Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD EAN: 0738329061524 Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: KINO INTERNATIONAL Manufacturer: KINO INTERNATIONAL Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: KINO INTERNATIONAL Region Code: 1 Release Date: June 03, 2008 Running Time: 124 minutes Sales Rank: 58077 Studio: KINO INTERNATIONAL
Product Description: With his quizzical expression and childlike demeanor, Harry Langdon was one of the slapstick cinema's brightest stars, a low-key alternative to his more fast-paced contemporaries. His hard-luck persona always had a melancholy air as he ambled through life, blissfully ignorant of the pitfalls of modernity. In 1927, enjoying the power that came with owning his own production company, Langdon steered his trademark character even further from the conventionalized slapstick of his Mack Sennett background.
His directorial debut, THREE'S A CROWD (1927), didn't just dabble in pathos, it plunged its hapless hero into a netherworld of loneliness worthy of Samuel Beckett (a self-avowed Langdon fan). Harry stars as a slum-dweller who invites a freezing woman (Gladys McConnell), pregnant with another man's child, into his home. Nursing mother and child back to health, he achieves his dream of having a family... or so he hopes.
Landon's second film as director, THE CHASER (1928) is a dark, slightly kinky comedy in which a carousing Harry is ordered by a judge to swap domestic duties (and clothing) with his wife. Deprived of his manliness, Harry contemplates suicide while coping with flirtatious salesmen and the scorn of a former comrade.
This DVD of THREE'S A CROWD and THE CHASER is authored from new HD masters derived from the 35mm negatives held by the Raymond Rohauer estate. Due to decomposition of the original film elements, portions of the THE CHASER are mastered from a 16mm print.
Digital Life Reviews
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Langdon enthusiasts only
As a Langdon enthusiast for over 30 years I loved the Lost Langdon films DVD. But seeing THE CHASER & THREE'S A CROWD, it was embarassing. David Kalt's commentary sounds like some film nerd with such over the top comparisons with Picasso paintings,existentialism, etc. You have to love Langdon to relate to these 2. They are not bad, but far from his best. Very self absorbed in his directing & acting;so out of touch with how to relate to the audience at this point. That's what makes this frustrating to watch, but his later sound shorts were not bad, as in the Lost Films DVD.
Rating: - Never Enough Harry
Don't buy these if they are you first Harry Langdon purchase. These are for people that GET Harry already. I had read so much about Three's a Crowd (I think I read too much) I was expecting this profane, sad masterpiece and I watched it and I didnt get that feeling from it. I had heard that The Chaser was the "more Harry" of the movies and was a more appreciated movie by the audience of the day. So I watched it and you know it's not a great favourite of mine.
So I waited a little and rewatched both movies again and I came away from Threes a Crowd knowing that it is a mastepiece! This is The Little Elf at his best, the innocence and trust, the child, the man all mixed in together. The "nightmare" scene is so amazing.I cannot tell you how much I really love this movie, it goes beyond comedy!
This man was a genius and I really wished that he could have gone on further with his ideas. ... Read More
Rating: - Harry Langdon: the Andy Kaufman of silent era
Having read some reviews and other materials on Langdon, I prepared myself to be disappointed by Three's a Crowd. And, true, the opening sequences, in which the camera seemed stuck on the sleepy Langdon, holding the shots way too long, seemed to portend an excruciatingly boring experience. But, boy, was I wrong! I absolutely love this film! Okay, maybe one can't quite call it a comedy, though there are many funny "moments" (as opposed to sequences or set pieces, though there are a couple of those as well), but there is an amazing sense of telling detail. While I agree that there are some plot points that go nowhere (the pigeon literally coming out of the blue), I disagree with the general view that Langdon didn't understand his own screen persona. Harry Langdon was a wonderfully subtle actor; there is not a false gesture or expression in the entire film.
The photography too is breath-taking; the sets of that ... Read More
Rating: - Harry Langdon jumps the shark in these films
These were awful. I loved Langdon in "The Strong Man," and "Tramp, tramp, tramp," but these two films were difficult to sit through. Few comical moments and Langdon seems to have slowed down so much that I almost fell asleep. The audio commentary on, "Three's a crowd," is very informative (who ever did the commentary seems to know everything there is to know about Langdon) but so lavish in its praise of this very dull, unmemorable film that I wondered if I was watching the same film that he was discussing.
There's no way to get around the fact that Harry Langdon's films ceased to be "A" list films in the late twenties. His career never recovered. There are flashes of genius (yes, genius) here and there in the many shorts and guest appearances he made over the next fifteen years but he was living off of his fame. It's too bad that he didn't quit while he was ahead. Instead, he jumped the shark.
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- Never Enough Harry
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