Vintage Movie Reviews:Harold Lloyd

The first movie appearance of Harold Lloyd was in a 1913 film called The Old Monk's Tale (1913). That same year Lloyd was cast as an extra in a movie called Rory 'o The Bogs where he came upon another extra, Hal Roach. They also appeared later on in Samson (1914) and in The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914). In 1915 Roach had developed a new film company and he invited Harold Lloyd for his own series. The studio now had a new name, Rolin. Harold was a slow developer at comedy. His first character was called Willie Work, later Lonesome Luke, which was an imitation of Charlie Chaplin's tramp character. Just Nuts (1915), the first Lonesome Luke, was a success and Roach wanted no change. Finally in 1917 Lloyd saw the need fore change and thought up a new character called simply “Glasses” character, which would garnish him the most success.

In 1921 it was time for Lloyd to begin making feature-length comedies. The first of these was A Sailor-Made Man (1921) which was a huge a success. It was followed by Grandma's Boy (1922). Lloyd wanted Grandma's Boy to be just a dramatic picture but when he previewed it in a theatre the audience was not laughing. So Roach got all the writers to work out gags for the picture. After the film was released Lloyd recognized it as one of the greatest accomplishments.

Next came an interesting picture called Doctor Jack (1922)followed by Lloyd's most spectacular film, Safety Last in 1923. The film showed Lloyd dangling from a clock on the side of a building. At the end of that year Lloyd left Roach and formed his own company called 'The Harold Lloyd corporation' where for the first 2 years he distributed his movies through Pathe and later for Paramount. His most popular film was The Freshman in 1925. In 1928 Lloyd had already written his own autobiography “An American Comedy” the same year where he made his last silent film entitled Speedy.

In 1929 Lloyd began making a film called Welcome Danger where he originally shot it as a silent film but later on he re-shot it as a talking film. His career was going down with the dawn of sound. He made one more thrill picture called Feet First (1930)in the style of Safety Last.

He returned two years later with an amazing film which was regarded as his best talkie. The movie was Movie Crazy (1932) where Lloyd considered he was at his funniest. Convinced it was a hit he went on a trip to Europe. He later returned to Hollywood and had learned that the film had been a flop, he reduced himself to one film every two years. He made another great talking film entitled The Milky Way in 1936, directed by Leo McCarey. After one of his last movies, Professor Beware (1938), although he didn't exactly retire he just drifted away from the film industry. He produced two more films for RKO in the early 40s before retiring.









Later, Kenaz