La Chasse au renard

Harold Lloyd three-reeler which finds him as a bellhop who's asked to double for an English lord during a high-society party. Its best moments involve the star's tall tales of his hunting prowess (catching several different types of animals, including wild beasts!) until he's reminded that the lord's particular specialty is supposed to be fox-hunting; one such event ensues, during which Harold not only doesn't catch the fox but actually loses his pants! A subplot involves the maid being in cahoots with one of the guests to take possession of the estate - which our hero naturally thwarts after falling for the daughter of his hosts (played by Mildred Davis). Also, it deals with the necessity for the nouveau riche to adapt themselves to a different type of lifestyle - something which the father (and, to a lesser extent, the daughter) has difficulty in accepting, much to the chagrin of the proud and sophisticated mother; still, it's clear where the film-makers' sympathies lie - the finale sees Harold sitting down alongside Davis' father to eat a plate of good old-fashioned ham and eggs!

Harold Lloyd is a common bellhop at a ritzy Hotel, but he's good at impersonating the rich snobs who frequent the establishment. That talent gets him a chance to wear "glad rags" and mingle with the "swells," pretending to be a famous hunter. He's invited to this upper crust party and fox hunt. The real famous hunter didn't look suitable so a man who was assigned the job of asking the hunter to come to the party, invites Lloyd instead, telling him this is his chance to have some fun. Harold is okay with that. The invitee is really some "scumbag," as one reviewer here puts it, and is only interested in getting the daughter of the rich people to marry him so he can gain some money.

Anyway, after tasting the accidentally-spiked punch, gets hammered and tells a bunch of wild tales at the party. The more drinks he has, the better the stories. Some are pretty funny.

He's then asked to ride "Dynamite," the un-ridable horse, in the hunt. Slapstick then takes over for the rest of the movie as Harold attempts to ride the horse, then winds up being chased by a ram and a dog, loses his pants and tries to hide from everyone, on and on. Yes, a lot of these films didn't have much of a story, just a vehicle for the comedian to show us his talents. That's okay; that's what we like or we wouldn't watch these Lloyd or Buster Keaton and others' short films.

This film was so-so, to be honest. Nothing great, but not bad, either. The title cards in here were with cute drawings that were funny and a bit sarcastic were as good as the film.

Harold Lloyd pretends to be a hoity-toity Englishman among a bunch of aristocrats in this really funny short comedy.

Lloyd's comedies were always funny in direct proportion to the amount of physical slapstick he built into them, and this one has loads to spare. Most notable is an extended gag that finds Lloyd without pants, freaking out every proper English lady he comes across while trying to save his ass from being bitten off by a grumpy dog. All of this craziness is of course for a girl (what other reason could there possibly be?) and all ends happily enough.

Grade: A-

Harold Loyd is pretty funny, and a good physical comic. Among Those Present deals with the contrast between high society and the rest of us. It seems to have been a more popular theme during the 1920s than it is now. (Cf., The Great Gatsby.) Not that we don't have our share of contemporary explorations of the same issue, as in Trading Places, but now the contrast seems to be more about wealth and less about "class" in the old fashioned sense.

The first half of Among Those Present has Loyd imitating a British aristocrat, telling ridiculous stories about "the hunt" to an assembly of awed guests at a tony party, and trying to ride a horse that others refer to as a "brute." (The subsequent ride is more imaginative than the similar one in Auntie Mame.) In the second half, Loyd has lost his trousers escaping from a bull through a barbed wire fence but doesn't realize it. This is the most outlandishly amusing part of the film. No matter how Loyd tries to cover up the fact that he is pantsless, the attempt fails. It's like Laurel and Hardy trying to change trousers after their escape from prison. Probably the single funniest moment in the movie is when Loyd, still in his skivvies, finds himself hopping froglike past a couple of dignified ladies on a bench. (I won't explain what led up to this.)

I laughed out loud a few times even though I wasn't in a particularly good mood while watching it. I mean, my brain hadn't been chemically altered or anything. It's quite amusing.

This Harold Lloyd comedy has a good combination of slapstick and satire. It also features Lloyd experimenting with Chaplin-style material, as his character impersonates an English lord as part of a parody on the idle rich. On the production end, Fred C. Newmeyer, Hal Roach, and Sam Taylor put together a good story with plenty of laughs and a good pace.

After the other main characters have been introduced, Lloyd's character makes a clever entrance. He plays the kind of eager-to-succeed young man that he later went on to portray in some of his finest full-length movies, and this character is brought into the world of a family run by an equally ambitious matriarch. There is nothing subtle about the characters, and the amusing title cards also add some extra sarcasm to the portrayal of the upper classes.

Although this is the kind of setup that Chaplin was particularly known for, Lloyd and company give it a different feel that works well. The story moves smoothly from one zany situation to the next, and there is a good combination of comedy material, with sight gags blended together with the slapstick and with Lloyd's occasional feats of athleticism. It makes for an enjoyable movie that gives Lloyd plenty of material to work with.