From Hand to Mouth

Two people and one dog share the same problem: they have nothing to eat.The penniless man is joined by a waif and her dog.There is a dishonest lawyer working with a gang of criminals trying to swindle an innocent young heiress out of her inheritance.Then this lovely lady rescues Harold and the waif from the hands of the authorities.Maybe Harold could help the girl with the problem she's having.This silent comedy short, From Hand to Mouth (1919), has two directors, Alfred J. Goulding and Hal Roach.Harold Lloyd is truly great as this poor man.Mildred Davis is really amazing as his love interest.Peggy Cartwright is a magnificent child actress.And you gotta love the dog! There's also the great 'Snub' Pollard playing The Kidnapper.What fine moments this movie offers!

A Hal Roach HAROLD LLOYD Comedy Short Subject.

Poor Harold is living FROM HAND TO MOUTH until he meets a very pretty rich heiress who's the target for kidnappers.

There is much to enjoy in this little film which boasts excellent production values, some top notch chase sequences and a typically first rate performance from Harold. His future wife Mildred Davis plays the rich young lady, Snub Pollard is the comically wicked kidnapper & little Peggy Cartwright exudes winsome charm as the spunky waif. Fans will notice that Harold's right hand is intact; this film was made shortly before his famous accident which left him with only half a hand.

Robert Israel has composed an excellent film score which perfectly complements Harold's antics on the screen.

This Harold Lloyd comedy is both very enjoyable and very thoughtful, and it works especially well considering that it was made during a time in Lloyd's career when he was gradually making a transition in the way that he portrayed his characters on-screen. The story and the characters bear many resemblances to Charlie Chaplin's popular comedies of the same era, but Lloyd and director Alfred Goulding give it a style and tone of its own.

Lloyd plays a penniless drifter who befriends a very young street waif, played with charm by Peggy Courtwright, whose character is accompanied by an equally endearing dog. The three of them are rescued from a scrape with authorities by an heiress played by Mildred Davis, who turns out to have some worries of her own.

After a bit of a slow start, things pick up, and it works very well, combining the different story lines with plenty of slapstick and some very thoughtful moments as well. Most of the themes are familiar ones, but it does a good job with them, and Lloyd succeeds with some material that is rather different from that in most of his movies.

In this enjoyable Harold Lloyd comedy, our boy Harold (playing a down-and-outer whose acquaintances include a scrappy little beggar girl and her lame dog) finds himself coming to the aid of a pretty heiress whose inheritance is in danger of being weasled away by a shyster lawyer in cahoots with a gang of thugs. Every Lloyd film has a rollicking climax full of visual stunts, and the one to this movie shows Harold verbally or physically assaulting every police officer in the city in an attempt to lead them to the gang's lair.

Everything comes right in the end, as Harold, heiress, beggar girl and dog get to sit down to a mighty dinner and we get to turn off the T.V. with a smile on our faces.

The Boy (Harold Lloyd) has no money for food. Neither does The Waif and her little dog. The Girl (Mildred Davis) is an innocent heiress being robbed of her inheritance without her knowledge. The Boy gets tricked into leading her kidnappers. All he really wants is the food. When she get kidnapped, he sets off to rescue her.

It's the first pairing of Harold Lloyd and his future wife Mildred Davis. The story is simple. Lloyd has plenty of good humor and a few minor stunts. Leading the cops is the comedic highlight. It's a good solid 22 minutes.