Larry Semon
Biography: 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.
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: July 14, 1889
Deathday: October 08, 1928
Popularity:
Known For
Underworld
1927-08-20
Underworld
Overview: Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.
Genres: Drama Crime Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-08-20
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The Wizard of Oz
1925-02-12
The Wizard of Oz
Overview: A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz.
Genres: Comedy Family Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-02-12
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The Sawmill
1922-01-01
The Sawmill
Overview: 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.
Genres: Comedy Romance Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-01-01
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Golf
1922-09-03
Golf
Overview: Comedy on the golf links.
Genres: Comedy Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-09-03
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Kid Speed
1924-11-16
Kid Speed
Overview: 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. Another competitor crashes into the action, who is also in love with DuPoys's daughter. DuPoys suggests that whoever wins the race will have the opportunity to visit his daughter every Wednesday night. An action-packed race commences, with one competitor doing more than usual to win the race.
Genres: Comedy Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-11-16
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Go Straight!
1925-04-27
Go Straight!
Overview: 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. Can she stop them from ruining her new life?
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-04-27
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The Simple Life
1919-08-04
The Simple Life
Overview: The Simple Life is a silent comedy short.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-08-04
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Pluck and Plotters
1918-12-22
Pluck and Plotters
Overview: 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. But when Larry is not wielding a broom and forcing everyone into either ducking or taking a pratfall, or dunking an ice cube into the water cooler like an over-sized tea bag, he is fouling up industrial espionage.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-12-22
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Passing the Buck
1919-05-18
Passing the Buck
Overview: Larry has to fight off a bunch of crooks who are after his bag of jewels.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-05-18
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Between the Acts
1919-09-07
Between the Acts
Overview: Larry working behind the scenes at a vaudeville show and mess things up.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-09-07
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Scamps and Scandals
1919-02-16
Scamps and Scandals
Overview: Larry helps a girl escape her wedding to a fat man.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: xx
Release Date: 1919-02-16
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School Days
1920-05-03
School Days
Overview: Larry in school and always gets in trouble until he falls asleep and dreams of when he's all grown up.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-05-03
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The Suitor
1920-11-01
The Suitor
Overview: Larry having to go through a lot of trouble to get his girl. All from bomb baking cooks to high flying crashes.
Genres: Comedy Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-11-01
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The Fly-Cop
1920-03-28
The Fly-Cop
Overview: Larry going investigating an Oriental opium den. And opium is to Larry what spinach is for Popeye!
Genres: Action Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-03-28
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The Hick
1921-03-09
The Hick
Overview: Larry might be a hick causing a lot of trouble at the farm, but he shows he can outsmart those crooked city folks!
Genres: Comedy Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-03-09
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Dummies
1928-01-01
Dummies
Overview: A young man is part of a traveling medicine show owned by an elderly "professor" and his beautiful daughter. His job is to keep the audience entertained with his ventriloquist's act (which includes a monkey) while the professor hawks his patent medicines. One day the show's receipts are stolen by a gang of thieves, and in order to impress the professor's daughter, the young sets out to catch the crooks and retrieve the money.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-01-01
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A Simple Sap
1928-02-11
A Simple Sap
Overview: 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.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-02-11
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The Star Boarder
1919-05-26
The Star Boarder
Overview: 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. Exchanging clothes with a lookalike escaped prisoner, he goes back, only to find he's to be hung. Now desperate to leave again, he joins other cons in a jailbreak.
Genres: Crime Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-05-26
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A Weakend Driver
1922-05-04
A Weakend Driver
Overview: Larry goes driving... and flying... and falling....
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-05-04
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The Grocery Clerk
1919-12-01
The Grocery Clerk
Overview: Big Ben has the largest store in the town of New Ralgia. His chief clerk is in love with the post mistress. The three of them get involved in a series of mishaps with their customers and with the town ladies' man, whose advances conceal a more sinister purpose.
Genres: Comedy Crime Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-12-01
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The Cloudhopper
1925-06-06
The Cloudhopper
Overview: 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. All the near-misses with the speeding train were amazing and the scene where the car gets smashed by the truck are absolutely priceless.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-06-06
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The Perfect Clown
1925-12-14
The Perfect Clown
Overview: 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.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-12-14
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Plagues And Puppy Love
1917-10-01
Plagues And Puppy Love
Overview: 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.
