Er im Wilden Westen

A Hal Roach HAROLD LLOYD Short Subject.

Harold becomes AN EASTERN WESTERNER when his wealthy father banishes him from Broadway to Piute Patch.

Harold displays his remarkable athletic ability in this funny little film made shortly after he lost half of his right hand in a freak accident. Although his special glove (made by Sam Goldwyn's family) is visible at times, you would never know he was handicapped in any way. Whether trying to sneak into a New York nightclub, or escape from the dangerous Masked Angels out West, Harold is never less than hilarious.

Mildred Davis, Harold's future wife, plays the sweet Girl of the West; Noah Young is the nasty outlaw.

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

Before I start, I have to complain about the person who has put up that Harold Lloyd mini-biography on all the comments about his movie. It does not attempt to review the movie, maybe the it hasn't seen it but what is so monotonous is that the bio is the same one. Frustrating by all means. Anyway to the movie which is light on its feet and uses a dramatic set-up which has few laughs to get the up-to-no-good big city boy who ends up in the country where this situational comedy takes ground. Harold always billed as "the boy" meets "the girl" as they were all billed and this comic oater takes off as Harold has to battle the bad guys which ends with a furious chase to a train as the girl tries to defend him. Not great Lloyd but you could do worse.

I found all the sequences in this film to be very funny. It is one of the earlier examples of the chase sequences Harold was developing that would really come into an art form last in GIRL SHY & SPEEDY. It is fine fun, & has some examples of gags LLoyd did not use in later films that are pretty funny. Nice thing is the pacing, which is not quite as frantic as earlier BUMPING INTO Broadway even though the films are about the same length. In a way, this reminds me some of BILLY BLAZES, ESQ. in the western sequences, but the ones in this film show an improvement over the Tom Mix parody of 1919. Some of the sequences in this are laugh out loud funny. If you get a chance to, enjoy this one.

As can be deduced from its title, this short puts Harold Lloyd into a favorite environment with star comedians; still its opening moments largely take place inside a club, where rich-kid Lloyd falls foul of the proprietor because of his over-energetic dancing!

Sent out West by his disapproving family, he meets and falls for poor girl Mildred Davis - who is coveted by the tyrannical town boss, for whom she's forced to work; the latter is a truly hissable villain, a bully whom even the townsfolk would like to get rid of (as evidenced by the number of attempts made on his life throughout) but who literally holds the town in the palm of his hand (demonstrated in a wonderful optical effect) with the aid of a KKK-type gang!

Lloyd, of course, summons enough courage to protect the girl and with a good deal of ingenuity is able to teach the villain a lesson, and finally to flee the town with his new-found lover in tow. Ultimately, though certainly funny and enjoyable, this isn't up to the level of an equivalent Keaton short or the films Chaplin made for the Mutual company.

Harold Lloyd plays an aimless New York playboy. He's supposed to be studying at the YMCA but instead, he's dancing at the nightclubs. In frustration, his father sends him to his uncle's ranch in the wild, wild west. In the town of Piute Pass, he is taken with a local gal. Her father is being held prisoner by local thug "Tiger Lip" Tompkins. Tompkins owns half the town and leads the Masked Angels.

This early Hal Roach short has his best act Lloyd doing his every man. It's not quite a nice innocent guy but he's plenty likeable. The plot is simple. It's a weak easterner trying to make it in the tough old west. There are some simple action stunt sequences. It has good slapstick fun. It is a short which limits any complexity. This is a simple physical comedy.