Hot Water

This is an unusual domestic comedy for Harold Lloyd. Instead of spending the movie trying to "get the girl," he marries her in the first few minutes and spends the next hour dealing with the trials of wedded bliss.

In a way, the feature can really be seen as a melding together of 3 shorts. In the first, Harold attempts to navigate his way home with multiple small packages & a very live turkey. In the second, Harold illustrates the pitfalls of taking the in-laws (including a monstrous mother-in-law) for a ride about town in the new family car. In the third segment, well - it's hilarious, but you'll need to see it for yourself...

Harold Lloyd is wonderful throughout. But then you expected that, didn't you?

The jingle which went with TV showings of Lloyd's films in the 1980s still stays with me "a pair of glasses and a smile", and that was the time I first saw 'Hot Water'.

It is a short film where Harold struggles with parcels and a live turkey on public transport, and shows off his new car to the battleaxe mother-in-law. Of course there are high-risk stunts, of course the car gets destroyed, and all the usual stuff, making a short but brilliant silent classic. Jobyna Ralston plays Harold's love interest and we just sit back and laugh as silly things happen to him.

I do like Lloyd and along with Chaplin and Keaton he really is the yardstick by which all film comedians after should be judged. My personal favourite of his is 'Girl Shy' but this hour-long treasure comes close.

The genius of Harold Lloyd's character was that he acted like he was an everyday person in today's world. Lloyd tapped into that normalcy, surviving in a world where occasionally an unlucky day crops up. Those circumstances are so surreal that most consider the day's a joke, providing hilarious fodder in relating the events later on. That was the world of Harold Lloyd, which made him one of the most successful silent movie comedians.

In October 1924's "Hot Water," Lloyd finds himself in an unusual situation as a happily married husband. A simple grocery errand, a leisurely ride in his new car, and a Freudian wish in a dream about getting rid of his dreaded mother-in-law, all make for one single day for Lloyd where he plays a spouse caught in a Kafka-like bizarro world.

Reminiscent to his earlier gag-heavy shorts, "Hot Water" is broken up into three segments, in which if separated could be standalone two-reeler shorts. A grocery list submitted by his adorning wife (Jobyna Ralston) turns out to be a handful for Lloyd after purchasing the goods. He seen shuffling a number of packages, compounded by a live turkey he won in a raffle, in a streetcar going home. When he finally arrives, his wife's in-laws, including her loafing brother and bratty kid brother, make their visit even more interesting.

Hot Water (1924)

*** (out of 4)

Harold Lloyd feature about the married life and those annoying mother in laws. This film is pretty much broken into three segments, all of which are full of nice laughs even though this certainly isn't a classic. The second segment involving Lloyd taking the family out in his new car gets the most laughs as the family destroys the car within minutes. The final segment has Lloyd thinking he's killed the mother in law only to have her come back as a ghost.

You can get this short in New Line's box set.

Most of his films find Harold Lloyd struggling for success against impossible odds in order to make good and win the girl. HOT WATER is atypical, for here we find that Lloyd has already made good and won the girl--but now he has to put up with his in-laws, and his wife's family is enough to daunt the bravest man: a nasty baby brother, a free-loading older brother, and a battle-ax mother who has "a natural gift for destruction." This short film--which finds Lloyd dismayed when he wins a live turkey at a raffle, the victim of some truly savage back-seat-driving, and then convinced that he has accidentally killed his hateful mother-in-law--abounds with one sight gag after another, and easily equals any of the longer and better known films Lloyd made later in his career.

With his signature straw hat, round glasses, and innocent enthusiasm, Lloyd personifies the go-getter spirit of the 1920s, and he is generally regarded as one of the three great male silent comics; sadly, however, his films have been somewhat neglected over the years and seldom receive the attention showered on the films of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. If you've never been exposed to Lloyd beyond his famous SAFETY LAST, you'll find HOT WATER an excellent place to begin--a film sure to make you want to see more and more.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer