The Golden Age of Comedy **** (1957, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Harry Langdon, Ben Turpin) – Classic Movie Review 7522

Producer-director Robert Youngson’s 1957 cinema feature The Golden Age of Comedy is his deservedly highly popular first trawl through the silent era archives. It is a hilarious compilation of classic scenes from silent comedy, featuring some of the finest comedians in clips from their best films.

The laughs come fast and furious, though admittedly narrators Dwight Weist and Ward Wilson’s silly commentary irritates.

Featured are Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Harry Langdon, Ben Turpin, Will Rogers, Carole Lombard, Billy Bevan, Charley Chase, Andy Clyde, Jean Harlow and Harry Gribbon.

The Golden Age of Comedy played an important role in rehabilitating silent films and some of the era’s now most famous names, doing a particular service to restoring the reputation of Laurel and Hardy, especially with the long clip from The Battle of the Century (1927).

Youngson followed up The Golden Age of Comedy (1957) with further hit feature film compilations – When Comedy Was King, Days of Thrills and Laughter, and Laurel and Hardy’s Laughing 20’s (1965) – which did the immense service of reviving interest in the Laurel and Hardy shorts, which were then shown again in full on TV.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7522

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