Quel numéro demandez vous?

Just watched this Harold Lloyd short on the DVD "The Cook and Other Treasures". It takes place in an amusement park in Orange Park, California. Plenty of gags involving a girl (Mildred Davis-Lloyd's future wife), rival Roy Brooks (who'd become Lloyd's assistant later on), telephone booths, a dog, a purse, a merry-go-round, and a little black boy who'd later become a member of the original "Our Gang" (Ernie Morrison). Producer/director Hal Roach appears in silhouette early on. Also early on is a gag involving a roller coaster and hats that provides the start of consistent laughs that I give through most of this entertaining short. The scene with the telephone booths and operators mixing up various calls was also one of the most hilarious in the short. I think I've said enough so on that note, I highly recommend Number, Please?

Funny Lloyd short is plenty on laughs as Lloyd goes to great limits to win the heart of a girl. Isn't that the basic plot of all the silent shorts from all the screen comics. There is the girl you have to the get and the laughs come from the approach. Today's comic have women in the movies but they are prizes that are given to the comic, not chased or earned in today's movies, id est the female love interest does not function as the macguffin which is the case in all the good silent comedies. That said, there are cops following Harold as he is acting very suspiciously for he is trying to dispose of a purse that he did not steal. As he tries to do this, making phone calls with a crying child, scenes on a rollercoaster all combine to deliver the laughs and finally, a bitter-sweet ending is the perfect coda to the futilities of the female hunt.

Typical of many of the better silent slapstick comedies, 'Number, Please?' is a highly entertaining, charming, and, simply put, FUNNY short. The gags are aplenty, and many of them take full creative advantage of the setting and the circumstances of the central characters. This short takes place largely within the realms of an amusement park, and this leads to many rather interesting cinematic moments (ex.: a gag taking place on a roller coaster in which some of the footage was shot on an actual roller coaster while it was moving, the placement of the camera on a carousel for a few shots in another fast paced slapstick sequence). The timing, choreography, etc. are all done near perfectly. It is also worth noting that the ending of the short is surprisingly bleak, as is the entire overall story it tells. It is full on comical slapstick, but at its very core is a theme of heartbreak and failure. However, Harold Lloyd is able to deal w/this heartbreak and failure w/a self deprecating and highly amusing smile.

This middling Harold Lloyd short is neatly divided into three sections: concerning romantic rivalry at an amusement park, it starts off with a dog chase (this early part also involving a distorted mirror gag); the mid-section is devoted to the inventive telephone antics which give the film its title; the last part, then, resolves itself into a rather overstretched sequence in which Lloyd, chased by the police, tries to get rid of an incriminating purse.

Still, perhaps the single funniest bit occurs at the very beginning - a succession of title cards categorizing how various lovesick men deal with their predicament.

This is a very good short comedy, with some good material and a fine job by Harold Lloyd as one of his slightly amoral but still sympathetic characters. Lloyd was as good as anyone was at taking a simple situation and building it up with as much comic material as he could fit into it without going too far. The telephone booth sequence here is a great example, and it is as impressive in its creativity as it is enjoyable to watch. The rest of "Number, Please" also works pretty well, and while there isn't much of a story to speak of, Lloyd is creative enough that you barely notice. Lloyd's style works well in this one, and it's a very entertaining feature.