Mon ami le voisin

Harold and Snub are next-door neighbors in the suburbs in this-one reel comedy. It's the only time in his career that Lloyd took a directing credit, which he shared with Frank Terry, even though he frequently did uncredited directing on his movies -- he figured, like Buster Keaton, that his staf could use the credit more.

It's a funny movie -- Lloyd's unit was still Roach's only regular money-maker, despite the boss' attempts to start other series; he would spin off Snub into his own series the following year, start releasing Our Gang in 1922, and then the successes would become almost commonplace. However, it's a late one-reel movie, either cut down from what was intended to be a longer piece, or possibly shelved earlier and then released to fill a hole in the schedule. It's fast, it has a goodly number of jokes that are filmed cheaply (a sequence in which Harold and Snub stand on their back porches and throw things at each other is shot in alternating medium close-ups, instead of one medium long shot), and played satisfactorily.

There's nothing fancy in "Just Neighbors", but it's still a funny and fast-paced Harold Lloyd comedy that makes good use of the setting and gets quite a bit of material out of it. The trio of Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, and Snub Pollard work well together, with Pollard getting more action than usual.

The setting has Lloyd and Daniels as the neighbors and friends of Pollard and his wife, but the friendship quickly becomes strained through a series of mishaps involving animals and do-it-yourself projects. The gag ideas are pretty good, and most of them are funny even though they are largely familiar. The cast members all have plenty of energy.

Lloyd's character is neither his earlier 'Lonesome Luke' character, nor his familiar persona from the fine 1920s comedies. Instead, this time he adapts his character to the setting, making him a 'typical' homeowner and neighbor. It works rather well, and while it's not especially noteworthy compared to Lloyd's best movies, it provides good light entertainment.

Just Neighbors (1919)

** (out of 4)

Harold Lloyd and 'Snub' Pollard play friends and neighbors who are constantly helping one another but their friendship turns out anger when Pollard's chickens break free and end up ruining the garden of Lloyd's wife (Bebe Daniels). Fans of the two stars will certainly want to see this film but sadly it's not quite as funny as some of the previous films that they made together at Rolin. I think there's just too much going on here and none of it is all that funny. There are some good bits and pieces scattered around but just not enough to make this a complete winner. I think some of the best stuff happens early on when Lloyd is in line for something but keeps getting pushed around and pushed back in line. Another funny bit happens when Lloyd goes to help Pollard with a chicken coop but things don't go as planned. From here on out we get several bits of slapstick but none of it really jumps off the screen or comes to life. There's a long running gag involving a water hose that just doesn't work and there's no question that the two stars are just trying to do anything for a laugh.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Harold Lloyd was at the peak of his career in terms of short films. Chaplin only made two films in this year ('A Day's Pleasure' and 'Sunnyside') which could not hold a candle to Lloyd's fast moving short comedies. The quantity and format worked in Lloyd's favour because audiences were still hungry short silent comedies after Chaplin began to branch off into feature films.

Neighbors are a common device in comedy. There's rarely a sitcom that doesn't use its neighbors for humor, and there was even the 1981 Belushi-Aykroyd comedy "Neighbors". As it turns out, the person next door was a comedy device 100 years ago in Harold Lloyd's "Just Neighbors". The plot involves an attempt to build things, impeded by all manner of ineptitude. It's only thirteen minutes, but entertaining enough in that short period. It goes to show that a movie doesn't need words, just a good script. Worth seeing.