Sat 11 Feb 2017
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: SAFETY LAST! (1923).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews , Silent films[5] Comments
SAFETY LAST! Hal Roach Studios, 1923. Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother, Noah Young, Westcott Clarke. Directors: Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor.
Harold Lloyd silents are, as a class, wonderfully inventive, well-thought-out and screamingly funny, and here’s an example. Everyone has seen the picture of Lloyd hanging off the clock while climbing the side of a building in Safety Last!, but the sequence itself is one of sheerest genius:
For starters, the film is about 90 minutes long, and the whole last third of it is devoted to that climb up the building, which is as carefully crafted as a suspense set-piece. Lloyd has arranged to win himself a promotion and the hand of his childhood sweetheart by having a friend climb the building as a Publicity Stunt.
Unfortunately, the friend is wanted by the Police and spotted just before he starts his climb. So he and Harold arrange that Harold will climb the first floor, then duck in a window where his friend will don his coat and continue the climb.
But the Cops spot him again and begin chasing him frantically so that he never just quite has the time to make the switch, and Harold has to keep going “just one more floor.”
There is a marvelous few minutes where the buddy tosses a rope out for Harold but is chased from the room before he gets to tie it to anything! This is followed by a nerve-wracking stretch where Harold strains, contorts, scratches and all-else to get hold of the rope that will be his death-trap, and a heart-stopping span where he gets it waving just enough to almost reach, then launches himself out, grabs it and plummets down to … well, see the movie:
February 12th, 2017 at 12:25 am
For some reason Lloyd got a little slighted when everyone was praising the genius of Keaton and Chaplin. It’s a shame since his physicality was as artful, and Lloyd did it with missing fingers on one hand.
February 12th, 2017 at 1:45 am
I’ve always been a Buster Keaton fan. Lloyd I’ve seen only in a seven to ten minute clip while he’s hanging from the clock. I have no excuse now for not watching the whole movie, do I?
February 12th, 2017 at 9:02 am
To be honest, I’ve always preferred Lloyd to Keaton and Chaplin. Those Thrill Comedies still stand up today, and he avoids the rather tooth-rotting sentimentality of Chaplin. Unlike Chaplin and Keaton, Lloyd ended his days as a very rich businessman, respected for his silent movies. The other two had dramatic setbacks and tragedies that made them far more satisfying targets for rediscovery. Who wants to tell a millionaire how brilliant he is?
February 12th, 2017 at 9:47 am
Lloyd’s talkies were also better-received than those of Chaplin & Keaton.
February 13th, 2017 at 8:12 pm
Years ago I saw his THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK (1947) and thought it was terrific. Now I want to watch SAFETY LAST! and any others I can find.