Larry Semon Trailers
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American silent film comedian whose hugely successful career disappeared virtually overnight, Larry Semon was the son of a traveling vaudeville magician, Zera the Great. He grew up in show business and was trained in stage comedy and acrobatics. A talent for drawing and cartooning led to art school and then work as a cartoonist for various New York City newspapers. The humor evident in his published cartoons prompted executives at New York's Vitagraph Studios to hire him as a gag writer in 1916. He quickly proved himself and was promoted to director for the Hughie Mack series of comedies. His background in magic helped him create interesting new gags for the comedian. When Mack left the studio in 1917, Semon took over the starring role himself. His one-reelers were quite successful, and Vitagraph sent him to California to participate in its new West Coast operation. He produced as well as wrote, starred in and directed his own films, at the same time also producing films for other comics.
In the summer of 1928 Semon apparently fell ill with tuberculosis and simultaneously, it seems, suffered a nervous breakdown. He entered a sanitarium near San Bernardino, CA, where he reportedly died on October 8. However, an air of mystery surrounds his death, since his wife (and former co-star) Dorothy Dwan was allowed almost no contact with him and never saw his body, which was ordered cremated after a tightly secured funeral, which was carried out per Semon's "previous instructions" and to which almost no attendees were allowed. The whereabouts of Semon's cremated remains are to this day a mystery, and his widow professed until her death to be mystified by the circumstances of his passing. With enormous financial obligations facing him Larry Semon could easily have considered a dramatic escape of this sort from his creditors. Whether he did, or whether his death was the sad final chapter to a high-rising, briefly brilliant, but ultimately short-lived career may never be known for certain.
Most Popular Larry Semon Trailers
Total trailers found: 82
30 June 1916
Fatima decides she needs to reduce her weight. Inspired by the example of famous actress and beauty icon Lillian Russell, she attempts to "roll it off" through various weight-loss methods.
03 May 1920
Larry in school and always gets in trouble until he falls asleep and dreams of when he's all grown up.
12 March 1924
This film, with Larry as a dry agent, pokes fun at the situations which the Prohibition Act produced throughout the country.
11 February 1928
A bumbling grocery-store employee must deal with such job-related problems as a conniving boss, unruly customers, a baby alligator and an escaped lunatic, all of which culminates in a wild melee involving hurled cakes, pies, buckets of jam and bags of flour.
06 July 1919
Larry Semon is in the kitchen preparing food for a high society musical evening.
10 April 1927
In France during World War I, an army payroll car containing $250,000 turns up missing. A GI, nicknamed "Spuds" because of his prowess at peeling potatoes, discovers that it was stolen by German spies, and--since his captain was responsible for the car and will be in big trouble if it's not recovered--goes behind the enemy lines to retrieve both the car and the $250,000 payroll.
05 October 1919
Semon as a detective trying to deal with some roughnecks.
04 August 1918
Larry and his wife are desperately poor—with no food. However, the butcher and grocer show up to collect money they are owed and they won't take no for an answer.
27 April 1925
Gilda is a crook who wants to go straight, but her pals keep holding her back. She moves to Hollywood to begin anew but the old gang follows behind.
08 September 1916
The master crook steals the sweetheart of Sherlock, a great detective. Sherlock undertakes to recover her.
14 December 1925
A clerk is given $10,000 to deposit at the bank, but the bank is closed for the night so he tries to get to the bank president's house with the money.
15 January 1917
Pa Glitters and his daughter are beset upon by Slippery Ike who is intent on separating them from their jewels until Bunco Charley comes to their rescue in fine comic fashion.
12 February 1917
Slapstick comedy short about a quarreling couple and a nosy mother-in-law.
18 August 1916
Hughie Mack, Eddie Dunn, and Frank Kingsley secretly leave their homes to enjoy a night out without their wives' knowledge.
29 January 1917
One of many Larry Semon directed Vitagraph comic shorts. Like a large portion of them this is lost.
14 July 1916
Beware the ire of the sacred God Ammett, or any other of those Egyptian Gods for that matter. As a bellhop in a hotel, Hughey managed to get possession of a wonderful ruby, the eye of Ammet, and with its aid obtained an introduction to a millionaire and his beautiful daughter.
09 May 1923
The Midnight Cabaret is a short 1923 American comedy starring Larry Semon and featuring Oliver Hardy.
20 July 1924
Tony and Freddie, who have been rivals all their lives, vie for the hand in marriage of their childhood sweetheart.
18 April 1925
The proprietors of a hairdressing and beauty emporium and the neighboring delicatessen battle over everything including the hairdresser's love of the deli owner's daughter.
16 February 1919
Larry helps a girl escape her wedding to a fat man.
