The Man On The Clock

This really should be an entry by ChicagoGuy, but since he seems to be retired, I'll bring it up. If you're in the Chicago area this week, The Music Box Theatre is featuring great double features by silent comedian Harold Lloyd. The following is an email I sent a friend:

I'm sure you're aware that the Music Box is screening a whole bunch of Harold Lloyd features this week, starting today (Friday). I know it from 2000 miles away, so I doubt it's escaped your notice since it's in your neighborhood.

My suggestion is to catch as many as reasonably possible. ("Reasonably possible" means different things to different people, I realize.) As you know, there's nothing like seeing great silent comedy on the big screen, especially with a good crowd and live accompaniment. And these films are perfect for kids, too. Also, Lloyd owned his movies so most of them are in great condition.

I know you've seen at least some of his stuff, though I don't know how what. It took him longer than Chaplin or Keaton to start producing classics, but by the time of his first true feature, Grandma's Boy in 1922, he had it down. He made 10 silent features in the 20s, and they're all worth watching. Okay, he didn't have the genius of Chaplin or Keaton, but who did? He ended up turning out the slickest, most consistent, crowd-pleasing work of the three and there's nothing wrong with that.

He divided his films into "gag comedies" like Safety Last and "character comedies" like The Freshman, but the truth is even his character films were packed with gags. All the shows are double bills. A few comments:

The first bill is Speedy and The Freshman. Speedy is well worth checking out. It was Lloyd's last silent, though by no means his best. The Freshman was his biggest silent hit and I can see why--it's got maximum sentiment but also brilliant gags. Highly recommended in the unlikely case you haven't seen it. (For years, it was the only Lloyd you could see, along with Safety Last.)

The second double bill is Girl Shy and Safety Last. Girl Shy is one of his best, and deserves to be better known. It's interesting that it's doubled with Safety Last, since both are known for their rousing climaxes (making it the best bill for kids). But even before the big chase at the end, Girl Shy has a delightful and hilarious story. It has, perhaps, his best developed romance. Safety Last is so famous, and has the most famous shot from the silent era (the subtitle of the event is "The man on the clock"), that it's hard to add much. But it's worth noting you've got a classic comedy even before the climax. And many forget how well-motivated, comedically, the climb is--Lloyd doesn't want to do it but is forced to, floor by floor.

Next there's a sound double feature. Actually, Lloyd's talkies aren't bad. The trouble is Lloyd didn't have the greatest screen voice and his character often came off as more abrasive than aggressive. Nevertheless, if you've got the time, they're worth looking at. Movie Crazy has some pretty good sight gags and a good performance from his female lead. The plot wobbles a bit but it may be his best sound work. (It's been years since I saw it, but I recall it's the classic Merton Of The Movies type plot.) And just as in Feet First, where he tried to recreate his silent building climb (in a much weaker and longer version), here he recreates his embarrassment-at-a-party sequence from The Freshman, and it's pretty good. Movie Crazy was his third and best talkie up to that point, yet it made less than the previous two. (The novelty was wearing off.) So Lloyd took a chance and decided to make a "character" comedy, The Cat's Paw. It's no classic, but it's pretty well done, and has a climax that has to be seen to be believed.

Back to silents in the next double feature, Why Worry? and The Kid Brother. Why Worry? is a gag comedy. Many think his glasses character was always an up-and-comer, but he could be anything. Here he's a rich hypochondriac. While the plot may not compare to his best silents, the gags are as good as anything he did. I especially like the stuff when he first lands at his ideal vacation spot while a revolution is going on. I don't know if you've seen The Kid Brother, but if you haven't, and can only catch one film in the series, this is it. Kid Brother has become accepted, I think, as his masterpiece. It's got a classic story structure, is very well-shot, and has brilliant set pieces throughout. When I first saw it about 15 years ago, it gave me a new respect for Lloyd. If someone asked me to show an example of his work, I would probably take a fifteen or twenty-minute section from the middle of this film when he takes the girl home and has to deal with his brothers--there are at least three comedy sequences (bringing the girl in at night while the brothers are out to get him, pretending to be the girl in the morning, and being chased by the brothers), one on top of another, brilliantly designed and shot, that are all comic gems. And there's other stuff just as good, including the funniest monkey in silent films.

The final double feature is Welcome Danger and Dr. Jack. Dr. Jack isn't bad, even if it is arguably his weakest feature (I would say For Heaven's Sake). The big event is the premier of the "silent" Welcome Danger. It's gonna play in LA later this year. I was pretty excited when I first heard about it, since I thought it was the actual silent film he shot back then, but it's not. This is the long talkie version, rejiggered (itself already rejiggered and reshot from the original silent) for the silent theatres that still existed in 1929. The film was his biggest grosser ever, though mostly due to the novelty of hearing Harold. While it has some decent gags, I think this version is worth seeing mostly for historical purposes. (I've seen the talkie version, and I believe this "silent" version tracks pretty closely with it). As far as quality, this is definitely the weakest of the silent double features in the retrospective.

It's only a mile away, yet it'd be worth going out of your way for. Have fun.