Safety Last! (1923)
Silent comedy about everyman Harold Lloyd trying to earn some extra dough and winding up having to do the death-defying feat himself. Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor.
This is perhaps the best known of the Harold Lloyd silent comedies, and it's a well put together film. Harold Lloyd plays his "everyman" character, the earnest and go-getter all-American. He leaves his small town (and girlfriend) behind to make his mark in the big city. He promises to send for his girlfriend once he's saved up enough.
He lives with a roommate, and they struggle to pay the rent and keep alive. But he sends letters (and gifts) back to his sweetheart, telling her about how he's made it. She eventually comes out to see him, and he has to convince her that he's a much higher position than he really is (and not get fired doing it). He happens to overhear a manager discussing how they need a really big promotion, and that he'd pay handsomely for someone to do it. Lloyd remembers that his roommate can easily scale buildings (being a skyscraper builder), and comes up with the idea that his friend could scale the building, drawing a crowd.
Unfortunately, on the day of the climb, his friend runs into some trouble with the law, and so they devise a scheme where Lloyd will climb the first story, duck into a window, exchange clothes with his friend, and allow his friend to scale the building. Unfortunately, the policeman pursues his friend the entire way through the building, so Lloyd ends up being the one to make the full climb, ending in his sweetheart's arms at the roof.
The film seems to be heavily influenced by the daredevils of the time, the people who would sit in chairs balanced on top of flagpoles and the like. Watching Lloyd actually scaling a building (while not as far off the ground as we think he is, he is still doing his own stunts on the side of a building!) is actually excruciating. There are certainly comedic moments, but even though I know he didn't fall to his death, watching him dance closer and closer to the edge had my heart in my throat. Which makes this silent film all the more impressive.
This is perhaps the best known of the Harold Lloyd silent comedies, and it's a well put together film. Harold Lloyd plays his "everyman" character, the earnest and go-getter all-American. He leaves his small town (and girlfriend) behind to make his mark in the big city. He promises to send for his girlfriend once he's saved up enough.
He lives with a roommate, and they struggle to pay the rent and keep alive. But he sends letters (and gifts) back to his sweetheart, telling her about how he's made it. She eventually comes out to see him, and he has to convince her that he's a much higher position than he really is (and not get fired doing it). He happens to overhear a manager discussing how they need a really big promotion, and that he'd pay handsomely for someone to do it. Lloyd remembers that his roommate can easily scale buildings (being a skyscraper builder), and comes up with the idea that his friend could scale the building, drawing a crowd.
Unfortunately, on the day of the climb, his friend runs into some trouble with the law, and so they devise a scheme where Lloyd will climb the first story, duck into a window, exchange clothes with his friend, and allow his friend to scale the building. Unfortunately, the policeman pursues his friend the entire way through the building, so Lloyd ends up being the one to make the full climb, ending in his sweetheart's arms at the roof.
The film seems to be heavily influenced by the daredevils of the time, the people who would sit in chairs balanced on top of flagpoles and the like. Watching Lloyd actually scaling a building (while not as far off the ground as we think he is, he is still doing his own stunts on the side of a building!) is actually excruciating. There are certainly comedic moments, but even though I know he didn't fall to his death, watching him dance closer and closer to the edge had my heart in my throat. Which makes this silent film all the more impressive.
posted by Mike at 4:41 PM
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