1000:1 = Harold Lloyd

For Lloyd's long-standing female sidekick Mildred Davis, "Safety Last" was the final of 15 films with the comedian. The two married on February 10, 1923, both making the decision for her to step aside to raise their future two children. Actress Jobyna Ralston, plucked from the stage by actor Max Linder and appeared in a number of his movies, took Davis' place in September 1923's "Why Worry?," as his nurse. The two, alongside a valet, journey to an island off Chile so Lloyd, playing a hypochondriac rich businessman, can rest in its tropical climate. Trouble is they stumble upon a revolution which embroils them in some incredible hijinks.

"Why Worry?" also was the final film of Lloyd's association with producer Hal Roach, dating back to 1913. The comedian became his own independent producer, forming the Harold Lloyd Film Corporation. Before the two split, to make their last picture together they had to find a last-minute replacement for Lloyd's cellmate named Colosso, a gigantic wild hermit with an aching toothache. Their original choice, Ringling Brothers Circus' Cardiff Giant (real name George Auger), died a day before leaving his Florida home for California. When Roach's publicity department made a nationwide call for a large man, a newspaper article was discovered detailing a man from Minnesota who possessed a gargantuan shoe size. John Aasen was awarded the part, which called for him lugging around and firing a canon on his back at the rebels.

"Why Worry?" was a tough act to follow after the critically-acclaimed "Safety Last." But the film was greeted by capacity theater crowds, ensuring Lloyd's transition to independent productions would be highly successful.

A rich, young hypochondriac figures WHY WORRY? As long as he's got his nurse & valet to look after him absolutely nothing could happen, right?

Harold Lloyd, one of America's preeminent comedians of the Silent Era, uses his remarkable comic skills and tremendous athletic abilities to score another solid hit in this tale full of adventurous hilarity. With remarkable nonchalance, he calmly proceeds to thwart a Latin American revolution which threatens to shatter the tranquility of his restful vacation. But once his temper is aroused--at the sight of a distraught female--he really becomes a two-fisted hero eager to take on any number of bad guys.

Special mention should be made of Minnesota-born Norwegian-American John Aasen (1887-1938), who in his film debut plays Harold's gigantic companion. Nearly nine feet tall & rather fearsome, he nonetheless almost immediately grabs the viewer's complete sympathy while suffering mightily from a raging toothache. Gentle with Harold, he becomes an unstoppable one-man army in dealing with their enemies.

This film marked a milestone of sorts for Harold. It was his last produced in collaboration with Hal Roach; their friendly parting allowed Harold to gain virtually complete control over his films. WHY WORRY? was also his first movie to feature his new costar, beautiful Jobyna Ralston, who delivers a feisty, compelling performance as Harold's nurse; his previous leading lady, Mildred Davis, was now very busy in her new life as Mrs. Harold Lloyd.

Robert Israel has composed an excellent film score which perfectly complements Harold's antics on the screen.

The zaniest, most cartoonlike of all Harold Lloyd features recaptures the energetic anarchy of his wilder short subjects while at the same time drawing from the sort of satirical innocent-ugly-American-abroad adventures that Douglas Fairbanks and Anita Loos had popularized in the teens.

Lloyd plays an obtuse millionaire hypochondriac who "has taken so many pills he rattles when he walks." He blunders into a banana republic's revolution and must defeat a dictatorial regime backed by an unscrupulous Yankee. Along the way, he faces up to his imaginary ills and falls for his spunky, long-suffering nurse -- ably played by the quietly sexy Jobyna Ralston in her first feature as Lloyd's love interest. But the real star is John Aase n -- all eight feet, nine and a half inches of him -- who makes an excellent 503 pound mad hermit, buddying up with Lloyd for some of the most improbable and unrelenting sight gag sequences ever put on film -- among them, an extended effort to pull the giant's aching tooth.

The setting is obviously Latin America (and, in fact, the whole film functions nicely as propaganda, artfully fudging the United States' imperial subjugation of the region by focusing on a single American villain) but when real-life Mexicans earnestly protested the film's stereotypes, Lloyd responded by changing the intertitles to suggest that the whole thing takes place on a mythical island. I can't imagine anyone was fooled by this since the Latino stereotypes still dominate the film: lazy peasants, greasy strongmen, etc.

Why Worry? grossed slightly less at the box office than Lloyd's previous film, Safety Last (almost $1.5 million vs. almost $1.6 million), and cost about a hundred thousand dollars more to make (almost $221,000 vs. almost $121,000). It was his last film for producer Hal Roach. Lloyd went on to make his next ten films independently for release through distributors like Pathe, Paramount and Fox -- but despite a few wild sequences in films like Hot Water and For Heaven's Sake, he never again made a picture quite as snappy and offbeat as Why Worry?

If the film looks back to Fairbanks, it looks ahead to the hypochondriac heroes of Broadway's The Nervous Wreck and its film versions, including Eddie Cantor's Whoopee! and Danny Kaye's Up in Arms, not to mention the mythical political intrigue of W. C. Fields' Million Dollar Legs, the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup, Woody Allen's Bananas, and much else in the realm of American low comedy.

In "Why Worry?" Harold Lloyd plays Harold von Pelham, a pampered and spoiled millionaire who has all the time in the world to worry about medical conditions that don't exist, and treat his smitten nurse and trusted valet as mere lackeys. He goes to a South American retreat for some much-needed rest and relaxation, but instead finds himself in the middle of a revolution. Along the way he picks up a devoted friend, a giant man named aptly Colossus, who becomes as loyal as a dog to Harold because he helps to pull an aching tooth. By the film's end, Harold has plumbed reserves of hidden strength, realizes he no longer needs his pills and medications, and discovers his love for his nurse.

The funniest thing about "Why Worry?" is that this little band of lovable characters never has a clue what's actually going on around them. They don't know one side of the warring parties from the other; they just know when they're in trouble, and they go from scene to scene doing whatever is necessary to get themselves out of scrapes without realizing how they're affecting the bigger picture. This film is wonderfully written and performed, with hilarious bits. Watching Harold's transition from pampered wimp to scrappy freedom fighter is delightful, and he has wonderful chemistry with Jobyna Ralston, who plays his nurse, and John Aasen, the impossibly enormous actor who plays Colossus.

This film is a treat.

Grade: A

I had watched this in Hollywood as well but, given its late-night broadcast (being the last of 7 Lloyd films shown in a row), I was quite tired when its turn came and therefore not in the best position to appreciate it!

Lloyd is a spoilt millionaire and a hypochondriac to boot - not his typical struggling character therefore, but just as resourceful in dealing with situations beyond his control; he goes to a supposedly peaceful South American republic for health reasons and finds it torn by revolution! This film, then, would seem to be the precursor of all the south-of-the-border comedies which came much later - for instance Woody Allen's BANANAS (1971).

Still, while the comic action scenes at the climax certainly deliver the goods - Lloyd is assisted by a giant he met while in prison (and whom he had rid of a crippling toothache) - I think that the film is at its best during the earlier stages (especially the hilarious scene in which, taking a stroll around the village streets, he admires the leisurely lifestyle of the simple-folk there - with everyone he meets apparently sound asleep, unaware that their predicament is actually the result of a fresh beating by the oppressive militia!). Incidentally, this was Jobyna Ralston's first film with Lloyd (playing his loving nurse who, at one point, is disguised as a Mexican serving-boy in order to escape the lecherous attentions of the chief villain!).