Le royaume de Tulipatan

This Harold Lloyd comedy is good overall, and it has some especially funny moments. It's fun to see Harold and his brother Gaylord on screen together, and their characters are used to create a good story that lends itself to some good comedy. The rest of the cast of comic actors also help out when they have the chance.

Lloyd plays an American salesman with a strong resemblance to a visiting prince (played by Gaylord), who asks the American to appear in his place for some duties at court. Much of the comedy comes from the contrast between the outgoing, aggressive American and the self-indulgent, oafish members of the royal court. It's enjoyable both as comedy and as social satire, and it's also rather interesting as a record of some perceptions that may not have changed all that much. The comedy blends slapstick, sight gags, and other material to make for a good mix.

The revolution sequence brings things to an appropriate climax and ties everything together. Not all of the movie works flawlessly, but most of it is entertaining, and overall it's one of Harold Lloyd's more enjoyable short comedies.

His Royal Slyness, one of the best two-reel comedies Harold Lloyd made at the Hal Roach Studio, takes up a favorite theme in the pop culture of its day: the American who travels to an exotic land and somehow becomes King. He might be a lookalike for the real King, or an unwitting patsy surrounded by plotters, or a castaway believed to command supernatural powers. He may be a blank-faced innocent like Harry Langdon in Soldier Man, or a cheerful if accident-prone regular guy like Charley Chase in Long Fliv the King, each of whom comes to find that he rather enjoys the perks of monarchy but can't handle the palace intrigue. In Lloyd's version the court is corrupt, the peasants are getting angry, and it's time to make the kingdom safe for Democracy.

These stories are usually set in fictional kingdoms, and often employ elements of social and political satire that would likely have been less acceptable to contemporary audiences if set in any recognizable place. The court depicted in His Royal Slyness is an amusingly jumbled patchwork of eras and cultures which mixes bits of Elizabethan, Victorian, and Mittel European costuming and decor, but the angry revolutionaries gathered in the village square are very definitely patterned after the era's Bolsheviks. The Russian Civil War was at its height in 1920, and American audiences were seeing people who looked like this in their newspapers and newsreels on a daily basis. Interestingly, despite the prevailing anti-Red sentiment in the U.S. at the time, the people responsible for this comedy seemed to take the angry protesters seriously, and didn't play them for easy laughs: there are no wild-eyed bomb-throwers, and no fleas in anyone's beard. The courtiers, on the other hand, are useless, decadent and drunk. We can only wonder if the filmmakers intended some sort of political commentary by casting character actor Gus Leonard as both "King Razzamatazz" and an angry, bedraggled orator outside the palace walls.

When the story begins, Harold is a brash door-to-door salesman, a dead ringer for a dissolute Prince who is in America supposedly going to school. The Prince (played by Harold's real life older brother, Gaylord) is actually playing hooky and spending all his time with his vamp-y girlfriend, and doesn't feel like going home when he is summoned. Harold, who happens along at just the right moment, is persuaded, Prisoner of Zenda-style, to assume the Prince's identity and go in his place. Once he arrives in court, Harold tries to ingratiate himself with the chilly nobles, flirts with some cute pages (girls, of course), and then romances the Prince's fiancée. But the real Prince, having been jilted by his American mistress, returns, and Harold is tossed out. Almost immediately, and quite by accident, Harold finds himself leading the mob of rebels storming the palace. The monarchy is overthrown, Harold is installed as President, and, in one last political joke, immediately becomes a despot, and issues orders which are quickly and fearfully obeyed!

Okay, so Jonathan Swift it ain't, but His Royal Slyness is a highly enjoyable comedy with undeniable elements of political satire. While it's not as laugh-packed as Charley Chase's Long Fliv the King (which in my opinion is the funniest of these mythical kingdom shorts), it is nonetheless amusing and surprisingly sharp, and also presents a good sample of Harold Lloyd's evolving comic style. The star himself comes off quite well here: he's young, trim, and decidedly more flirty with the ladies than the later, girl-shy Harold. The supporting cast features such Lloyd stalwarts as Snub Pollard, Noah Young, and Mildred Davis, who would later become Mrs. Harold Lloyd and retire from performing. The film is also interesting as a kind of dry run for the classic Why Worry? of 1923, in which Harold would once more fall afoul of violent plotters in an exotic foreign land.

Just watched this Harold Lloyd comedy short on the Kino DVD called "The Harold Lloyd Collection". His Royal Slyness is sort of Lloyd's version of "The Prince and the Pauper" with brother Gaylord portraying the prince who convinces lookalike Harold to take his place going back to his country so the princess could pick her royal betrothed there. It seems the real prince is infatuated with a rich socialite. Anyway, the princess (Mildred Davis who would eventually become Harold's real life wife) herself prefers the commoners since most of the royal subjects are loutish drunks, especially the other prince played by Lloyd regular Snub Pollard. Starts slow then becomes quite hilarious once Harold puzzles the subjects with his American carefree attitude. And you won't believe the way the whole thing ends! So on that note, I highly recommend His Royal Slyness.

Lloyd, a young book salesman is a doppelganger to the prince who wants to stay in the U.S.Now Lloyd becomes the prince in the kingdom of Thermosa.There he meets the cute princess Florelle and the peasants make him the president of the new republic.His Royal Slyness is a Harold Lloyd two reeler from 1920.Hal Roach is its director.Lloyd and Mildred Davis are perfect together.'Snub' Pollard is hilarious as Lloyd's rival, the drunk Prince of Rochquefort.Gus Leonard plays King Razzamatazz/Bolshevik orator.Noah Young is The Prince's Tutor.Harold's brother Gaylord Lloyd is in an uncredited role playing the prince.The movie is funny in many parts.The first time Harold meets the princess is funny.She is crying as the man beats up the horse, so Harold makes the man drop.And when Harold asks for all those phone numbers from the girls.Or when he starts walking towards one of them and runs into a mirror.A little trivia: this movie was the last one Lloyd made before his hand was blown apart by a prop bomb while making The Haunted Spooks.

(1920) His Royal Slyness SILENT COMEDY

Clocking in at 27 minutes, it has a prince (Gaylord Lloyd) already romancing with one flame while a salesman (Harold Lloyd) is in another room trying to make a sale selling encyclopedias. And while the prince is romancing, the prince's count (Noah Young) then comes in to inform him he is subjected and ordered to marry the Princess Florelle of Thermosa. And by the time the book salesman was done, he then enters into the room of the prince romancing his current flame to which the prince notices both of them look almost identical. And then instead of him going to marry he then sends (Harold Lloyd) in his place. Some of the gags also includes some guardsmen unknowingly walking into the decoration water fountain; mistaken identity, and when he is chased by the guardsman. The second of 15 movies, Harold Lloyd starred with Mildred Davis. Actor Harry Pollard plays Harold Lloyd's rival for the princess hands.