The City Slicker

This brief comedy is set in "a roller towel hotel in a saw-mill town," which apparently means the place is a pit. Sure looks like it! The lobby is full of decrepit old codgers, the registry book is covered with dust, and cats jump out of the strangest places. A disgusted guest tells the manager that he ought to hire a city feller to modernize the establishment, and soon young Harold Lloyd is on the job. He asserts himself promptly: when a belligerent old coot turns threatening Harold coolly takes his pistol and uses it to light a cigarette. Within a short time our hero the city slicker has made a real 20th Century hotel of the place, mainly by installing lots of impressive machines, i.e. push-button beds and such. Then Bebe Daniels arrives, and Harold the Flirt goes into overdrive.

Lloyd was still in his mid-20s when he made this movie and he's a bundle of wiry energy. The great gag sequences we find in the later classics aren't on display in this early effort, but our leading man compensates by leaping around the set like Doug Fairbanks. The only drawback in watching The City Slicker today is that, unfortunately, the surviving print material ends abruptly, leaving matters unresolved. The finale is missing, but it's safe to assume that, after a cute closing gag, Harold and Bebe end up in a happy clinch. This is an exuberant, high spirited one-reel romp that Lloyd fans will enjoy, despite the missing footage.

This is subtle and yet very down home. Unusual in a movie where a Big city person drops in on a small town, and invokes positive changes, that people like.

Some of the gags Lloyd uses are manipulating people in an esoteric fashion to accomplish comfort or expidite a conversation, and without provoking the person he's using. In the last 5 decades that would have gotten him Hurt in most major American cities where manipulation is common and resistance can be violent.

Just shows how open spaces ellicit calm reactions in people. Fun situations and a fun movie.

Up until the 1920s, Harold Lloyd was not an especially memorable in his comedy shorts, though few of these many films exist today. What does exist lacks the charm and gentleness that came to be his trademark. In THE CITY SLICKER, we do see Harold with his trademark glasses, hat and suit, but the look still lacked style and substance. Here he comes to a small town in order to modernize a hotel. While some of the gags here were pretty good, none were especially memorable. Typical for these older Lloyd films, Snub Pollard is along for the ride and you can't help but compare the many time-saving gadgets in this film (that often fail to bring laughs) with Pollard's solo film IT'S A GIFT--where ALL the time-saving gags worked so perfectly. By the time the seven minutes are up, not a lot is accomplished in this film and the movie just ends--with no wrap-up, it just ends with a whimper.

Please understand that I am NOT anti-Lloyd. He is my favorite silent comedian, but like Chaplin, his earlier films are very rough and not especially funny. When both left the confines of studio life to form their own production companies, both went on to greatness.

"The City Slicker" shows Harold Lloyd in his earlier days, revealing signs of good things to come, but overall just average as silent comedy. Comedies of the late teens are often more manic and much less refined than those of the 20's, and this one is not an exception to the rule. But do watch it if you are a Lloyd fan, and watch Harold carefully - although there are some routine stretches, there are also some very good gags, and some of them are rather subtle, so careful attention will be rewarded.