06 June 1925
The plot of this film really isn't that important. Instead, the sight gags and chase scenes are paramount--with some of the most impressive chase footage you'll ever see.
01 November 1920
Larry having to go through a lot of trouble to get his girl. All from bomb baking cooks to high flying crashes.
26 March 1917
Hafed, a Turkish prince, imprisons an American girl and her father. The girl sends for Jim, who attempts a rescue.
01 January 1922
A bumbling sawmill employee tries to win the hand of the owner's daughter while staying out of the clutches of the mill's bullying foreman.
22 January 1917
Two blowhard amateur bowlers boast about their prowess only to be shown up for the Big Bluffs they are.
20 August 1927
Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.
10 June 1922
A Pair of Kings is a 1922 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.
17 September 1921
A government official staying in a hotel puts some important secret papers in the hotel safe. A ring of spies out to get the papers manages to steal them from the safe, and a lady government agent enlists the help of the hotel's bumbling bellhop in getting back the papers and breaking up the spy ring.
22 October 1923
The storm, which takes up most of the second reel, is a trial run for the storm sequence in The Wizard Of Oz which Semon would make in 1925.
16 November 1924
Avery DuPoys is a wealthy businessman, organising a race. He meets one of the competitors of the race, who is in love with DuPoys's daughter.
28 March 1920
Larry going investigating an Oriental opium den. And opium is to Larry what spinach is for Popeye!
17 September 1917
"Risks and Roughnecks" is an early Larry Semon effort with outrageously funny acrobatics as takes care of business in a big brawl.
12 February 1925
A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz.
05 February 1917
While Larry Semon does not star in Rips and Rushes, its confident gags and frenetic pace suggest his touch.
02 November 1919
A comedy short by and with Larry Semon.
09 March 1921
Larry might be a hick causing a lot of trouble at the farm, but he shows he can outsmart those crooked city folks!
03 September 1922
Comedy on the golf links.
04 May 1922
Larry goes driving... and flying... and falling....
01 October 1917
Larry Semon produces his take on a typical Keystone farce, the flirting-in-the-park routine, where pretty Florence Curtis is pursued by four typical Keystone types: the wealthy geezer, the moustachioed Italian, the derby-wearing tough and, of course, the big-footed cop… and here comes Larry, if not to save the day, at least to make us laugh.
12 March 1917
Short comedy set against the backstage lives of a group of performers.
08 January 1917
A slapstick comedy directed by Larry Semon and starring Hughie Mack & Patsy De Forest.
07 October 1918
Bears and Bad Men is a 1918 silent comedy film directed by Larry Semon[1] and featuring Stan Laurel.
12 March 1927
A poor sap tries to impress his girl by fighting the great boxing champion Jack Dempsey.
22 October 1917
Unlucky Larry finds himself pursued by the police after he inadvertently steals a man's car and kidnaps his girlfriend.
19 March 1922
A harried propman backstage at a theater must put up with malfunctioning wind machines, roosters that spit nitroglycerine, and a gang planning to rob the theater's payroll.
27 May 1918
The Roman setting provides ample opportunity for a very high concentration of gag titles, many of which are quite witty and many of which are quaint for deriving their humor from the juxtaposition of having ancient Romans use a lot of hip 1918-era slang.
19 January 1919
Larry Semon stars a guy being chased. Here we have a small twist on the sitting on the tram path and the tram goes the other way at the last minute stunt.
22 December 1918
He is the utterly inept janitor in an office building, where an inventor is busy cutting a deal for a new sort of -- well, it looks like it might be a racing car, but it might be a zeppelin.
14 April 1919
Larry Semon goes out west.
05 July 1918
Short slapstick comedy
15 July 1921
Larry falls afoul of wanted criminal Gentleman Joe, who runs a saloon full of tough guys and gunslingers.
26 May 1919
Larry's absurdly plush life of ease as a convict comes to an end when his sentence is up. Tossed out, he tries several ways, including a stickup to get back in the comfortable jail.
22 May 1921
The Rent Collector is a 1921 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.
13 November 1916
A comedy short produced by Vitagraph and released in 1916. This is entitled Walls and Wallops, and features Hughey (also spelt Hughie) Mack with Lawrence (also Larry) Semon directing this.
11 June 1923
Lay Zee works on a farm and has won the heart of the farmer's daughter. There is oil on the farmland, and some swindlers are determined to get their hands on the property, by force if necessary.
22 July 1918
A man decides to stage a fake robbery in front of his girlfriend's father (who doesn't like him), hoping it will make the father change his opinion.
04 August 1919
The Simple Life is a silent comedy short.
07 April 1916
Mrs. Jinks dreams that her milquetoast husband was more of a manly brute—at least until a life-saving blood transfusion changes him into her worst nightmare.
