As long as there has been tragedy, there has been comedy. Comedy has been one of the oldest genres across all performing arts, and cinema was no different. Comedy cemented itself within cinema as early as 1895 when the Lumière Brothers premiered their short L'Arroseur Arrosé, and it did not take long for others to follow. During the silent era, comedy dominated the box office along with melodramas and continued even after the release of the first talkies. The silent era comedies continue to impact the art form and offer the modern audience a unique and invaluable perspective into the fundamentals of filmmaking.
A tragic statistic to keep in mind moving forward is that it is estimated that 70-90% of all silent films produced in the United States are gone forever. Age, poor storage conditions, and many massive warehouse fires throughout history have sadly resulted in countless films being lost to the ages. What we have today is merely the tip of an iceberg that we will never truly be able to appreciate. We do, however, have some historical records and exceptional specimens that give us a taste of this largely lost era.
Within the silent era, there were what are now known as “The Big Three of Silent Comedy”: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. These three titans of the industry laid the bedrock for Hollywood and its golden era, serving as the original movie stars. They all shared a love for stunts, slapstick comedy, exceptional craftsmanship, and above all, heart. The silent era comedies, as goofy as they may be at times, all have a sentimental side that is almost always emotionally impactful. This core aspect of an emotional stake within a comedy is something that is lacking in much of the modern-day comedies, which prefer pure satire or cynicism, leaning far too much into Aristotle’s Poetics quote describing comedy as “representing human beings worse than they are”. With the Silent Era comedies, we still get this necessary exaggeration for comedic purposes, but they maintain a redemptive quality in that each of our goofy or flawed protagonists is called to something higher.
This balance is quite evident in the character of “Glasses”, the character created and played by Harold Lloyd. Lloyd, just as the other prominent comedy actors of the time period, got his start in Vaudeville. He would eventually go on to work for Thomas Edison’s film company, from where he would gain experience in the earliest days of film production and eventually move out to California in pursuit of the newly founded West Coast industry. While Lloyd would not take to directing, he would fully commit himself to playing his iconic character of Glasses in over 200 feature films, pushing the medium and how far a stunt man was willing to go for a bit. Harold Lloyd’s stunt work and visual gags would become the stuff of legend, with the famous shot from Safety Last going on to be considered one of the most iconic shots in the history of the medium, and synonymous with the silent era. Lloyd’s work and character are still referenced to this day in films such as John Wick 2 and other great action films and are perfect time capsules for the American Gilded Age.
When it comes to Buster Keaton, however, he was not one who had a recurring character within his films. Rather, he elected to have continuity with his delivery, earning him the nickname of “The Great Stone Face”. Keaton, like Lloyd and Chaplin, would have his start in vaudeville at a very young age, and gradually shift into the world of movies as he aged. As a young child he was known for his intense physical comedy and stunts that lead some observers to accuse his parents of child abuse. He developed from a very young age the ability to land a fall without getting injured,stating that it had become second nature to him to “land like a cat” and never be injured. His family was prosecuted as far as being arrested for child abuse, but were released when Buster was able to prove he was unharmed by showing he had no bruises. This lead to another nickname of “The Little Boy Who Can't Be Damaged”. Keaton would continue his extreme performances until he met legendary and infamous producer Fatty Arbuckle in 1917, and would move to California to begin not only starring but directing films. Keaton quickly gained a reputation for being an intense and competent filmmaker, with a commitment to stunts and physical comedy that would make Tom Cruise blush.
He would go on a streak of incredibly high-quality films from 1920 to 1929 that prominent voices in film have described as some of the finest work in the history of filmmaking. Buster Keaton always found a way to push the limit in what a stunt man can do and how far one is willing to go for. Whether it was using a crossing gate to land in a moving car, jumping onto a moving train and moving debris out of the way from said moving train, or having the entire front of a house fall on you to only poke through the window, there was no feat that was too small for this daredevil filmmaker. Iconic films such as The General (1926), The Cameraman (1928), Sherlock Jr (1924), and Seven Chances (1925) offer just a tip of the creative iceberg that Buster Keaton produced at the peak of the silent era.
It was ironically his signing with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that saw his career decline, as the studio whose motto of Ars Artis Gratia decided they wanted to limit his creative control, and eventually lead to Keaton being fired in 1933 after man run ins with the studio. Buster wouldn’t find appreciation and rekindled interest until the 1950’s when prominent filmmakers such as Orson Welles continuously singing his praise and cameos in iconic films such as Sunset Boulevard and Limelight. His legend and prestige have only grown since then, with Roger Ebert describing him as “the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies”.
We now come to the most famous character in this bunch with Charlie Chaplin. A British citizen who started in a poor area in London, Chaplin also was a fellow vaudevillian turned to film, where he developed his world-famous character The Tramp. Chaplin was all in on the silent era and would also find his way behind the camera like Buster Keaton, with the key difference being Chaplin was more focused on the drama and comedy and not as much on stunts. This shift in focus allowed Chaplin to really flesh out stories and struggles to create highly emotional pieces that hold up even to this day. In the 1920’s Chaplin would make great silent films such as The Kid (1921) and The Gold Rush (1925), but surprisingly the bulk of his most well-known work came from after Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer (1927). Charlie Chaplin was notorious for his disdain for talkies, referring to them as gimmicks and fads. Refusing to make talkies, he would proceed to make 2 of the greatest films in the history of the format during this time with City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936).
He was insistent on silent film as the superior art form and became well known for his refusal to make a talkie until the close of the decade, where he decided it was time to make one. In 1940, Chaplin would make a talkie that serves as a plea to none other than Adolf Hitler (the other famous individual with a funny mustache) to reverse course for the sake of peace. In The Great Dictator (1940), Chaplin gives one of the greatest monologues in history in a desperate attempt to call for peace, and while it fell on deaf ears at the time, the speech remains all the more pertinent and reveals much about Chaplin and his work overall. Charlie Chaplin’s work is aggressively humanist and sentimental. At their funniest points they will make you burst out laughing, and their saddest they will make you weep. The entire human experience seems to be crammed into each of his 90-minute features, all while maintaining a balance of epic scale and emotional intimacy. Even in his last film, Limelight, there is a vulnerability within that isn’t something seen often in cinema but is incredible to experience.
It is impossible to oversell the heart that lies at the center of the Silent Era comedies. The fun, wonder, and innovation to be experienced is something that should be experienced by all generations and will continue to impact filmmakers as long as the artform exists. The wonderful works of Lloyd, Keaton, and Chaplin are pieces that viewers can revisit again and again with fantastic rewatchability. The silent era serves as a safe source of recommendations that is equal parts entertaining, informative, and artistically beneficial, which is why we highly recommend starting at with the films which will be highlighted in our upcoming series! Stay tuned…
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Of these three stars combined, I have only seen 6 of their films.
Chaplin: City Lights, The Gold Rush, Modern Times
Keaton: The General, Sherlock, Jr.
Lloyd: Safety Last!
Are you covering all three of them within 5 movies?