Director Frank Capra made his feature film directorial debut with The Strong Man, a Harry Langdon film. Langdon plays a World War I soldier who corresponds with Mary Brown, a blind girl back in Cloverdale U.S.A. After several misadventures, he winds up in Cloverdale after the war and accidentally meets Mary Brown who lives in a town rife with drink and corruption, 1926 style of course. This was Langdon's best picture supposedly, and it's no secret that Frank Capra was the reason. Capra utilized a style combining humor and pathos that enhanced Langdon's child/man character in a way audiences had not seen before, excepting perhaps Chaplin and maybe Keaton at the time. Capra was also fond of the small town setting and populated it with archetypes, often an underdog against several others in positions of power. Here Langdon must stand in at the last minute for a strong man and entertain a rowdy crowd in a music hall while inadvertently assisting the holy rollers of the town in getting rid of its bad seeds. The sequence with the first "Mary Brown", Lily of Broadway played by Gertrude Astor, trying to obtain her pilfered loot from Langdon is a comic highlight. The sequence with Langdon trying to rescue his embarrassment in front of others while feeling sick is also funny. However, the final sequence when Langdon subdues the reckless crowd, wins the girl, and rids the town of its bad element simultaneously is equally corny and grand, something Capra would also become known for in later films. *** of 4 stars.
Review of The Strong Man
