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Robert Youngson

Directing

Biography

Robert Youngson (November 27, 1917 – April 8, 1974) was a film producer, director, and screenwriter, specializing in reviving antique silent films. Robert George Youngson, born in Brooklyn, New York, graduated from Harvard University with a master's degree in business administration. He entered the film business in 1941, writing newsreel scripts. In 1948 Warner Bros. hired him to produce a series of short subjects about sports. Most of these were straight roundups of current sporting events, but in some of them Youngson indulged his fascination with antique newsreels of the 1920s, and included vintage sports footage in the new productions. This led to Youngson writing and producing a long series of historical short subjects for Warners, two of which won him Academy Awards. Most of these films took an affectionate look back at the fads and lifestyles of the 1920s. Youngson's narration was nostalgic in tone, unlike the facetious commentaries that usually accompanied silent-film revivals like Gaslight Follies (1945) and Warners' compilations of Mack Sennett comedies. Youngson also produced a feature-length documentary for Warners, Fifty Years Before Your Eyes (1950). Warners discontinued live-action short subjects in 1956 and released Youngson, forcing him to work as an independent producer. He assembled a full-length feature of silent-comedy highlights, The Golden Age of Comedy (1958). This was a triumphant success, earning rave reviews from national columnists and receiving network exposure on TV talk shows. He followed this with When Comedy Was King (1960) and six more vintage-comedy anthologies, the last being released in 1970.

Known For

Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20's
7.9

A compilation of primarly Laurel and Hardy shorts---From Soup to Nuts, Wrong Again, Putting the Pants on Philip, The Finishing Touch, Sugar Daddies and short clips from others---plus Max Davidson's Call of the Cuckoo and Dumb Daddies, with some cross-over Charley Chase footage, which, along with Robert Youngson's previous "The Golden Age of Comedy", "When Comedy Was King", "Days of Thrills and Laughter", led to a renewed interest in and a revival of television showings of Laurel and Hardy shorts. The cast was billed in order of their appearance: Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, Vivien Oakland (with a Vivian typo), Glen Tyron, Edna Murphy, Anita Garvin, Tiny Sanford, Jimmy Finlayson, Charlie Chase, Viola Richard, Max Davidson, Del Henderson, Josephine Crowell, Anders Randolf (as Anders Randolph), Edgar Kennedy, Dorothy Coburn, Lillian Elliott and "Spec" O'Donnell.

Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20's

1965Movie