Is anybody interested in the work of Larry Semon? He, in the silent comedy stakes, ranks alongside my other hero, Harry Langdon. Both were "little men" comedians, and they both follow my own character trait.

Semon was certainly one of the most interesting of the silent comedians. Its a pity his work isn't more available in better prints : most of the films issued tend to look pretty bad. Oliver Hardy was often his heavy and some of the shorts have turned up in PD collections of Laurel and Hardy solos. Also his weird version of The Wizard of Oz (1925) is widely available, not a good intro to his work for the unwary. The poor quality of these films has meant possibly Semon is unjustly underrated.

Larry Semon was one of the most popular film comedians of the late teens/ early 20s and its for the films made before 1923/24 that he should really be judged. To be honest the only complete one I've seen from this early period in a good print is The Grocery Clerk (1920). To some critics its one of his best films, the problem was it became a template he tended to remake throughout his career.

Larry could be excellent with gags and his films are rarely dull but I haven't really discerned much of a character behind the usually frantic chases and huge leaps (to be fair watching a poor print of The Sawmill (1922) it might be hard to see much). Nothing in terms of character to really empathise with which to me is important if you are to define someone as great, you need that. Semon also used a clown white make-up and frankly he just doesn't look like a real person, he's almost a cartoon in the films or clips I've seen. I think that's why he never really made the leap to features successfully though he made a few.

Still maybe I've just not seen the right films but his decline in popularity as others like Keaton and Lloyd rose shows he did tend to stagnate and not develop as the great silent comedians did or put out films with widely differing premises. In the context of 1920 and what was being produced then Semon's comedy was probably as good as anything apart from Chaplin and Keaton, by 1925 even for audiences of the time he was struggling to compete in terms of ingenuity with many film comedians.
His time as a high ranking comedian was over. He died very early in 1928 certainly not helping any chance of a real revival of his work.

Here is a video of Semon in the 1925 film, The CloudHopper:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL84dYicdE0


Reading about Semon's demise is quite sad. The story surrounding his death, as recounted by his wife, is rather mysterious. The Wizard of Oz was a financial disastor for Semon and he never really recovered. Some of his shorts are quite enjoyable. As Derek noted, he was never able to elevate his films to the level of the "Big Three." Still, there is much to enjoy in his films.

Larry, in his pre-movie life, was a cartoonist (as indeed was Harry Langdon) and he put his thoughts to real life.

He really was very good, and his films - particularly The Bakery and The Sawmill - are absolute classics.

Where he went wrong was when he tried to make feature length films - like many of the other silent greats (like my hero, Harry Langdon) - and he fell flat.

For what it's worth, The Wizard Of Oz, is not a bad film - it's just not Larry!

I share personality traits - and lookalike traits - with Harry and Larry - so maybe that's why I love the pair of them so much!