The Flirt

Smug, downright mean skirt chaser Lloyd insults and offends all within his line of fire with a character that annoys more than amuses in this mean spirited comedy. We first encounter the leering lout scoping out women through a newspaper before stalking one to her place of business getting the waiter fired, taking his job, offending the help and the customers and coming on the the bosses' wife in under 9 minutes. Outside of some acrobatics and a couple of benign comic moments an unpleasant Harold outing.

Harold Lloyd follows Bebe Caniels into a diner where she works as a cashier for Snub Pollard. Harold grabs a job as a waiter so he can flirt with Bebe.

Harold had switched from his Lonesome Luke characterization three months earlier and had gone into the grind of establishing the more normal looking character, called "The Boy" by starring in a weekly one-reel film. While Lonesome Luke had been a sort of 'anti-Chaplin' figure, his costume being exactly the opposite of Charley's, The Boy was a middle-class, normal-looking figure.

Whatever the case, the formula for comedy remained the same: high-speed gags performed at a terrific pace. While Luke had been outside society, The Boy looked like he should fit into it. However, he behaved just as poorly. It would be several months until he began to modify the character into someone who sort of fit into society, but did weird and funny things to deal with life's problems.

The 24 year old Harold Lloyd is chasing after a girl. That's what Lloyd is all about: chasing women. His 'glasses' character embodies the boy meets girl plot: Romeo and Juliet; love lost, love found. He is not an outsider. He's a city slicker.

In the 1920s, the world's most successful film comedian was Harold Lloyd...though most folks today probably have no idea who he was. His popularity increased tremendously over his films of the 1910s for two main reasons...they became more plot-driven and his character went from brash and nasty to sweet and naive. The bottom line is that the later Lloyd was lovable....his earlier incarnations were not. His first major character was Lonesome Luke...a grotesque looking guy in many ways. He later changed to the more familiar everyman look with glasses....but it still would be several years before the character would be refined or even likable. "The Flirt" is a film from this phase....where he looked like the likable 1920s character but was still a jerk at heart.

Harold gots to a local restaurant...mostly to make time with the pretty cashier (Bebe Daniels). His boss is the familiar Snub Pollard and Snub has the insane notion that once he hires Harold that Harold should actually work! As a waiter, he mostly makes a mess of things....until he ultimately quits. Why? Watch the film.

For me, many of these middle-stage Harold Lloyd films are great for fans but the average person probably won't care about them or appreciate them. Again, because he's NOT likable and the gags mostly involve hurting other people. Not especially funny stuff.

Calling a 10 minute short from 1917 not bad is equivalent to calling today's film really good.

One can't expect much from a film this short. Harold Llyod chases a waitress, fires her fellow waiter and takes his place and then chaos spread.

Not very funny, but a commendable effort.