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RR 2015/227 The 100 Greatest Silent Film Comedians James Roots Rowman & Littlefield Lanham, MD and London 2014 xxix + 433 pp. ISBN 978 1 44223649 3 (print); ISBN 978 1 4422 3650 9 (e-book) £65 $95
Keywords Cinema, Humour
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-05-2015-0104
In the days when television in the UK was restricted to a choice of three channels, a regular feature of midday programming included the screening of silent comedies from the early days of cinema. However, as further channels came on stream bringing increased competition for viewing figures, the silent comedies disappeared from our screens never to be seen again. With their slapstick comedians, these silent films doubtless brought back memories of a bygone time for those of a certain age and probably introduced a good number of new aficionados to the pleasures of the silent screen comedies. Since the disappearance of these programmes, enthusiasts of the early cinema have had to be content with acquiring copies of film through collectors' magazines or through societies dedicated to the preservation of our film heritage. In more recent years, enthusiasts have been better served by the growing availability, initially of VHS recordings and, more recently, of DVD copies of these films, often issued by small-scale distribution companies. Whilst the television screenings of these comedies were almost exclusively restricted to the films made by the main five comedians, Chaplin, Keaton, Harold Lloyd and the duo Laurel and Hardy, the present volume now allows us to examine the lives and careers of a...