Now or Never

While probably a bit more uneven than most of Harold Lloyd's early 1920s comedies, this feature has some very enjoyable moments. Lloyd and Mildred Davis star in a rather complicated story that sees them spend considerable time with a cute young child, giving Lloyd some different material than usual to work with.

The story is the kind of deliberately illogical series of predicaments that provides a showcase for a skilled comic like Lloyd, as his character movies rapidly from one jam to another. Most of it takes place on a train, which provides an enjoyable setting with lots of good props and minor characters.

The parts that work the best turn out to be the scenes with the child. Lloyd's eager beaver style forms a nice contrast with the young girl, combining humor with an occasional warmer moment that works well. The rest of the movie also contains some good gags, but many of the others are only average, at least by Lloyd's standards. Nothing at all is wrong with Lloyd's timing or with the pace; it's just that this time only some of the gag ideas are really creative or funny. It still adds up to an enjoyable comedy that is somewhat above average overall.

A Hal Roach HAROLD LLOYD 3-Reeler.

A young fellow must suddenly care for an infant on a very eventful overnight train trip.

Harold Lloyd has a field day in this wonderful short silent film, NOW OR NEVER. His athletic prowess was never in more demand than here where - with half his right hand missing and disguised by a glove - he jumps, crawls, runs, leaps and squirms his way all over, under and through a passenger train. Along the way he must contend with thieving hobos, belligerent passengers, unfriendly bullies, suspicious conductors and the demands of a precocious tiny tot, charmingly played by little Anna Mae Bilson. Through all perplexities & befuddlements, and a lot of real physical danger, Harold is never less than astoundingly funny.

Pretty Mildred Davis plays the infant's nursemaid; Miss Davis' association with Harold Lloyd was at this time turning to romance and would soon culminate in marriage.

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

Dolly is a poor little rich girl ignored by her parents and cared for by her nanny Mary. Mary is going home on vacation and takes along Dolly. She expects to reunite with childhood friend (Harold Lloyd). Meanwhile, he's struggling every which way to get to her. The group meets and boards a train but Mary is surprised to find Dolly's father on the train whom she has not informed about taking Dolly.

This is Harold Lloyd before he becomes the famous Harold Lloyd but he's that character already. There's also a tramp who looks like the famous tramp. Lloyd's entry is a lot of action and hilarious stunts. He's going full out on the big action scenes. Once the gang boards the train, they do get stymied by the interior comedy work. I would say that it's a half step below the great tramp. There is a comparison with Chaplin's The Kid. This one lacks the emotional connection compared to The Kid. It limits its full potential until he gets on top of the train for the grande finale. I can do without the black-face but that's comedy of its time. This is Lloyd growing into one of the greats of his era.

Harold's on his way to reclaim his childhood sweetheart as promised on the occasion of her eighteenth birthday. She is a nanny and brings her cute little charge along with her even though she isn't really supposed to. Harold, driving like a maniac – Lloyd certainly saw speed (and heights) as an infallible ingredient in his thrill comedies – ends up driving through a farmers barn and ends up riding under a train with the bum who cheated him out of his bankroll.

The second part of the film takes place on board the train, where Harold has been lumbered with the little girl because his sweetheart has spotted her boss on the same train. Although the kid is cute, some of the humour is strained here, with some gags lasting too long, and things feel a little flat after the breakneck pace of the film's first half. At 40 minutes, this film was longer than Lloyd's usual two-reelers and it's likely that he deliberately made the film this way so that it could be split into two short films if the longer running time failed to please his fans.

This isn't one of Lloyd's best film but it probably has just about enough highlights to keep most fans happy.

Being a three-reeler, this Harold Lloyd vehicle commands more attention than his typical short - though it's not quite as rounded as his feature-length films either!

Train-set for a good part of the duration, it provides plenty of gags characteristic to such a situation: being a stowaway with a small girl in tow, Lloyd has to devise several ways in which to avoid detection; there's a lengthy scene in the berths (at one point, Lloyd causes the train to make an emergency stop in the middle of the country-side simply because his spoilt ward wants a glass of milk!); and the star even contrives to find himself on top of the train as it's speeding towards a tunnel.

As with many of his other shorts I've watched, a good enough comedy but these, somehow, aren't as highly regarded as the equivalent work of a Keaton or even Laurel & Hardy!