Don't Shove

This is another of Harold Lloyd's early films I just watched on the "American Slapstick 2" DVD set. This one has him attempting to give a present to an attractive woman at her birthday party but his rival switches the gift in the big box Harold brought. From there, the action switches to a roller rink. Perhaps not everything makes sense, but I enjoyed all the gags that abounded in this short. So on that note, Don't Shove is worth a look for any Harold Lloyd fans out there.

In the 1910s, Harold Lloyd had a successful career but it came nowhere close to his success in the 1920s because his earlier characters weren't particularly original or likable. It was only after Lloyd left the major studios and went off on his own that his career blossomed (a situation somewhat like that of Chaplin).

DON'T SHOVE is precisely the sort of derivative and pure slapstick film that brought him some fame but kept him from achieving greater notoriety. Harold's character just isn't very likable and is pretty aggressive and mean--something he NEVER would have been in his later films. Plus, the major gags in the film all revolve around a skating rink and seems to be a knock-off of Chaplin's THE RINK (and frankly, THE RINK is better). Now this isn't to say there aren't laughs, but compared to later efforts it's all a bit forced and primitive.

Worth seeing for die-hard Lloyd fans and film historians, others are advised to see his later and much more polished silent films.

Most of this Harold Lloyd short comedy works well enough. While a lot of it is simply Harold's standard character and material, it also comes up with some good gags and a couple of unexpected developments. It moves at a good pace, and it also benefits from the energy of Bebe Daniels, so that there are not too many slow spots.

Most of the action takes place at a roller skating rink, where all of the characters wind up as a result of some handy plot contrivances. While the story may be slight, most of the slapstick that results is pretty good, and it is easily watchable.

Although the material and the characters are to some degree different, it's hard not to be reminded of Chaplin's "The Rink", if for no other reason than for the contrast that it presents. In terms of entertainment value, both are decent if unexceptional short comedies, although "Don't Shove" is actually the more efficient of the two in terms of setting up the best part of the action.

More significantly, there is also a difference in the themes. Chaplin's movie has somewhat more substance to it, as it makes use of his frequent contrasts between different social classes. Yet there is still something to "Don't Shove", with Lloyd as the kind of improvisational, somewhat amoral eager beaver character that he so often portrayed. As in many of Lloyd's best features, he must battle his own mistakes as well as outside obstacles, making him a character quite different from Chaplin's tramp, but one with whom audiences can still relate.

A young woman, who's quite beautiful, is having a birthday party.A young man arrives with a large box to give to her, but the jealous rival switches the gift inside.He gets thrown out.They meet again in a roller skating rink.Don't Shove is a Harold Lloyd one reeler from 1919.It's directed by Alfred J. Goulding.In the movie Bebe Daniels plays Harold's favorite girl and Bud Jamison is his rival.The movie offers some fun moments when he's being chased by the man who later makes a big man cry and he calls his little brother, who can box, to help.It's quite amusing to watch Harold on those roller skates.He's not exactly the best roller skater in the world, and then he takes part in a competition where he has to jump over those obstacles.In Harold Lloyd comedies this represents the middle class.

During his apprenticeship as a silent film comic Harold Lloyd made literally dozens of these brief one-reel comedies for Rolin, as the Hal Roach Studio was known at the time. Some of them, like Spring Fever, are delightful little gems which can hold their own with his polished later works; others, like Don't Shove, are routine. This is a pleasant film which provides a chuckle or two for the undemanding viewer, nothing more.

Harold's go-getter character can be pretty aggressive in these early films. He's quick to start to fight, and not above cheating, or at least bending the rules, to win one. He's rather like the early Chaplin, the belligerent Charlie of the Keystone and Essanay comedies, who always looks out for Number One, and isn't subtle about going after what he wants. The Harold of the Rolin comedies is a nice-looking, neatly-groomed young man, usually a middle class professional of some sort, but those who attempt to thwart him may nevertheless find themselves on the receiving end of a beating, dumped in a pond, or worse.

The bulk of Don't Shove takes place in a skating rink. The gags are amusing, but somewhat forced. For example, when Harold distracts his rival by tossing his hat in the street, and the rival tries to retrieve it, we are given to understand that the wind is whipping his hat about in the air, just out of reach -- but the hat is very obviously being manipulated by an off-camera crewman with a wire. We may laugh, but we're all too aware of the effort involved to stage the gag. Later, when Harold tries to show off his skating skill for his leading lady (the very cute Bebe Daniels), he spins out of control, snatches up an old man's hat with his cane, drops it, then lands on the hat, crushing it. This business is presented as if it were an accident, but Lloyd's careful, deft execution of the maneuver is anything but accidental. Unfortunately, most of the material in this short comes off like that. Don't Shove is lightweight and breezy, but lacks the invention which distinguishes an okay comedy from a truly inspired one. For a prime example of the latter, see Lloyd's 1927 feature The Kid Brother, a great film which is perhaps the best kept secret of silent comedy.