El mundo cómico de Harold Lloyd

OF ALL THE "Big Three" of the silents screen comedians, it seems that we know less about Harold Lloyd's work than about the others; being Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. This is somewhat ironic; inasmuch that our older "Big" sister, the late Joanne Ryan (1942-90), had the pleasure of meeting him. It was while doing a Summer job while in college. Joanne worked for the Shriner's Hospitals, right here in Chicago and Mr. Lloyd was then the head of the Shrine. (So much for our little bit of "bragging."

OUR FAMILIARITY WITH Lloyd's work has been steadily improving, though, and with our thanx to TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES, it's expansion has recently substantially accelerated. This past week TCM ran a series of Lloyd's shorts and features both silents and talkies alike. Added to the brew was this anthology HAROLD LLOYD'S WORLD OF COMEDY, just for good measure.

BEING THAT IT is a sort of overview of a career, it is done with excerpts from various titles and linked together with some helpful narration. Starting with the premise that your audience (or a substantial portion there of) have little or no knowledge about the subject matter, the resulting picture is a sort of primer.

THE FORMAT THAT was followed is fundamentally the same as had been become very popular in the late 1950's with releases such as THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY, WHEN COMEDY WAS KING and LAUREL & HARDY'S LAUGHING 20's. These were produced by Robert Youngson, but there were others, also.

WE DID ENJOY our screening and recommend it to anyone. But e do see some deficiencies in its construction and content. While Lloyd's best moments on screen were during the mid to late 1920's silent period, there seems to be an inordinate length of time devoted to his sound features of the 1930's and '40's. Footage from PROFESSOR BEWARE and THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK (MAD Wednesday) is shown in a heavy dosage. (Perhaps it was the intent to remind us that Lloyd was also a comedian of the sound era).

BUT IN STARK contrast to the above stated theory, an early sequence from PROFESSOR BEWARE (1938) is presented as if it were a silent. It is the one that features Mr. Lloyd, Raymond Walburn and Lionel Stander as hobos running on the top of a train in avoiding a burning tunnel.

ANOTHER EXCERPT WHICH is exemplary as a specimen of the "Thrill Comedy" genre is also from a talking picture (title unknown to this writer). The bit in question features an older version of Lloyd "glasses" character scaling what looks like the same building used in SAFETY LAST (1923). Although the gags are easily as rigorous as those in the earlier (silent), it was somehow much less humorous.

BUT THERE WAS no doubt that Lloyd was even then an outstanding gymnast as his non-doubled performance proved.

LASTLY, IN MUCH the same manner as the other "Silent Clowns" voices proved to be annoying and overkill for them when their acting abilities were transposed to the talkies, so it was with Lloyd. He went the same way as Keaton and Chaplin; who apparently became quite enamored with hi own dulcet tones.

Harold Lloyd is doing a retrospective on his works. The narrator is writer Arthur A. Ross. First, there are the photographic stills. Then Harold shows sequences of various movies. As for his famous high-up sequences, the claim is that "the action, at all times, actually occurred as high up as you see it happen". It is accurate to the letter of the words, but there is a trick involved. I wish that Harold shows some production stills to reveal the trick. In the end, this is a clip show. The clips are pretty long. For new viewers, they may as well as watch the old movies in full. This may be good for fans' nostalgia.

Another High Concept Movie that doesn't quite work out.

Harold Lloyd made some of the funniest comedies in the 1920s, right? Right! So if we take the funniest parts of of his funniest movies and make a movie out of just them, it will be even funnier, right? Right.

Well, no, actually. Yes, Harold Lloyd's movies are hilarious, but no, the gag sequences by themselves aren't as funny. Yes, they are wonderful to look at in terms of sheer invention and execution, but without the context of who Harold is this movie and why he happens to be pulling that particular gag, it isn't as funny. It's Harold Lloyd. It's comedy clips. You expect him to be doing something funny, so you're expecting it. Funny is unexpected. "I never saw that one coming". Instead of wondering how he's going to get out of this predicament, you wonder what predicament he's going to get into next.

By all means, go see the Harold Lloyd movies, but see them as they were meant to be seen, not as someone decided forty years later how they should be seen. Even if it was Harold Lloyd.

Some of Silent Cinema's funniest moments may be found in HAROLD LLOYD'S WORLD OF COMEDY (1962).

Although he had not appeared on screen for many years, comic genius Harold Lloyd had kept ownership of his films, storing them in special vaults at his Beverly Hills mansion. He loved sharing the gift of laughter from his old movies whenever he could. Student audiences were a favorite, as were the young patients in Shriner hospitals for children. It was here that he had experimented showing compilations of his favorite cinematic moments culled from his old classics.

It is important to remember that Harold's original films were unavailable for viewing by the general public for decades. He did not want them to be shown on commercial television where they were likely to be broken up for advertisements and shown at incorrect projection speeds. He was wise, especially when one considers what TV perpetrated upon the feature films and shorts of Laurel & Hardy and the Our Gang kids. In the early 1960's, 35 years after his Silent Glory Days, he produced and released this look back.

Generous selections from both silent and talkie films are shown (including, oddly, a couple of snippets from sound pictures shown 'silent'). We get to see Harold dealing with the obstreperous turkey & taking a most adventurous drive in his new car from HOT WATER (1924). A Latin American revolution causes him problems in WHY WORRY? (1923). The dog on a train and the race to the church sequences from GIRL SHY (1924) are up next. After segments from THE MILKY WAY (1936) and PROFESSOR BEWARE (1938), we are treated to the hilarious dance with Louise Closser Hale in MOVIE CRAZY (1932) and Harold's dangling from the side of the skyscraper in FEET FIRST (1930).

While this compilation film is terrific fun, nothing takes the place of enjoying the movies in their full-length versions, now newly restored & freshly scored.

The great success of this film internationally, as well as a special award at the Cannes Film Festival, meant Harold would certainly have to come up with a sequel of more greatest moments, which he did the following year with HAROLD LLOYD'S FUNNY SIDE OF LIFE (1963).

I love Harold Lloyd films...and yet I am NOT recommending you watch "Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy". This sounds contradictory, doesn't it? Well, let me explain why I love his films and why I quickly lost interest in this picture.

Harold Lloyd, of all the major comedy stars of the 1920s, relied more on stories and his sweet character. Sure, he did a few films, such as "Safety Last", which were very physical. But far more often he made sweet plot-driven films like "The Kid Brother", "Grandma's Boy" and "The Freshman"...movies that didn't rely on pratfalls or stunts but lovable characters and more subtle comedy. Because of this, although you could see clips from some of these wonderful films, without the context all the sweetness and great characters are lost. And so it was as I saw this compendium--the context was missing and most of the clips, on their own, just weren't that funny.

I think that non-fans would also be disappointed. They would see the clips and likely think "wow...he's really not that funny" and simply dismiss Harold Lloyd and his genius. Instead, see his films in their entirety and skis this poorly slapped together pile of clips and occasionally annoying narration.