Genres: Adventure Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-10-01
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Bears and Bad Men
1918-10-07
Bears and Bad Men
Overview: Bears and Bad Men is a 1918 silent comedy film directed by Larry Semon[1] and featuring Stan Laurel.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-10-07
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Romans and Rascals
1918-05-27
Romans and Rascals
Overview: 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. The whole thing is an excuse for a good send-up of how the Roman Empire has been depicted in "serious" plays, movies, &c.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-05-27
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Frauds and Frenzies
1918-11-17
Frauds and Frenzies
Overview: The story is of two convicts always trying to escape, until one day when they actually manage to. They meet up with a girl and become rivals for her charms.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-11-17
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Huns and Hyphens
1918-09-22
Huns and Hyphens
Overview: This film represents one of Larry Semon's pro-war films. He is a clumsy guy working in a restaurant and oddly, everyone who works in the place as well as many of the customers are Kaiser-loving spies. Why they would be headquartered in a restaurant in California, I have no idea! Regardless, their aim is to steal some plans from some old guy and his daughter. When Semon finds out, he comes to the rescue.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-09-22
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Dunces and Dangers
1918-08-04
Dunces and Dangers
Overview: 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. They are ready to take anything and everything and eventually chase the pair up onto the room—where various stunts occur.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-08-04
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His Home Sweet Home
1919-07-06
His Home Sweet Home
Overview: Larry Semon is in the kitchen preparing food for a high society musical evening.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-07-06
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Dew Drop Inn
1919-11-02
Dew Drop Inn
Overview: A comedy short by and with Larry Semon.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-11-02
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Dull Care
1919-10-05
Dull Care
Overview: Semon as a detective trying to deal with some roughnecks.
Genres: Comedy Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-10-05
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Traps and Tangles
1919-01-19
Traps and Tangles
Overview: 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.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-01-19
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The Bakery
1921-06-19
The Bakery
Overview: Well-meaning but accident-prone bakery employee Larry is involved in numerous slapstick mishaps on the job. After accidentally causing the bakery owner to fall into a vat of cake batter Larry finds his job in jeopardy, but he redeems himself by foiling a robbery planned by the bakery foreman.
Genres: Crime Comedy Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-06-19
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The Rent Collector
1921-05-22
The Rent Collector
Overview: The Rent Collector is a 1921 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.
Genres: Comedy Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-05-22
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The Bell Hop
1921-09-17
The Bell Hop
Overview: 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.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-09-17
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The Sportsman
1921-01-08
The Sportsman
Overview: The Sportsman is an American film comedy first released in 1921, directed by Larry Semon and Norman Taurog. The film stars Larry Semon, Lucille Carlisle, Al Thompson, Frank Alexander and William Hauber.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-01-08
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The Fall Guy
1921-07-15
The Fall Guy
Overview: Larry falls afoul of wanted criminal Gentleman Joe, who runs a saloon full of tough guys and gunslingers.
Genres: Western Comedy Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-07-15
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The Counter Jumper
1922-12-08
The Counter Jumper
Overview: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 'counter jumper' was the term used in both Britain and the U.S.A. to describe the lowest dogsbody clerk in a general store or emporium. Here, Semon is employed in that capacity in an Old West general store that caters for desperate characters. As usual for Semon, most of the gag set-ups are deeply contrived and implausible. We get here not one but two separate sequences in which randomly splattered stains just happen to resemble a human face.
Genres: Comedy Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-12-08
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A Pair of Kings
1922-06-10
A Pair of Kings
Overview: A Pair of Kings is a 1922 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-06-10
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The Stunt Man
1927-10-22
The Stunt Man
Overview: A movie stuntman, whose wealthy girlfriend has just turned down his marriage proposal, is determined to prove to her that he is man enough for her, and in doing so proceeds to ruin take after take, driving everyone on the set crazy, especially his director.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-10-22
Popularity:
Lightning Love
1923-10-22
Lightning Love
Overview: 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. Fox released a comedy that was an exact copy of Lightning Love just before the Semon film was due to come out. Albert E. Smith noticed the similarities and on September 5, 1923 attempted to have the Fox film pulled from the exhibitors.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-10-22
Popularity:
The Midnight Cabaret
1923-05-09
The Midnight Cabaret
Overview: The Midnight Cabaret is a 1923 American film directed by Larry Semon and featuring Oliver Hardy.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-05-09
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No Wedding Bells
1923-01-09
No Wedding Bells
Overview: Larry arrives at his girlfriend's house to ask her father for her hand in marriage. Her father, who is in the middle of winning a chess game for the first time in 20 years, immediately throws Larry out the window. Meanwhile, the girl is kidnapped by a Chinese servant, who is secretly the henchman of a gangster who has developed a sleeping potion he wants to try out on an unsuspecting woman. Larry finds out, and he sets out to rescue his girlfriend and try not to get thrown out of a window by her father again.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-01-09
Popularity:
Horseshoes
1923-12-09
Horseshoes
Overview: A boxer offers $50 to anyone who can stay in the ring with him for an entire minute. Larry, through a series of mix-ups--including hitting the boxer in the face with a tomato--winds up in the ring with him but, with the aid of some strategically placed horseshoes, manages to knock the boxer out. When he comes to and finds out what happened, the outraged boxer sets out after Larry.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-12-09
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The Gown Shop
1923-08-13
The Gown Shop
Overview: Here we have 'The Gown Shop', very much in Semon's usual style but with fewer laughs than usual. Semon plays his default character, a grotesque hard-working incompetent. (I'm going to be using the word 'grotesque' a lot in this particular review.) This time round, he blunders into a boutique. After causing some damage he can't pay for, Larry is put to work as a general dogsbody. Mayhem ensues.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-08-13
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Her Boy Friend
1924-09-27
Her Boy Friend
Overview: Young and beautiful Iva Method is spying for the police at the Dropem Inn, a sleazy club that the police suspect is a front for a bootlegging operation run by gangster Slim Chance. Chance discovers Iva's identity and kidnaps her, and the police chief sends his bumbling son Larry to rescue her.
