A feature length silent comedy from one of the greats, Harold Lloyd. At the time of making only Chaplin could better him in turns of bums on seats. Looking at the films now he seems to me to be quite a way behind Chaplin and Keaton in purely film making terms. This is the stroy of a young lad who, although pathologically shy of talking to the opposite sex, writes a book about how to love women. Although it is meant as a serious text, it is taken for a humourous book and becomes a success, which makes him able to approach the girl he loves. Alas she is about to get married to a ploygamous bounder, so the chase to the church begins.
The whole film is geared to the chase sequence that occurs in the last 15 minutes, which in itself is a thoroughly top notch chase that only the silent comedians could do. Stunningly well choreographed as Lloyd moves from Car to tram to horse and cart to horse to motorbike etc. A sublime moment. Unfortunately the whole build up to this moment drags in places which is a problem I often find with Lloyd. He should have been a bit more thoughtful of his editing. Saying that, the films were huge business back then and retain a very loyal following.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
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