An off-screen narrator and nine talking heads make the case for Harry Langdon being ranked just below Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd as a fine movie comedian. They celebrate his slowed-down style as original and, later, influential. They take issue with Frank Capra's assessment of Langdon's small talent and large ego, suggesting instead that the villain in Langdon's rapid fall may ...
It's 1938, but Stan doesn't know the war is over; he's still patrolling the trenches in France, and shoots down a French aviator. Oliver sees his old chum's picture in the paper and goes to visit Stan at the Soldier's Home. Thinking Stan is disabled (it's just that he's sitting on his leg), Oliver takes pity on him and takes him home for a nice home-cooked meal. But Oliver's wi...
Ella Cinders is a slave in the household with her stepmother and two stepsisters. The one joy in her life is her iceman boyfriend, Waite Lifter. She reads in a movie magazine of a beauty contest with the winner being awarded a Hollywood contract. Despite the fact that the picture the photographer submitted of her was snapped when a fly had landed on her nose and she was looking...
A meek Belgian soldier (Harry Langdon) fighting in World War I receives penpal letters and a photo from "Mary Brown", an American girl he has never met. He becomes infatuated with her by long distance. After the war, the young Belgian journeys to America as assistant to a theatrical "strong man", Zandow the Great (Arthur Thalasso). While in America, he searches for Mary Brown.....
When this short “coming attractions” promo was released to exhibitors in 1926, First National was third only to M-G-M and Paramount among the major Hollywood studios and was about to celebrate its tenth birthday. Yes, it had lost Chaplin and survived several takeover attempts by its rivals (the 1928 one by Warner Bros would ultimately be successful), but it had also freshly mov...
