1927 silent comedyRating: 16/20
Plot: The Hickory family--the sheriff, two tough-guy sons, and one Harold Lloyd--is an important family in Hickoryville. Harold falls for Mary, a woman who rolls in with a medicine show and has to use his wits, since he doesn't have the brawn, to get back the town's money that has been stolen by fiends and save his father's reputation.
Solid tale with some fun moments. The problem with Harold Lloyd though is that he's not Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin. Too bad for him. I did really like the sweet moment following the scene where Harold meets Mary in which he climbs a tree, and I really like the music in this one although that does become a little redundant. There's a very lengthy fight scene on a boat that, although humorously endless, has some great moments. And The Kid Brother not only has a monkey but the monkey from Chaplin's The Circus and Keaton's The Cameraman that Dylan said was his favorite actor. That still didn't pull him down here to watch it with me though. It's not the monkey's most brilliant role.
Ironically, I remembered your comment in "Safety Last" about whether LLoyd made any other good films, and had planned to watch "The Freshman" today. I may be off base, but physically LLoyd kind of reminds me of you, although I have never seen you take a pratfall (this is where you can snidely respond "yeah, well you look like Buster Keaton, you big jerk).
ReplyDeleteThe grade you gave it seems better than the review. I have now seen four Lloyd films and have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Again, his extreme likability and great creativity make for a very good movie. I loved the tree scene, the scene where his brothers thought that he was the girl, and the ongoing battle with the neighbor. I especially love the many little inventive moments like the bit with the neighbor dog and the cat that catch me by surprise and make make me suddenly laugh out loud. I also thought the monkey was a hoot. It is better in other films?
ReplyDeleteLike with Keaton, and to a lesser degree, Chaplin, I am continually amazed by how creative Lloyd is in both the big set pieces and the little bits. I am almost at the point where I would say I look forward to seeing a Lloyd film as much as a Keaton. A 17.
It's defintely not passionately written...I liked this movie though. It had an odd pace though, similar to other Lloyd movies. There's exposition and character development in the first half with some clever little moments, nothing really to get too excited about. And then in the second half there's some manic action sequence, like the fight on the boat here, the scaling of that building, or the trolley chase scene in 'Speedy'.
ReplyDeleteI didn't write this that long ago, but I regret starting it out with saying it's too bad Lloyd isn't Keaton or Chaplin. He didn't need to be. He's Lloyd, and that's really pretty damn good.
You saw the monkey in 'The Cameraman'...you've probably not seen Chaplin's 'The Circus' but the kids and I liked that one a lot. I don't know...I guess the monkey is about the same in all of them. Seeing him in boots in this one was pretty funny. I really like that monkey.
I might watch the one you recommended today. Or I might watch one of Lloyd's talkies, 'Movie Crazy'...Have you ever seen any of his shorts? I haven't, so maybe I'll watch one or two of those and see how those stack up against Keaton's shorts which, you could argue, are better than Keaton's features.
I just bought the Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection which seemingly has everything he, or anyone he knew, ever put on film. I am really looking forward to seeing "Speedy" and his other stuff. I only saw a little bit of "Milky Way", but what I saw was very funny and it is supposed to be one of his best talkies. I hope the boxed set shows Lloyd's house which literally had about 80 rooms, so I can start to dislike him a little.
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