Larry Semon

Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.

A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz.

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.

Comedy on the golf links.

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.

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?

The Simple Life is a silent comedy short.

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.

Larry has to fight off a bunch of crooks who are after his bag of jewels.

Larry working behind the scenes at a vaudeville show and mess things up.

Larry helps a girl escape her wedding to a fat man.

Larry in school and always gets in trouble until he falls asleep and dreams of when he's all grown up.

Larry having to go through a lot of trouble to get his girl. All from bomb baking cooks to high flying crashes.

Larry going investigating an Oriental opium den. And opium is to Larry what spinach is for Popeye!

Larry might be a hick causing a lot of trouble at the farm, but he shows he can outsmart those crooked city folks!

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.

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.

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.

Larry goes driving... and flying... and falling....

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bears and Bad Men is a 1918 silent comedy film directed by Larry Semon[1] and featuring Stan Laurel.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Larry Semon is in the kitchen preparing food for a high society musical evening.

A comedy short by and with Larry Semon.

Semon as a detective trying to deal with some roughnecks.

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.

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.

The Rent Collector is a 1921 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.

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.

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.

Larry falls afoul of wanted criminal Gentleman Joe, who runs a saloon full of tough guys and gunslingers.

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.

A Pair of Kings is a 1922 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.

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.

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.

The Midnight Cabaret is a short 1923 American comedy starring Larry Semon and featuring Oliver Hardy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Larry Semon comedy.

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.

"Risks and Roughnecks" is an early Larry Semon effort with outrageously funny acrobatics as takes care of business in a big brawl.

Unlucky Larry finds himself pursued by the police after he inadvertently steals a man's car and kidnaps his girlfriend.

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.

Larry Semon goes out west.

This film, with Larry as a dry agent, pokes fun at the situations which the Prohibition Act produced throughout the country.

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.

Hafed, a Turkish prince, imprisons an American girl and her father. The girl sends for Jim, who attempts a rescue. Jim is captured, but Hafed's jealous wife helps them escape. When the initial escape fails, Jim returns in disguise as a dancing girl. He dances for Hafed, luring him into a private encounter where Jim's identity is revealed. A fight leads Jim to take refuge in a tree. Surrounded by guards, Jim summons a warship. A shell from the warship blows up the tree, landing Jim safely on the battleship's deck and securing his escape.

Short comedy set against the backstage lives of a group of performers.

Slapstick comedy short about a quarreling couple and a nosy mother-in-law.

One of many Larry Semon directed Vitagraph comic shorts. Like a large portion of them this is lost.

Two blowhard amateur bowlers boast about their prowess only to be shown up for the Big Bluffs they are.

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.

A slapstick comedy directed by Larry Semon and starring Hughie Mack & Patsy De Forest.

A poor sap tries to impress his girl by fighting the great boxing champion Jack Dempsey.

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.

Larry going investigating an Oriental opium den. And opium is to Larry what spinach is for Popeye!

Larry working behind the scenes at a vaudeville show and mess things up.

Larry Semon goes out west.

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.

The Simple Life is a silent comedy short.

The Simple Life is a silent comedy short.

Larry has to fight off a bunch of crooks who are after his bag of jewels.

A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz.

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. But Hughey failed to remember that for every ruby or other gem stolen from an Egyptian shrine, there is a bearded sheik who has taken a vow never to eat, drink or sleep until the talisman has been returned to the irate God from whom it was stolen, and vengeance has been wrought on the guilty one. Just when Hughey is enjoying himself immensely at a fine little dinner with the fair damsel, his nemesis, the sheik, discovers him and a lively chase takes place. The sheik gets the ruby in his possession but Hughey regains it in jig time and the prospects are that the poor sheik will have some wait before he can look a square meal in the face again.

A slapstick comedy directed by Larry Semon and starring Hughie Mack & Patsy De Forest.

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.

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.

Comedy on the golf links.

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.

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.

A Pair of Kings is a 1922 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.

A Pair of Kings is a 1922 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.

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.

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.

Larry has to fight off a bunch of crooks who are after his bag of jewels.

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.

Larry working behind the scenes at a vaudeville show and mess things up.

Larry helps a girl escape her wedding to a fat man.

Larry in school and always gets in trouble until he falls asleep and dreams of when he's all grown up.

Larry having to go through a lot of trouble to get his girl. All from bomb baking cooks to high flying crashes.

Larry going investigating an Oriental opium den. And opium is to Larry what spinach is for Popeye!

Larry might be a hick causing a lot of trouble at the farm, but he shows he can outsmart those crooked city folks!

Bears and Bad Men is a 1918 silent comedy film directed by Larry Semon[1] and featuring Stan Laurel.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Larry Semon is in the kitchen preparing food for a high society musical evening.

A comedy short by and with Larry Semon.

Semon as a detective trying to deal with some roughnecks.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Larry goes driving... and flying... and falling....

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.

The Rent Collector is a 1921 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.

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.

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.

Larry falls afoul of wanted criminal Gentleman Joe, who runs a saloon full of tough guys and gunslingers.

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.

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.

A Pair of Kings is a 1922 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.

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.

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.

