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00:00Clown, innocent, Buster Keaton, and the master clown, Charlie Chaplin.
00:23Each had his own way of showing us that just getting along in a complicated world is not easy.
00:51The history of the motion picture, a series in which we follow the growth of a new art, its
01:03earliest beginnings, the first concept of projection, the development of story and spectacle,
01:13and the great stars, all a part of the history of the motion picture.
01:23No figure in movie history progressed as quickly as did Charles Chaplin. In 1914, he made 35 mostly
01:35crude comedies for Max Sennett. In 1915, as direct to star, he turned out 16 much improved films
01:42for S&A. The following year, Chaplin produced for Mutual a series of 12 comic masterpieces.
01:50Easy Street was the eighth. Easy Street, the toughest part of town.
01:58Easy Street, the toughest part of town.
02:08Woo!
02:10Yeah!
02:12Yeah!
02:43We shall come rejoicing, springing in the sheaths, springing in the sheaths, springing in the sheaths, we shall come rejoicing, springing in the sheaths.
02:59Edna Purviance always brought out the latent nobility in Chaplin's tramp character. She was his leading lady from 1915 to 1925.
03:11She remained on his pension list after her retirement.
03:16And still beautiful, played a bit role in his last American film, Limelight.
03:25Edna Purviance
03:30Edna Purviance
03:33Edna Purviance
03:35Edna Purviance
03:36Edna Purviance
03:37Edna Purviance
03:38Edna Purviance
03:39Edna Purviance
03:40Edna Purviance
03:41Edna Purviance
03:42Edna Purviance
03:43Edna Purviance
03:44Edna Purviance
03:45Max Sennett used policemen for laughs.
04:13He made them comic characters by stripping them of dignity.
04:21Chaplin was more subtle.
04:24His usual attitude was that of the vagrant, to whom the cop is an eternal enemy.
04:32The bully is Eric Campbell, one of Chaplin's regular comic villains,
04:37whose career was tragically curtailed by an automobile accident shortly after this film was made.
04:44Oh, yeah.
09:01A hard-pressed but deserving family.
09:23The wife.
09:29The father.
09:38The father.
09:44The father.
09:50The father.
09:55The father.
09:57The father.
10:05The father.
10:07The father.
10:15The father.
10:17The father.
10:19The father.
10:29The father.
10:30The End
11:00The End
11:30The End
12:00The End
12:30The End
13:00The End
13:30The End
14:00An acrobat just out of vaudeville was beginning to attract attention.
14:04In a minute, we'll see more of Buster Keaton.
14:20By 1922, Buster Keaton, too, had become a star, a clown who expected the worst and was seldom disappointed.
14:34The End
15:04While Chaplin's encounter with a policeman in Easy Street was staged within his studio, Keaton, in this film, Cops, took his cameras outdoors.
15:18Most of his best films were against realistic backgrounds.
15:22The End
15:24The End
15:26The End
15:28The End
15:31The End
15:33The End
15:36The End
15:38The End
15:40The End
15:41The End
16:16Keaton frequently found himself being chased without knowing why or whom he had offended.
16:46Buster Keaton was to retain his acrobatic agility even until the 50s when he took some spectacular falls with Chaplin in Limelight.
17:10Buster Keaton was to retain his acrobatic agility and his acrobatic agility and his acrobatic agility.
17:22Harry Langdon, the pure pantomimist.
17:43Buster Keaton had a childlike faith in the goodness of humanity.
17:55Unlike Keaton or a chaplain, he had a childlike faith in the goodness of humanity.
18:09He was too innocent to recognize misfortune.
18:13He wished only to live and let live.
18:16Harry often played the young man about to marry reluctantly or the hopelessly henpecked husband.
18:36He wished only to live and let live.
18:45He wished only to live.
18:57Harry was afraid of girls, wanted to like them, but didn't feel quite ready for them.
19:27This scene foreshadows a highlight of Langdon's greatest feature, his classic encounter with
19:36the van in The Strongman.
19:48Johnny is persuaded, and later that afternoon.
20:01Slapstick cropped up in many of these two reelers that Langdon did for Senna.
20:10The particular delicate gesture was his own.
20:17This sequence, and Langdon's little wave of greeting, somehow sum up his screen personality.
20:26Hesitant, almost afraid of being rejected, yet friendly and open with a genuine humility.
20:45There was an inconsistency in many of the two reelers that Langdon made for Senna, depending
21:03on who held the reins at the moment.
21:06If it was Senna, then Slapstick would dominate.
21:12But if Harry were alone with his favorite director, Frank Capra, who made this film, they would
21:34concentrate on working out the subtler comedy routines that would reach full fruition for
21:40both in the years to come.
21:41The End
21:48The End
22:23The Boyfriends.
22:53For a period, Harry Langdon was considered a serious rival to Chaplin.
23:16He moved into features after only a year or two with Senate, and turned out two or three
23:21of the screen's finest comedy classics.
23:24Then he began to believe he could write and direct his own material.
23:28It didn't work.
23:30The Boyfriends.
24:00Harry Langdon was playing in B pictures unworthy of his talent.
24:16When, in the early 40s, he died, bemused still, still unable to understand where he had failed
24:25and why.
24:27The Boyfriends.
24:39We have seen the great sad clowns, as each was on the threshold of his finest work.
25:01Other programs in this series will be devoted to each of them individually.
25:13The Boyfriends.
25:14The Boyfriends.
25:15The Boyfriends.
25:16The Boyfriends.
25:18The Boyfriends.
25:19The Boyfriends.
25:20The Boyfriends.
25:21The Boyfriends.
25:22The Boyfriends.
25:23The Boyfriends.
25:24The Boyfriends.
25:25The Boyfriends.
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25:27The Boyfriends.
25:28The Boyfriends.
25:29The Boyfriends.
25:30The Boyfriends.
25:31The Boyfriends.
25:32The Boyfriends.
25:33The Boyfriends.
25:34The Boyfriends.
25:35The Boyfriends.
25:36The Boyfriends.
25:37The Boyfriends.
25:38The Boyfriends.
25:39The Boyfriends.
25:40The Boyfriends.
25:41The Boyfriends.
25:42The Boyfriends.
25:43The Boyfriends.
25:44The Boyfriends.
25:45The Boyfriends.
25:46The Boyfriends.
25:47The Boyfriends.
25:48The Boyfriends.
25:49The Boyfriends.
25:50The Boyfriends.
25:51The Boyfriends.