Cinema
The Strong Man
Frank Capra · 1926
Synopsis
Belgian front, during the Great War. Private Paul Bergot corresponds with Mary Brown, an American woman he has never seen and whose photograph he keeps. Captured by a German soldier, he follows him after the Armistice to America as the assistant in his music-hall strongman act, Zandow the Great. In New York, Paul scans the faces of passing women, and an adventuress who has hidden stolen money in her coat passes herself off as Mary. The tour then leads to Cloverdale, a small town run by bootleggers, against whom stands Pastor Brown, Mary's father.
Context
The film was produced by Harry Langdon's company and distributed by First National; it is the first feature that Capra directed. The character, a grown man who has remained a child, was funny, according to his collaborators, only when he could set his own rhythm. The following year, Langdon dismissed Capra a week before the delivery of a new film and wanted to direct alone; the public abandoned him within two years. The account of this break comes chiefly from the director's memoirs.
Who it is for
A silent comedy of seventy-five minutes, in seven reels, with intertitles, for those who enjoy the slapstick of the twenties.
Prizes and reception
One of Langdon's three great successes; in 1949, James Agee ranked the actor among the four great silent comedians, with Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd.
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