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Safety Last, 1923
A young man (Harold Lloyd) leaves his country town to go to the big city to earn a living so that he can finally marry his girlfriend (Mildred Davis). He finds a room in the same building as a man who climbs buildings as a human fly (Bill Strother). Antics ensue as the young man tries to make it big while working in a department store, culminating in a much-publicized stunt of having a man climb the store.
I watched this film a little while ago, and so for this rewatch I decided to view the film along with a commentary from a Harold Lloyd archivist.
While the commentary was interesting, I don't think that it changed my feelings about the film very much.
The strength of the film, as with many silent comedies, is the precision timing and physical talents on display during the many setpieces. I appreciate that there are a variety of gags, ranging from stunts to spoken bits to visual jokes. For me, the little things were more interesting than the infamous climactic building sequence. I really like the part where Harold and Bill hide themselves in their coats to escape their landlady. I like the part where Harold, needing to get a package to a woman who is many rows behind other customers yells out that someone has dropped $50, causing the other customers to look on the floor, leaving just the old woman standing. And I liked the visual storytelling of Harold imagining a meal, only for one dish at a time to fade away as he hands over coins to a pawnbroker.
The downsides, though, were quite a few things. Miss Vicky already covered the pretty unkind stunt that involved rough handling of a cat. I also didn't care for the use of racial caricatures, whether that was the disproportionately spooked Black man or the Jewish caricature as the pawnbroker. (The two men doing the commentary were distinctly silent during the former and made some weak excuses for the latter). I also don't find Lloyd to be an actor I click with strongly. I think that he designed and executed the comedy of the film really brilliantly, but it does feel like watching a character move from one setpiece to the next.
I do understand why this one is considered a classic, but it has yet to really win me over.
Safety Last, 1923
A young man (Harold Lloyd) leaves his country town to go to the big city to earn a living so that he can finally marry his girlfriend (Mildred Davis). He finds a room in the same building as a man who climbs buildings as a human fly (Bill Strother). Antics ensue as the young man tries to make it big while working in a department store, culminating in a much-publicized stunt of having a man climb the store.
I watched this film a little while ago, and so for this rewatch I decided to view the film along with a commentary from a Harold Lloyd archivist.
While the commentary was interesting, I don't think that it changed my feelings about the film very much.
The strength of the film, as with many silent comedies, is the precision timing and physical talents on display during the many setpieces. I appreciate that there are a variety of gags, ranging from stunts to spoken bits to visual jokes. For me, the little things were more interesting than the infamous climactic building sequence. I really like the part where Harold and Bill hide themselves in their coats to escape their landlady. I like the part where Harold, needing to get a package to a woman who is many rows behind other customers yells out that someone has dropped $50, causing the other customers to look on the floor, leaving just the old woman standing. And I liked the visual storytelling of Harold imagining a meal, only for one dish at a time to fade away as he hands over coins to a pawnbroker.
The downsides, though, were quite a few things. Miss Vicky already covered the pretty unkind stunt that involved rough handling of a cat. I also didn't care for the use of racial caricatures, whether that was the disproportionately spooked Black man or the Jewish caricature as the pawnbroker. (The two men doing the commentary were distinctly silent during the former and made some weak excuses for the latter). I also don't find Lloyd to be an actor I click with strongly. I think that he designed and executed the comedy of the film really brilliantly, but it does feel like watching a character move from one setpiece to the next.
I do understand why this one is considered a classic, but it has yet to really win me over.