The Midnight Cabaret is a short 1923 American comedy starring Larry Semon and featuring Oliver Hardy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. But Hughey failed to remember that for every ruby or other gem stolen from an Egyptian shrine, there is a bearded sheik who has taken a vow never to eat, drink or sleep until the talisman has been returned to the irate God from whom it was stolen, and vengeance has been wrought on the guilty one. Just when Hughey is enjoying himself immensely at a fine little dinner with the fair damsel, his nemesis, the sheik, discovers him and a lively chase takes place. The sheik gets the ruby in his possession but Hughey regains it in jig time and the prospects are that the poor sheik will have some wait before he can look a square meal in the face again.

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.

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.

While Larry Semon does not star in Rips and Rushes, its confident gags and frenetic pace suggest his touch. In the knockabout one-reeler set in a dance studio, three suitors compete for the girl. James Aubrey, the actor playing the father’s preferred suitor, may look like a Chaplin imitator, but he came by those skills honorably, born like Chaplin in Britain and likewise coming to the U.S. with Fred Karno’s troupe. Nevertheless it’s Alice Mann, with her wacky headdress and knowing glance, who steals the show. Suffice it to say that many vases are broken and pants ripped before she escapes out the window with the handsomest of the beaus.

Comedy on the golf links.

Comedy on the golf links.

A slapstick comedy directed by Larry Semon and starring Hughie Mack & Patsy De Forest.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz.

A man comes home drunk in this slapstick comedy.

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.

The master crook steals the sweetheart of Sherlock, a great detective. Sherlock undertakes to recover her.

The master crook steals the sweetheart of Sherlock, a great detective. Sherlock undertakes to recover her.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz.

"Risks and Roughnecks" is an early Larry Semon effort with outrageously funny acrobatics as takes care of business in a big brawl.

Larry in school and always gets in trouble until he falls asleep and dreams of when he's all grown up.

Larry in school and always gets in trouble until he falls asleep and dreams of when he's all grown up.

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.

Unlucky Larry finds himself pursued by the police after he inadvertently steals a man's car and kidnaps his girlfriend.

Larry goes driving... and flying... and falling....

Larry Semon comedy.

Larry helps a girl escape her wedding to a fat man.

Larry Semon is in the kitchen preparing food for a high society musical evening.

The Midnight Cabaret is a short 1923 American comedy starring Larry Semon and featuring Oliver Hardy.

The Midnight Cabaret is a short 1923 American comedy starring Larry Semon and featuring Oliver Hardy.

Short slapstick comedy

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.

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.

Larry Semon goes out west.

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.

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.

This film, with Larry as a dry agent, pokes fun at the situations which the Prohibition Act produced throughout the country.

This film, with Larry as a dry agent, pokes fun at the situations which the Prohibition Act produced throughout the country.

Bears and Bad Men is a 1918 silent comedy film directed by Larry Semon[1] and featuring Stan Laurel.

The Rent Collector is a 1921 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.

The Rent Collector is a 1921 American silent comedy film featuring Larry Semon & Oliver Hardy.

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.

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.

Larry falls afoul of wanted criminal Gentleman Joe, who runs a saloon full of tough guys and gunslingers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hafed, a Turkish prince, imprisons an American girl and her father. The girl sends for Jim, who attempts a rescue. Jim is captured, but Hafed's jealous wife helps them escape. When the initial escape fails, Jim returns in disguise as a dancing girl. He dances for Hafed, luring him into a private encounter where Jim's identity is revealed. A fight leads Jim to take refuge in a tree. Surrounded by guards, Jim summons a warship. A shell from the warship blows up the tree, landing Jim safely on the battleship's deck and securing his escape.

Hafed, a Turkish prince, imprisons an American girl and her father. The girl sends for Jim, who attempts a rescue. Jim is captured, but Hafed's jealous wife helps them escape. When the initial escape fails, Jim returns in disguise as a dancing girl. He dances for Hafed, luring him into a private encounter where Jim's identity is revealed. A fight leads Jim to take refuge in a tree. Surrounded by guards, Jim summons a warship. A shell from the warship blows up the tree, landing Jim safely on the battleship's deck and securing his escape.

Short comedy set against the backstage lives of a group of performers.

Short comedy set against the backstage lives of a group of performers.

Slapstick comedy short about a quarreling couple and a nosy mother-in-law.

Slapstick comedy short about a quarreling couple and a nosy mother-in-law.

While Larry Semon does not star in Rips and Rushes, its confident gags and frenetic pace suggest his touch. In the knockabout one-reeler set in a dance studio, three suitors compete for the girl. James Aubrey, the actor playing the father’s preferred suitor, may look like a Chaplin imitator, but he came by those skills honorably, born like Chaplin in Britain and likewise coming to the U.S. with Fred Karno’s troupe. Nevertheless it’s Alice Mann, with her wacky headdress and knowing glance, who steals the show. Suffice it to say that many vases are broken and pants ripped before she escapes out the window with the handsomest of the beaus.

One of many Larry Semon directed Vitagraph comic shorts. Like a large portion of them this is lost.

One of many Larry Semon directed Vitagraph comic shorts. Like a large portion of them this is lost.

Two blowhard amateur bowlers boast about their prowess only to be shown up for the Big Bluffs they are.

Two blowhard amateur bowlers boast about their prowess only to be shown up for the Big Bluffs they are.

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.

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.

Semon as a detective trying to deal with some roughnecks.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Larry Semon comedy.