Marin malgré lui

Comedian Harold Lloyd was preparing for just another short film when the plot he and his team of writers came up with was sizzling with a wealth of gags. They were in a quandary whether to shelve some brilliant sequences to be within the restraints of their normal short 30-minute film or expand to a longer version. Producer Hal Roach recommended the later. Lloyd went along with his producer's opinion, and made his first feature film, December 1921's "A Sailor-Made Man." It was a decision that forever changed his movie career.

Clocking in at just 46 minutes, Lloyd's feature was a big money-maker at the theaters, cashing in almost half a million dollars on a $77,000 budget. The movie's plot of a rich playboy who is required to get a job before he marries his popular girlfriend could have easily fit into his previously two-reeler structure. But since his character's enrollment into the Navy required an exotic location, Lloyd expanded upon thrills and laughs to a longer motion picture.

While this film isn't really as long as most feature films, it is longer than a short and really falls in between the two types of films in length.

This film was remade three years later as WHY WORRY? though there were some changes made in the plot--enough that I recommend you see both. However the overall themes and plot elements are interchangeable. In both he's a rich guy who needs to grow up and be more industrious, and in both he ultimately rescues his lady while in a foreign land. In WHY WORRY? the setting was a revolution on a South American island and in this film it was a Muslim nation and its leader who kidnaps the lady to put her in his harem.

The general direction of the plot is pure Lloyd formula--wimpy guy meets girl and somehow rises to the occasion to fight for and win her. This is nicely made but not exactly different from many of his other films in this sense. It's worth seeing, but other films such as THE FRESHMAN, GIRL SHY and SPEEDY are better Lloyd vehicles.

It's the Abington Arms, an ultra fashionable summer resort. The Boy (Harold Lloyd) is an idle rich heir to $20 million. He falls for The Girl (Mildred Davis) who is pursued by many suitors. Her steel magnate father demands that he go do something worthwhile like getting a job. He decides to join the Navy.

This is a fun Harold Lloyd film with his classic bespectacled everyman. It doesn't have his building climbing exploits but it does have some slapstick and general physical humor. An extra does some nice magic tricks. It's a fun 45 minutes.

A brash millionaire, Harold Lloyd, impulsively joins the Navy to prove his worth to his girlfriend's rich father in this pleasant if unspectacular comedy. "Sailor Made Man" was Harold Lloyd's first feature comedy, which, according to reports, was originally conceived as a short film which grew increasingly longer. That evolution can be detected in the rather simple plot and lack of sophistication in regard to character development. In this film, Lloyd goes from being an insufferably selfish jerk to a somewhat normal sailor in about the length of one title card. Still, there are sufficient laughs, and a certain innocence to the romance that can't help but bring a smile, even if the film isn't as rich and assured as some of the features that followed. Not the best place to start for someone unfamiliar with Harold Lloyd, but a definite for fans.

This is one of many funny and entertaining Harold Lloyd comedies that have been somewhat overshadowed by his better-known masterpieces. Certainly, "A Sailor-Made Man" is not on the level of "Safety Last" or "Speedy" or a few others, but it's an enjoyable feature in its own right, with some good material.

The story has a setup that will be familiar to Lloyd fans, with Harold as one of many suitors for the hand of a society girl played by Mildred Davis. Lloyd's character ends up in the Navy, where he meets up with a roughneck played in entertaining fashion by Noah Young. There are some sequences of slapstick aboard ship, and then the main story resumes when Lloyd meets up again with Davis in an exotic port of call.

There are some interesting settings with plenty of good individual gag ideas, and there are a couple of very good sequences. There's a street fight scene, with Lloyd and Young taking on a gang of toughs, that has some clever touches, plus a fun chase sequence in a harem. It doesn't have any of the terrific set pieces that you find in Lloyd's best movies, but it has more than enough to make it entertaining and enjoyable.