Pinched

Harold Lloyd took his career in his own hands and directed this short film. He wasn't an unfulfilled actor, and he was definitely at the cutting edge of silent comedy, closing in on Chaplin. It was definitely a sensible move to take charge of his profile whilst he was on the way up.

Before Harold Lloyd created and refined his everyman character that made him world famous in the 1920s, he went through a variety of styles. His 'Lonesome Luke' was weird looking and obnoxious...and not particularly likable. Later, he began using the everyman look...though he didn't act as sweet and likable. "Pinched" is one of these films, as the guy looks like the Lloyd we all love but he isn't quite the same guy...yet. But it IS funny...funnier than most of his 1910s films.

Early in the story, Lloyd gets robbed and is mistaken by the cop as the robber and not the victim. Such things seem to happen again and again as cop after cop seem to think he's a crook when he really didn't do anything that wrong. Ultimately, he's locked up....will he stay there by the end of the picture?

The most interesting thing in the film was seeing Lloyd's usual co-star of the era, Snub Pollard, without his usual painted on mustache. It's hard to recognize that it's him at first.

As far as the comedy goes, it's a mixed bag. It does have laugh after laugh BUT some of the humor is unsophisticated and primative...full of mindless slapstick that was so popular in the 1910s but which was pretty much out of style in the 1920s. While not great...the film is agreeable and enjoyable.

A checkered cap falsely identifies Harold Lloyd as a thief in this early "Glasses" short.

That cap is the only linkage in this short subject. Although he had abandoned the Lonesome Luke character in favor of the more normal-looking one because it would allow him to tell a greater variety of stories, here he was, still engaged in hard-knock slapstick. Lloyd would continue to appear in those on and off through 1919, although other films, some with actual plots, would appear. Apparently the raw free-for-alls were popular.

The director of this short was, like Lloyd himself, not someone who started out in comedy, but entered the film comedy field because it seemed at times either that or cowboy movies. He appeared in a few early shorts, but made the transition to behind the camera. He worked mostly at Roach for fifteen years, with occasional moonlighting gigs elsewhere, including retakes for Selznick and writing for Jules White's unit at Columbia. He died in 1954 at age 62.

Bob