"From Hand to Mouth" marks a transition in Harold Lloyd's career, as he was phasing out the Chaplin imitations of his early days and began developing the bespectacled "glass character" that would bring him stardom. This is also Lloyd's first film with Mildred Davis, who became his long-term leading lady and (offscreen) his life-long wife. Snub Pollard and Noah Young, both of whom did excellent support work in many of Lloyd's best films, have good roles here. The film's climax, featuring a race against time, is a prototype for Lloyd's later "thrill" comedies.
In this movie, Lloyd plays a vaguely Chaplinesque drifter who mooches his way along with a little-girl waif (Peggy Cartwright, not very good). When a dog digs up a bankroll and gives it to the penniless Lloyd, he and Peggy rush off to a general store to buy some groceries. Lloyd hands over some cash, and takes possession of the food just as the grocer discovers that the dollars are counterfeit. This surprises Lloyd so much, he drops the food ... which is now ruined, and he has no money to pay for it.
Just as the grocer is threatening to arrest Lloyd, along comes an expensive car with a beautiful woman in it (Mildred Davis), who pays for the groceries. She's an heiress who (conveniently) is just about to claim her inheritance, but only if she can obtain certain documents (the McGuffin papers?) by midnight tonight. Naturally, a rival heir wants to stop her.
Snub Pollard is the leader of a gang of thugs who kidnap Davis, intending to detain her until the midnight deadline passes. Lloyd trails the goons to their hideout, and then tries to enlist the aid of a policeman. But the cop takes one look at Lloyd (who plays a shabby drifter in this film) and ignores him. Lloyd smacks the cop, who draws his nightstick and gives chase. With the cop in pursuit, Lloyd keeps running until he finds another cop ... then smacks him too, and now he's got two cops chasing him while he looks for a third. Lloyd keeps smacking the constables, until finally he's got a whole platoon of policemen chasing him. (This scene is clearly the prototype for the climax of Lloyd's sound film "Professor Beware".) When Lloyd has enough cops chasing him, he leads them back to Snub's hideout for a slam-bang finish. Will midnight strike before Lloyd can rescue Mildred and help her claim her inheritance?
This is not one of Lloyd's best films, but it's an interesting effort and it shows the gestation of his "glass character". The final scenes in the film are supposed to take place just before midnight, but the footage was clearly shot day-for-night and it isn't very convincing. I'll rate this film 4 out of 10.
