A Forgotten Star of the Silent Era, Raymond Griffith Deserves a Place Among the Greats
There’s a reason the actor is little remembered today: Many of Griffith’s films have been lost or are otherwise unavailable. Happily, cineastes can now get their hands on some new restorations.
‘Raymond Griffith: The Silk Hat Comedian’
Undercrank Productions/Library of Congress
Among the books prized by fans of film comedy, “The Silent Clowns” by Walter Kerr is considered particularly indispensable. Yes, the author is the same Walter Kerr for whom a theater is named on Manhattan’s West 48th Street, the Pulitzer Prize winning critic renowned for not mincing words when it came to reviewing the latest Broadway offerings. He was, as you might recall, equivocal about talents as notable as Samuel Beckett, Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, and John Van Druten. The latter’s play, “I Am a Camera,” Kerr famously dismissed in three words: “Me no Leica.”
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