Gary Johnson wrote:Richard M Roberts wrote: Excuse me? Langdon was given all the time he needed at Roach to make his first talkies, and they're fine.
I wasn't referring to production time as much as time to allow the series to gel. He only got to make 8 shorts before the plug got pulled.
His last four shorts showed that he was starting to find interesting comic variations with sound.
I understand there were behind the scenes problems between Roach & Langdon but Roach was suppose to be - first and foremost - a businessman. Was it so bad that he could even let him finish out the series?
Now then, how serious is the tale that Roach was contemplating hiring Keaton in the mid 30's?
First lets deal with the seriousness of your tale about Langdon.Nobody "pulled the plug" on the Roach Langdon series, Langdon left, after completing the 8 shorts his contract called for, and in March, 1930, Roach announced that he was going to be starring Langdon in feature films for the coming 1930-31 season. The problem was, Langdon didn't sign a new contract with Roach, he jumped ship and went to Warner Brothers to make A SOLDIERS PLAYTHING, which was planned as a big-budget musical shot in 65mm by a major studio which I'm sure looked like a better offer to Langdon at the time than staying with Roach. Of course it ended up being a disaster, as did SEE AMERICA THIRST, and stopped Langdon's first comeback cold.
Roach in late life talked about "difficulties" with Langdon, but, as with a lot of Roach's late-life stories, they need to be taken as grain-salted sour grapes. Nothing in the production records indicate problems on the Langdon shorts, all were completed in actual record time, actual production running a week or less. The shorts were actually well received by the press and exhibitors alike, and it is most likely that, if Langdon had stayed on at Roach, his comeback might have been permanent. But Langdon;s judgement hadn;t been too terrific in those late twenties-early thirties years, and it would take a few more hard ones and a new, good marriage to really start to turn his life around.
Roach was never serious about hiring Keaton, remember who his distributor was.
RICHARD M ROBERTS