Joe McElhaney
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474406550
- eISBN:
- 9781474416146
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474406550.003.0008
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter addresses The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, Preston Sturges’s independent production after leaving Paramount.Diddlebock is an idiosyncratic film that takes many of the implications of ...
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This chapter addresses The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, Preston Sturges’s independent production after leaving Paramount.Diddlebock is an idiosyncratic film that takes many of the implications of Sturges’s cinema in some new directions. An expensive film that nevertheless looks low budget, Diddlebock is a film in which American ideals of money and social and economic success are the targets of ruthless satire. In addition, Sturges is obsessed here with temporality, the film’s images dominated by stasis, decay, and decline. In the title role, the aging silent comedy star Harold Lloyd embodies this idea of decline with a particular clarity. The film, while self-consciously drawing upon the “Harold” myth of Lloyd’s classic silent period, relentlessly exposes the fact that Harold has aged, his words and gestures now reduced to the level of cliché.Less
This chapter addresses The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, Preston Sturges’s independent production after leaving Paramount.Diddlebock is an idiosyncratic film that takes many of the implications of Sturges’s cinema in some new directions. An expensive film that nevertheless looks low budget, Diddlebock is a film in which American ideals of money and social and economic success are the targets of ruthless satire. In addition, Sturges is obsessed here with temporality, the film’s images dominated by stasis, decay, and decline. In the title role, the aging silent comedy star Harold Lloyd embodies this idea of decline with a particular clarity. The film, while self-consciously drawing upon the “Harold” myth of Lloyd’s classic silent period, relentlessly exposes the fact that Harold has aged, his words and gestures now reduced to the level of cliché.
William Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040245
- eISBN:
- 9780252098468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040245.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter continues the conceptual thread of “attraction” while exploring the film oeuvre of the “third genius” of silent screen comedy: Harold Lloyd. This time it is the manifesto-like claims of ...
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This chapter continues the conceptual thread of “attraction” while exploring the film oeuvre of the “third genius” of silent screen comedy: Harold Lloyd. This time it is the manifesto-like claims of Eisenstein's theatrical collaborator, Sergei Tretyakov, that provide the theoretical point of departure. The chapter argues that Lloyd, together with his producer Hal Roach, grasped the virtues of athletic performances on screen as a means of helping to train the masses somatically, in order to handle the demands of life in threatening urban settings. The status of the image here is not that of a copy of a preexisting reality. Rather, it was designed to play a formative role in the life of the spectator.Less
This chapter continues the conceptual thread of “attraction” while exploring the film oeuvre of the “third genius” of silent screen comedy: Harold Lloyd. This time it is the manifesto-like claims of Eisenstein's theatrical collaborator, Sergei Tretyakov, that provide the theoretical point of departure. The chapter argues that Lloyd, together with his producer Hal Roach, grasped the virtues of athletic performances on screen as a means of helping to train the masses somatically, in order to handle the demands of life in threatening urban settings. The status of the image here is not that of a copy of a preexisting reality. Rather, it was designed to play a formative role in the life of the spectator.
Gabriella Oldham and Mabel Langdon
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813169651
- eISBN:
- 9780813169996
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813169651.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Harry Langdon (1884–1944) was a silent comedian in the early days of the American film industry. Although he is often compared with other silent comedians of the era, including Charlie Chaplin, ...
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Harry Langdon (1884–1944) was a silent comedian in the early days of the American film industry. Although he is often compared with other silent comedians of the era, including Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, Langdon’s career is underappreciated. Following a series of disastrous professional and personal missteps, Langdon faced demotion from his place as a king of silent comedy. The advent of talkies did not bode well for him, as his greatest strengths were rendered irrelevant. He was largely forgotten until audiences in the 1970s became reacquainted with his work nearly three decades after his death. In Harry Langdon: King of Silent Comedy, author Gabriella Oldham claims that Langdon’s catalog of work merits an equal rank alongside his great contemporaries. This biography seeks not only to redeem Langdon’s position in the pantheon of silent comedians but also to accurately portray his life story. The narrative of Langdon’s life explores his early work on the stage at the turn of the twentieth century, his iconic routines and persona in silent films, and his checkered career in the early sound period. This invaluable biography of Langdon relies on film screenings, files, and interviews with those who were closest to him to capture his true genius during the time when comedy was king.Less
Harry Langdon (1884–1944) was a silent comedian in the early days of the American film industry. Although he is often compared with other silent comedians of the era, including Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, Langdon’s career is underappreciated. Following a series of disastrous professional and personal missteps, Langdon faced demotion from his place as a king of silent comedy. The advent of talkies did not bode well for him, as his greatest strengths were rendered irrelevant. He was largely forgotten until audiences in the 1970s became reacquainted with his work nearly three decades after his death. In Harry Langdon: King of Silent Comedy, author Gabriella Oldham claims that Langdon’s catalog of work merits an equal rank alongside his great contemporaries. This biography seeks not only to redeem Langdon’s position in the pantheon of silent comedians but also to accurately portray his life story. The narrative of Langdon’s life explores his early work on the stage at the turn of the twentieth century, his iconic routines and persona in silent films, and his checkered career in the early sound period. This invaluable biography of Langdon relies on film screenings, files, and interviews with those who were closest to him to capture his true genius during the time when comedy was king.
Ray Zone
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813136110
- eISBN:
- 9780813141183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813136110.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Amateur stereo photography and 3D moviemaking are traced and their influence, along with that of 3D photo clubs, on the beginnings of the 3D movie boom in Hollywood. The practice of amateur 3D ...
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Amateur stereo photography and 3D moviemaking are traced and their influence, along with that of 3D photo clubs, on the beginnings of the 3D movie boom in Hollywood. The practice of amateur 3D moviemaking with “home movies” and 3D is also traced up to the present day.Less
Amateur stereo photography and 3D moviemaking are traced and their influence, along with that of 3D photo clubs, on the beginnings of the 3D movie boom in Hollywood. The practice of amateur 3D moviemaking with “home movies” and 3D is also traced up to the present day.
