Book Choice --- Little Elf: A Celebration of Harry Langdon

I got this week what weighed like a Manhattan phone directory, but turned out to be the new, and monumental, Harry Langdon book from authors Michael Hayde (he of outstanding previous books on Jack Webb and Superman) and Chuck Harter, just published by Bear Manor (available here --- a hardcover edition will be offered "very soon," according to the authors). Little Elf is rightly sub-titled "A Celebration Of Harry Langdon," and puts to rout innumerable myths about the comic as well as unearthing much about HL's vaudeville career never published or known till now. All Langdon bucks stop here as no stone goes unturned over 686 large pages, half of which is compelling bio, the rest detailed film coverage. I'd forgot sheer number of pics Harry appeared in (or wrote) between 1924 and 1945 (several released posthumously). Said inventory was wake-up to how many are left to see (especially talkies) --- and girds me toward finding those so far missed ...

Langdon's Terrific in Hot Rhythm, But Ouch! --- Not Listed Among Players on the Lobby Card

Harry Gets To Be "Master Of Mirth" At The
Majestic ... But For One Day Only

One was Hot Rhythm (1944), just another that previous historians would label Poor Harry In Decline, but showed to this viewer what magic he wrought as character comic support to low-cost jivin' Jack (Robert Lowery) and Jill (Dona Drake), Monogram's hope for song-and-romance tandem to rival elsewhere teams. Every time Harry walks in, the joint lights up, especially his tiltings with eccentric-and-then-some Irene Ryan, years back of Granny Clampett, but no less mirth-making for the gap. What I notice about late Langdon is how well he mingles among both straight and comic talent. Stan Laurel observed HL had the makings of a great actor in addition to humor gifts. These Monograms prove it, as does support turns done for others, like Swingin' On A Rainbow at Republic. Hang it, though, for so few in circulation. Hot Rhythm streams on Netflix, but I only got over the Rainbow via Cinevent 2010, where collector/historian Richard M. Roberts ran his seemingly one-of-a-kind print.

Long Pants and Harry's Truest Oddball Of A Misfire, But Its A Fascinating One

Obscure For Decades, A Soldier's Plaything Finally Is Available on
 Warner Archive DVD

I wish too that TCM would re-run Langdon's 1929-30 season shorts for Hal Roach. These came after the feature fall, and all have points of interest. In fact, Harry occupied many and varied cribs over those twenty plus years he filmed. Work was where HL could find it, meaning you'd see him doing a commercial subject here (for B.F. Goodrich tires), teamed there & thither with El Brendel, Una Merkel, many others. He'd walk on even to an East Side Kids frolic (Block Busters in '44). Much of these were toward the end, Langdon still game whatever the circumstance. The fact he was expert at gagging made work easier for crews in a (customary) hurry on low-budgeters. The Little Elf authors confirm Langdon's having more comedy acumen in small digits than whole teams banging rival typewriters. So just how many laff-makers were so sharp as Harry then?

Babe Hardy Posing as Though Stan Were Still His Partner, But This Was Langdon and Hardy in Hal Roach's Aborted Go at Replacing the L&H Brand 

Harry Plays at Tentative Comeback in
 Hallelujah, I'm A Bum

Another thing this book does magnificently is reconstruct lost Langdon, including shorts for Sennett long gone, talking comedies unseen since early-30's newness, and appendix-placed Heart Trouble, detail-covered in closest-to-actually-seeing it mode (which I guess we never will --- Harter/Hayde couldn't locate a screening after 1931). Conflicts Langdon had with Frank Capra are definitively dealt with, a wonderful introduction to Little Elf by ace scholar Edward Watz adds much to what we know of Capra vis-à-vis Harry, with Raymond Rohauer anecdotes (always welcome) for a sweetener. Harter/Hayde devote their bio epilogue to the afterlife of Langdon's image and his films, bringing on TV airplay, compilations (such as Robert Youngson), Blackhawk selling on 8/16mm, plus postures previous writers have taken re Harry's rise and crash. It's the best summary thus far tendered, certainly a fairest and most informed.

Legendarily Lost Heart Trouble from 1928 --- Little Elf's Account is Almost Like Being There

You'll not believe all the dope these authors found on pre-movie Harry. Little Elf is like innards of a long-forgot theatrical trunk filled with Langdon lore. I'm amazed such stuff survived, let alone that 2012 diggers could get at it. There are even scripts for HL's vaudeville turns, written, of course, by him. I came away from Little Elf thinking anything's possible --- will Harter/Hayde be the guys who someday find Heart Trouble? In the wake of this book, I won't be surprised. Noteworthy is over five hundred illustrations throughout Elf's pages, much being trade promos, rare ad art, wire photos --- lots new to me --- and culled from Langdon stashes far and wide. Little Elf is more than a book about one comedian --- it's masterly coverage of an era and the many whose orbits Harry crossed. Cameos, many extended, include Mack Sennett, Hal Roach, Laurel and Hardy ... the list encompasses most every headliner of Langdon's day. I'll be in and out of this book over pleasurable months to come. Certainly for whatever Harry Langdons I screen, it'll be sitting in my lap.

More Harry Langdon at Greenbriar Archives --- Part One and Two.