THE STRONGMAN
US, 1926, 75 minutes, Black and white.
Harry Langdon.
Directed by Frank Capra.
The Strongman is a Frank Capra silent film and a star vehicle for Harry Langdon. Langdon was a comic who resembled Charlie Chaplin in his stature as well as his comic style. Frank Capra was soon to move successfully into sound films, making a name for him at the beginning of the '30s but coming into his own with his Oscar-winning It Happened One Night and the succeeding optimistic social welfare films like Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and It's A Wonderful Life.
1. Frank Capra and his career, his skill at being a gag-writer, directing sentiment and humour, indications of his future career? Harry Langdon as comic, presence, stature, style?
2. Silent film techniques, images, photography styles, black and white photography, editing and pace?
3. The opening with Paul and Zandow and World War One, the war in Belgium,, the irony of the picture of the war with the two holding their positions and being friendly with one another as well as firing at one another? Paul's injury? His being captured? The comfort of the letters from Mary Brown and America?
4. His capture, the end of the war, the voyage to the United States, the focus on Ellis Island, the arrival in New York and the possibilities? Zandow and his strongman act? Patil assisting him? The bonds between the two?
5. The long sequence with Paul in the street, the woman hiding the money, her attempts to get it back from him, comic timing and style, the image of the shy young man faced with the woman coming on to him? The long sequence for the film?
6. The trip to the border town, the picture of the nice old town, the contrast with its being dominated by vice? The comment on America in the '20s?
7. The situation, Zandow and his drunkenness? Paul having to go on in his stead? The gangsters in the town and their running the Palace Saloon? The religious demonstrations and Mr Brown? Mary and her blindness and-not having told Paul? The meeting of Paul and Mary, the pathos and the humour, his making her laugh, the discovery of the truth?
8. Paul and his comic performance, the response of the crowd, the cannon and its ultimately destroying the Palace? The demonstrators and their stances, procession, singing "Onward, Christian Soldiers"? Their being gratified by the destruction of the Palace?
9. Human comedy, sentiment, strong moralising? A comedy of the '20s?
