From Hand to Mouth

This Harold Lloyd comedy is both very enjoyable and very thoughtful, and it works especially well considering that it was made during a time in Lloyd's career when he was gradually making a transition in the way that he portrayed his characters on-screen. The story and the characters bear many resemblances to Charlie Chaplin's popular comedies of the same era, but Lloyd and director Alfred Goulding give it a style and tone of its own.

Lloyd plays a penniless drifter who befriends a very young street waif, played with charm by Peggy Courtwright, whose character is accompanied by an equally endearing dog. The three of them are rescued from a scrape with authorities by an heiress played by Mildred Davis, who turns out to have some worries of her own.

After a bit of a slow start, things pick up, and it works very well, combining the different story lines with plenty of slapstick and some very thoughtful moments as well. Most of the themes are familiar ones, but it does a good job with them, and Lloyd succeeds with some material that is rather different from that in most of his movies.

The Boy (Harold Lloyd) has no money for food. Neither does The Waif and her little dog. The Girl (Mildred Davis) is an innocent heiress being robbed of her inheritance without her knowledge. The Boy gets tricked into leading her kidnappers. All he really wants is the food. When she get kidnapped, he sets off to rescue her.

It's the first pairing of Harold Lloyd and his future wife Mildred Davis. The story is simple. Lloyd has plenty of good humor and a few minor stunts. Leading the cops is the comedic highlight. It's a good solid 22 minutes.

(1919) From Hand To Mouth SILENT COMEDY

From the running time of 22 minutes that has (Harold Lloyd) who is gazing through a window into a diner while customers are eating. A little girl (Peggy Courtwright) and her dog then joins him before the owner of the diner notices and shew' s them away. And after sitting on the curb of the sidewalk, he is then offered a cookie by a customer, and he needed to make a small rip underneath the bag to grab one. Llyod then chases the little girl to which her dog eventually finds a wad of cash and brings it them. Meanwhile, while this was happening (Mildred Davis) has just been informed she will inherit her father's estate if she can sign some papers by midnight. Except that her conniving brother and the lawyer are conspiring together so that will not happen. Leading them the charge is (Harry Pollard) to prevent her from signing the document by midnight. And while she is being driven home by her chauffeur, she then notices the owner of a bakery forcing Harold Lloyd to pay for the bread and other donuts after he discovered it is not actual money after all. She intervenes to pay for all the bread/ donuts ruined before she drives away again. The first of 15 movies Harold Lloyd starred with Mildred Davis.

In this enjoyable Harold Lloyd comedy, our boy Harold (playing a down-and-outer whose acquaintances include a scrappy little beggar girl and her lame dog) finds himself coming to the aid of a pretty heiress whose inheritance is in danger of being weasled away by a shyster lawyer in cahoots with a gang of thugs. Every Lloyd film has a rollicking climax full of visual stunts, and the one to this movie shows Harold verbally or physically assaulting every police officer in the city in an attempt to lead them to the gang's lair.

Everything comes right in the end, as Harold, heiress, beggar girl and dog get to sit down to a mighty dinner and we get to turn off the T.V. with a smile on our faces.

This Harold Lloyd silent film is fun because it has fast-moving story, plenty of chase scenes and sight gags, good camera-work and some great expressions on the actors' faces. It also has a couple of endearing people such as a poor little girl and her lame dog, and a good-hearted woman.

Of course, being a "silent," I expect exaggerated facial expressions, but some in here are ones that made me laugh out loud. You see all kinds, from shady winks to eyebrow raising to evil-looking smiles. Hey, it's a story about a crooked lawyer and a bunch of thugs (almost the same). One of the lawyers is named "Leech."

The little girl, called "The Waif," is played by cute Peggy Courtwright. "Waif" is a common term in these silent films, which Charlie Chaplin and others featured a lot: homeless, extremely poor creatures, male, female, children and dogs.

"The Girl" as she is called, is played by Mildred Davis. It was her first appearance in a Lloyd film. Four years later, she and Harold were married.

Another interesting feature in this film was the sudden switch to a blue tint in the second half. It would be shown for a couple of short scenes.

The ending, of course, was the best. You will have a smile on your face at the very last scene in the diner. These wild endings are the norm for silent comedies and are great fun to watch.. I loved how Harold rounded up the cops.