Genres: Comedy Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-09-27
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Gall and Golf
1917-09-03
Gall and Golf
Overview: Golf, we discover in this early Semon short, is a game that is played by striking a croquet ball with a hockey stick and seeing how many times it can hit Larry Semon.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-09-03
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Walls and Wallops
1916-11-13
Walls and Wallops
Overview: 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. It is about cops, capers, and a love interest.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1916-11-13
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The Girl in the Limousine
1924-07-20
The Girl in the Limousine
Overview: Tony and Freddie, who have been rivals all their lives, vie for the hand in marriage of their childhood sweetheart. Big Freddie has the upper hand when Tony gets himself kidnapped by a ring of muggers whose M.O. is to have one of their members dress up as a woman to lure men into the back seat of their limousine, where they are beaten up and robbed.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-07-20
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Bathing Beauties and Big Boobs
1918-07-22
Bathing Beauties and Big Boobs
Overview: 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. Unfortunately, real crooks wind up taking the money from the "robbery", and the boyfriend has to get it back.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-07-22
Popularity:
Oh, What a Man!
1927-12-04
Oh, What a Man!
Overview: A detective sets out to nab Notorious Nora, the tough female leader of a gang whose headquarters is in a dangerous speakeasy. He decides to infiltrate her gang in order to get the goods on her, but things don't turn out exactly the way he expected them to.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-12-04
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The Barnyard
1923-06-11
The Barnyard
Overview: 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. Lay Zee, who knows that oil has been found on nearby farms, convinces the farmer not to sell, and the swindlers enlist the help of another farmhand, who is jealous of Lay Zee's relationship with the girl.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-06-11
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The Head Waiter
1919-12-01
The Head Waiter
Overview: The headwaiter does tricks with spaghetti that the greatest spaghetti handlers in the world never heard of. The sight makes your mouth water. Besides food, the scenes are garnished with a couple of trayfuls of beautiful girls.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-12-01
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Hindoos and Hazards
1918-06-29
Hindoos and Hazards
Overview: Larry Semon comedy.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-06-29
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The Dome Doctor
1925-04-18
The Dome Doctor
Overview: 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.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-04-18
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Risks and Roughnecks
1917-09-17
Risks and Roughnecks
Overview: "Risks and Roughnecks" is an early Larry Semon effort with outrageously funny acrobatics as takes care of business in a big brawl.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-09-17
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Tough Luck and Tin Lizzies
1917-10-22
Tough Luck and Tin Lizzies
Overview: Unlucky Larry finds himself pursued by the police after he inadvertently steals a man's car and kidnaps his girlfriend.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-10-22
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The Show
1922-03-19
The Show
Overview: 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.
Genres: Comedy Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-03-19
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Well, I'll Be
1919-04-14
Well, I'll Be
Overview: Larry Semon goes out west.
Genres: Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-04-14
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Trouble Brewing
1924-03-12
Trouble Brewing
Overview: This film, with Larry as a dry agent, pokes fun at the situations which the Prohibition Act produced throughout the country.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1924-03-12
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The Stage Hand
1920-09-20
The Stage Hand
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-09-20
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Spuds
1927-04-10
Spuds
Overview: 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.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-04-10
Popularity: