Hot Water

The Harold Lloyd movies I've seen (The Kid Brother, Safety Last) tend to depend on Harold's brilliant ability to hang hilarious gags on a rather flimsy plot, and this film is no different. It has some very funny moments (Harold and the turkey; Harold and the battleaxe mother-in-law) and a superb opening scene in which he falls in love at first sight, but the later assaults on his in-laws aren't very well motivated. One feels sympathy for his wife's Wagnerian mother;she even cries in one scene. The very handsome Lloyd is much more intersting as a young swain. For obnoxious in-law comedy that really works try W.C. Fields' "It's a Gift" and "The Man on the Flying Trapeze," the latter containing some elements similar to Lloyd's film.

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.

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?

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