When Comedy Was King

1960Movie⏱️ 1h 21mApproved

DocumentaryComedyHistory

⭐ 7.5

IMDB Rating

376 votes

A feature-length documentary devoted to the great clowns of silent comedy.

Director

Robert Youngson

Writers

N/A

Stars

Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Oliver Hardy

Release Date

March 29, 1960

Language

English

Country

United States

💬 11

Reviews

📽️ View on IMDB

🎭 Top Cast

Charles Chaplin

as Self - edited from 'His Trysting Place, ' 'The Masqurader, ' and 'Kid Auto at Venice.'

Buster Keaton

as Self - edited from 'Cops'

Oliver Hardy

as Self - edited from 'Big Business'

Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle

as Self - edited from 'Fatty & Mabel Adrift'

Wallace Beery

as Self - Henry Black

Charley Chase

as Self - edited from 'Movie Night'

Edgar Kennedy

as Self - edited from 'A Pair of Tights'

👤

Keystone Cops

as Self

Harry Langdon

as Self - edited from 'The First 100 Years'

Stan Laurel

as Self - edited from 'Big Business'

🎬 Technical Specs

Aspect Ratio

1.37 : 1

Sound

Mono

Color

Black and White

Production

Robert Youngson Productions

🏷️ Keywords

woman smokes a cigarcigar smokingslapstick comedypie in the facesketch comedy movie

🎯 Categories

SlapstickComedyDocumentaryHistory

⭐ Featured Review

REALLY tough to rate,...plus, it's missing something

by planktonrules • 2006-04-26

8/10

"First, I must point out that it is VERY VERY hard to give a rating score to a movie that is really just a compilation film. The only original content is the mostly good narration, sound effects and music. So a good score is 100% impossible--so take my 8 with a "grain of salt". Second, while I loved watching this film, it makes a serious omission. It talks about the "3 great comics" but never even mentions Harold Lloyd--who, for a while, was the highest paid and most popular comic alive. The problem was that when the movie was made, Lloyd retained ownership of his films and..."

💡 Did You Know?

One of the glaring omissions from this film is the absence of Harold Lloyd. Despite being good friends with Director Robert Youngson, Lloyd did not permit Youngson to use his films. Lloyd owned the copyright to most of his films and produced his own compilations.