Silent Film of the Month: Three's a Crowd (1927)
Runtime: 60 minutes. Studio: Harry Langdon Corporation. Director: Harry Langdon. Writers: Arthur Ripley, Robert Eddy, Harry Langdon, James Langdon, Harry McCoy. Producer: Harry Langdon. Main Cast: Harry Langdon, Glays McConnell, Cornelius Reef, Arthur Thalasso. Cinematographers: Frank Evans, Elign Lessley.
Perhaps no other silent film comes with such a bad reputation as Harry Langdon's Three's a Crowd. So is it strange to say I not only like this movie, but in fact love it.
A rumor that haunted Harry Langdon for a long time that exists even today is that Frank Capra created Harry's character and that Harry didn't understand his own character. This piece of fiction came from Capra's autobiography, The Name Above the Title. Oh boy there is so little truth in that claim. By the short film All Night Long the character was completely formed, and there were more than a few moments showing who the character would be in earlier films. However this was before Frank Capra ever worked on a Harry Langdon film. However since this is believed it is also believed the films that Harry directed himself after firing Frank Capra are completely awful. Frank Capra was definitely a brilliant film maker (How could the director of It's A Wonderful Life be any less?) and I am by no means saying he did not help make the films he directed and wrote for that stared Harry Langdon great, but he definitely gave himself too much credit when it comes to those movies. These films were not only unavailable for viewing, but what could be found were awful reviews, and the fact that they didn't do well at the box office. It should be remembered though that Buster Keaton's The General also did poorly both with critics and at the box office. Since the films were near impossible to find this understandably made them be written down as awful movies. Though now they are much easier to find, people still do not want to try them out because it has been believed for so long that these films are as bad as they are made out to be. Three's A Crowd marked Harry's debut as a director. He had fired Frank Capra, just before making this movie.
The story begins as Harry (played Harry Langdon) is dreaming of having a child of his very own. His boss (played by Arthur Thalasso) tries to get Harry to work, but Harry is letting his daydreams interfere with his work. When the boss's wife gets a love letter the boss assumes Harry wrote it. This leads Harry to escape. After escaping Harry meets a pregnant woman named Gladys (played by Gladys McConnell), freezing to death. Harry takes her in and decides to take care of the poor woman and her coming child. However the woman has a husband (played by Cornelius Keefe) who may return one day.
Much more footage was shot for Three's A Crowd than ended up in the film. The film was edited during a series of premieres, with the movie coming out shorter each time. These included scenes about Gladys before she meet Harry. There were also scenes added to the film. One of these scenes was a gag for the movie to end on. The ending was originally more serious and audiences didn't like this much, so a joke for an ending was made as a bit of a compromise.
The film received very poor reviews and did very poorly at the box office. Many critics were not fans of the dramatic moments especially. It has been said that Harry Langdon was not one to take negative criticism well. This might be why his next film The Chaser was much more pure comedy. However that film would be attacked for having too dark a sense of humor, and also perform poorly at the box office. After Three's a Crowd, Harry was no longer considered an equal to Chaplin as he had been before. His previous film Long Pants was also a flop and after just two critical and box office failures, he was now considered just another second rate, movie comedian.
However despite all this the film is downright fantastic and actually ranks as one of Harry's best films. There is more drama here than usual for Harry, but it all is very well done. However this does not get in the way of the film's comedy. The movie is very funny and scenes like Harry getting a face full of soot, hanging down from a rug and the great joke ending are pure tradition slapstick at it's best. Additional the comedy and the drama never get in the way of each other. This is because since both the drama and the comedy are so closely tied into the story and characters, they both feel natural and welcome here. While this film is often criticized for being too slow (though Harry was the slowest paced of the silent film comics), I don't quite understand where this comes from. Very little is much slower than scenes that appeared in Harry's more popular films. The only scene I kind of understand is the start, but there is almost something captivatingly lovely about this slow beginning. This whole film as I stated earlier just fits together perfectly and that is why it is such a delight to watch.
To echo what luckily a few other film historians have said, I hope one day this movie gets completely revaluated, and is viewed as the great film it is.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used The Silent Films of Harry Langdon (1923-1928) by James L. Neibaur http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018484/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt