When Comedy Was King *** (1960, Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, Ben Turpin, Fatty Arbuckle) – Classic Movie Review 7589

Double Oscar-winning writer-producer Robert Youngson’s 1960 compilation feature film When Comedy Was King toasts the great clowns of silent comedy and brings together excerpts from many silent slapstick classics, which are carefully edited together for a rollercoaster of side-splitting scenes.

The grating voice-over by Dwight Weist and the lack of context for each piece are made up for by the brilliant comic invention of the original material.

All the silent slapstick classic favourite stars are here, including Charlie Chaplin (from His Trysting Place, The Masqurader and Kid Auto at Venice), Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (in a clip from Big Business, 1929), Charley Chase (from Charley Chase’s Movie Night, 1929) Ben Turpin (from Yukon Jake), Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery, Charley Chase, Edgar Kennedy (from A Pair of Tights), Harry Langdon (from The First 100 Years), Mabel Normand, Fatty Arbuckle (from Fatty and Mabel Adrift, 1916) and Buster Keaton (in a brilliant sequence from Cops, 1922).

Also in the clips are Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, Chester Conklin, James Finlayson, Snub Pollard and Mack Swain.

When Comedy Was King is directed by Robert Youngson, runs 82 minutes, is made by Robert Youngson Productions, is released by 20^th Century Fox, is written by Robert Youngson, is produced by Robert Youngson and is scored by Ted Royal.

It is the fourth of writer-producer Robert Youngson’s valuable compilations of classic silent movie clips, following The Golden Age of Comedy (1957), When Comedy Was King (1960) and Days of Thrills and Laughter (1961).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7589

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