Now or Never

Harold's on his way to reclaim his childhood sweetheart as promised on the occasion of her eighteenth birthday. She is a nanny and brings her cute little charge along with her even though she isn't really supposed to. Harold, driving like a maniac – Lloyd certainly saw speed (and heights) as an infallible ingredient in his thrill comedies – ends up driving through a farmers barn and ends up riding under a train with the bum who cheated him out of his bankroll.

The second part of the film takes place on board the train, where Harold has been lumbered with the little girl because his sweetheart has spotted her boss on the same train. Although the kid is cute, some of the humour is strained here, with some gags lasting too long, and things feel a little flat after the breakneck pace of the film's first half. At 40 minutes, this film was longer than Lloyd's usual two-reelers and it's likely that he deliberately made the film this way so that it could be split into two short films if the longer running time failed to please his fans.

This isn't one of Lloyd's best film but it probably has just about enough highlights to keep most fans happy.

Dolly is a poor little rich girl ignored by her parents and cared for by her nanny Mary. Mary is going home on vacation and takes along Dolly. She expects to reunite with childhood friend (Harold Lloyd). Meanwhile, he's struggling every which way to get to her. The group meets and boards a train but Mary is surprised to find Dolly's father on the train whom she has not informed about taking Dolly.

This is Harold Lloyd before he becomes the famous Harold Lloyd but he's that character already. There's also a tramp who looks like the famous tramp. Lloyd's entry is a lot of action and hilarious stunts. He's going full out on the big action scenes. Once the gang boards the train, they do get stymied by the interior comedy work. I would say that it's a half step below the great tramp. There is a comparison with Chaplin's The Kid. This one lacks the emotional connection compared to The Kid. It limits its full potential until he gets on top of the train for the grande finale. I can do without the black-face but that's comedy of its time. This is Lloyd growing into one of the greats of his era.

While probably a bit more uneven than most of Harold Lloyd's early 1920s comedies, this feature has some very enjoyable moments. Lloyd and Mildred Davis star in a rather complicated story that sees them spend considerable time with a cute young child, giving Lloyd some different material than usual to work with.

The story is the kind of deliberately illogical series of predicaments that provides a showcase for a skilled comic like Lloyd, as his character movies rapidly from one jam to another. Most of it takes place on a train, which provides an enjoyable setting with lots of good props and minor characters.

The parts that work the best turn out to be the scenes with the child. Lloyd's eager beaver style forms a nice contrast with the young girl, combining humor with an occasional warmer moment that works well. The rest of the movie also contains some good gags, but many of the others are only average, at least by Lloyd's standards. Nothing at all is wrong with Lloyd's timing or with the pace; it's just that this time only some of the gag ideas are really creative or funny. It still adds up to an enjoyable comedy that is somewhat above average overall.

In the set-up to this movie, Harold has to take care of Anna Mae Bilson on a train, without a ticket. Once that's established, you can sit back and enjoy this well-paced and funny three-reel comedy.

Once he had begun to make two-reel comedies in 1919, Harold would occasionally make a three-reel one. Whether he was experimenting with a better set-up to the funny sections, or Hal Roach and he agreed the three-reel version played better is not clear. His first feature, A SAILOR-MADE MAN started at three reels and just kept going.

Young Miss Bilson appeared in this movie, and the first-shot short in the Our Gang series, it was called OUR GANG and was released third in sequence. She lived to be 89, dying in 2005.

Sometimes all you need to do is to have a good laugh and who is better to ask for it than Mr Harold Lloyd himself? His short and feature length comedies were all suspenseful, fast-paced and full of sharp, witty humor and highly dangerous stunts that keep the viewer on the edge of the seat even a century later.

One of those high octane movies was a short feature called "Now or never" that came out on this day exactly a hundred years ago. This 35-minute picture, accompanied by fantastic new musical score by maestro Robert Israel, tells a story of a boy racing against time to get to his childhood sweetheart; when he finally does - she has a child of her employer's with her and the boy reluctantly agrees to babysit her which leads to more comedic situations.

This picture, although being per se the quietest in Harold Lloyd's filmography, has nevertheless a lot of memorable scenes and chase sequences, with tons of deus ex machina moments along the way. I believe by choosing to go in this direction Harold wanted to show the deeper side of his already established frequent character, not just a dopey loving little boy but also caring, generous and literally giving all he's got to a complete stranger. That side of people's nature is obscenely rare to find nowadays because between "now" and "never" people usually choose the latter but it's something that still is out there in the world and racing through time just like we are.