Name: The Silent Clowns (1918-1926)
Start: 2025-08-31T15:00:00-04:00
Location: Tampa Theatre

Summer Classics Film Series
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2h 15m / Not Rated / Silent, Comedy
VENUE: Historic Duncan Auditorium
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Once again, our popular program of silent comedy shorts returns, scored LIVE on our Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ by the incomparable Steven Ball!
Charlie Chaplin in: A DOG’S LIFE (1918) 33 min
The first in his groundbreaking contract with First National and promoted as his “first million-dollar picture,” A Dog’s Life features Chaplin (as The Tramp) in hard times, living on the street. He can’t get a job, he can’t get into the dance hall, and he can barely even manage to steal some sausages with the help of his new dog, Scraps, whom he rescues from a vicious pack of strays.
Buster Keaton in: THE GOAT (1921) 23 min
After missing out on a fresh loaf of bread, our down-on-his-luck hero (Keaton) finds himself pursued by three policemen hot on his trail. To make matters worse, just when the awful criminal Dead Shot Dan is about to have his mug shot taken, a mistake puts the price on his innocent head. Now, with wanted posters all over town, our hero will seek refuge in beautiful and sympathetic Virginia’s home, only to come face to face with his worst fear.
Harold Lloyd in: NEVER WEAKEN (1921) 28 min
The Boy (Lloyd) is infatuated with The Girl (Mildred Davis) in the next office. In order to drum up business for her boss, an osteopath, he gets an acrobatic acquaintance to pretend to sustain injuries that The Boy “cures,” thereby building a reputation and then handing out the doctor’s business cards. But when he mistakenly thinks that his girl is marrying another, he decides to end it all and, in inimitable Lloyd style, fails repeatedly and hilariously.
Harry Langdon in: SOLDIER MAN (1926) 33 min
After the armistice, one U.S. soldier remains unaccounted for: he’s wandering the fields of Bomania, hungry, thinking the war is still on. (He was in a German prison camp, escaping while his captors celebrated the Great War’s end.) Turns out, he’s the spitting image of Bomania’s King Strudel. The prime minister wants Strudel to sign a peace treaty, but Bomania’s General Von Snootzer wants the war to continue, so he contrives to derail the whole process. Strudel is a drunk, but if our boy can pass for the king, maybe the treaty still has a chance?

FILM TALK: Guests are invited to stick around after the screening for a post-show Film Talk and audience Q&A with film historian Nigel Dreiner. Film Talks are included with movie admission.

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VIEW the full Summer Classics series, showing June 1 – August 31 at https://tampatheatre.org/movie-categories/summer-classics/.
The Summer Classics Movie Series is presented by Bank of America, series sponsor since 2015. Promotional support for the series is provided by WEDU PBS and Axios Tampa Bay.