inventor- cartoon narrator. The scenes are hilarious and exciting and reveal a rich heritage of silent movie history and the recognizable stars that made them justly famous. Each sequence is different and equally terrific. The Harry Langdon maid in the kitchen clip is fall down funny; My personal favorite is the awesome train stunt with Gloria Swanson tied to the tracks which had me screaming.
Petri Pelkonen Robert Youngson's movie When Comedy Was King from 1960 shows us some great clips from the silent era.It is narrated by Dwight Weist.You can laugh with Charles Chaplin, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Ben Turpin, Billy Bevan, Snub Pollard, Buster Keaton and lots of others.Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy cause trouble to Jimmy Finlayson in Big Business (1929).In Hal Roach comedy A Pair of Tights (1929) Marion Byron is sent to get some ice cream while Edgar Kennedy and the gang waits in the car. Getting ice cream hasn't ever been as hard as it is to Marion Byron in this funny clip. When Comedy Was King offers you lots of laughter with these clowns of silent comedy.These clowns have been long gone and there will never be comedians like them again.
Norman Cook This film documents a wide range of silent classics with clips from Keystone comedies made by Charlie Chaplin in 1914 through Charley Chase's Movie Night (1929), which provides the framing sequence. Highlighted performers include Fatty Arbuckle in Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916), Harry Langdon in The First 100 Years (1924), and Laurel & Hardy in Big Business (1929). Other featured performers include Gloria Swanson, Snub Pollard, Anita Garvin & Marion Byron, Buster Keaton, Ben Turpin, and Billy Bevan. The narration is a bit incessant, but educational.