The Strong Man (1926) was Langdon's second and finest film; it's bracingly ambitious in both scope and story, and marked director Frank Capra's feature-film debut. Harry plays an unlikely World War I hero who immigrates to America to find his pen-pal sweetheart, posing as a vaudeville strongman as his love-struck odyssey spins through a series of increasingly audacious comedy set pieces. Langdon's debut feature, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926), costars Joan Crawford as the woman who's captured Harry's fancy, and he joins a cross-country walking race in an adventurous effort to impress her. The film's climactic cyclone scene is as impressive for its time as anything in Twister--and a whole lot funnier. Finally, 1927's Long Pants follows the familiar formula: Harry's misguided attraction to a brazen vamp (which tempts him to dispatch his unsuspecting fiancée) leads to a series of misadventures, but as always, Harry's innate goodness wins out in the end.

Langdon's career was never again as bright; he directed himself in subsequent, lesser films and his popularity rapidly faded. That makes this collection essential for silent-comedy aficionados; these films are the enduring legacy of Langdon's brief but shining time in the spotlight, and they should not be forgotten. --Jeff Shannon