The Strong Man
About The Strong Man
Paul Bergot (Harry Langdon), a Belgian veteran, comes to the United States looking for Mary Brown (Priscilla Bonner), the blind woman who wrote to him during the war and sent a photograph. He asks one woman after another if she is Mary. He is tied to the strongman Zandow the Great (Arthur Thalasso). By accident, and mostly through slapstick, he breaks up the crooks and bootleggers who have a hold on Mary's town.
Cast & crew
More about The Strong Man
Frank Capra's first feature. Harry Langdon produced it through his own company and First National released it on September 19, 1926. Arthur Ripley supplied the story. Hal Conklin and Robert Eddy adapted it. Reed Heustis wrote titles. Glenn Kershner and Elgin Lessley photographed it.
Themes
Background
A 1926 comedy about a Belgian soldier who reaches America after the war and walks into a town running on bootleg liquor.
Reviews
Variety called it a whale of a comedy, with pathos closer to Chaplin than to the other silent comics, and said Langdon's method had a strong vehicle here.
Preservation
The Library of Congress placed it on the National Film Registry in 2007. A file is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Capra's next Langdon feature was Long Pants (1927), their last film together.
- With Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, this is the Langdon feature most often singled out.
- On a crowded bus west, Paul treats a jar of Limburger as if it were Vicks VapoRub and keeps elbowing the passenger who objects. Richard von Busack described that bit in a later notice.
- Wikidata also lists Carl Davis as composer, which matches later accompaniment rather than a 1926 recorded score.
Scenes
- Paul stops stranger after stranger and asks if she is Mary Brown.
- He opens a jar of Limburger on the bus and treats it like a cold remedy.
- He stumbles into clearing Mary's town of the bootleggers.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Strong Man (1926).webm)
- Kino DVD (Langdon features, including this title)
