Harold Lloyd was one of the great comic pioneers of the silent era, during the laughter-filled, glory years of the 1920s when Wall Street was booming and seemingly everyone was going and getting everything. By the time he turned to feature comedies, audiences had already taken his character – the affable boy with the trademark glasses whose hilarious antics parodied the American dream of success – into their hearts. When readers of Photoplay magazine were asked to choose their favourite comedian in 1922, Charlie Chaplin received 3,060 votes, but Lloyd got 4,650. His films were as popular as Chaplin’s, and he always outgrossed Buster Keaton. “If plain laughter is any criterion,” James Agee wrote in 1949, “few have equalled him, and nobody has ever beaten him.”
The definitive, nine-disc Harold Lloyd Collection from Optimum, supervised by Lloyd's granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd, contains thirteen shorts (including High and Dizzy, Get Out and Get Under, Number, Please?, Now or Never, Among Those Present, I Do, and Never Weaken) and all of the classic silent features. A Sailor-Made Man began as a two-reeler but grew into a four-reel feature, Grandma’s Boy is a Civil War comedy in which cowardly Harold winds up a hero, Dr. Jack is distinguished by its sheer physical exuberance and Safety Last! contains that unforgettably iconic image of Harold clinging to the hands of a gigantic clock on the side of a skyscraper, hundreds of feet above the street, a decade before one Kong attempted a similar feat.
In Why Worry, he meets a giant with a toothache in South America. In Girl Shy Harold is a tongue-tied, small-town boy who becomes the best-selling author of a love-making manual. Hot Water has him up to his neck in mother-in-law trouble, The Freshman is the finest parody of the college-football hero ever made and For Heaven’s Sake is another thrill picture, substituting a runaway bus for the skyscraper. The Kid Brother is Lloyd’s most sumptuous achievement and probably his finest, while Speedy gives us New York City, Babe Ruth, and a runaway streetcar. Also included are five talkies (Welcome Danger, Feet First, Movie Crazy, The Cat’s-Paw, The Milky Way) and a whole array of extras that will keep you entertained for hours. The great silent comedies never become dated. Just try to catch your breath between laughs.
This box set does exactly what it says on the tin. Prepared under the supervision of Lloyd's granddaughter Suzanne, this collection is a summation of the life work of this indelible cinematic icon, containing all of Harold Lloyd's classic silent features, 13 of his shorts and 5 of his talkies.
Harold Lloyd was one of the great comic stars of the cinema, a genius on a par with Chaplin and Keaton. Born in Burchard, Nebraska, on April 20, 1893, Lloyd was acting at an early age with theatrical repertory companies. He made his film debut as an extra in a 1913 one-reel film for the Edison Film Company where he became friends with another extra, Hal Roach, and when Roach formed his own film company, he invited Lloyd to join him.
Lloyd’s initial comic characterization was a tramp character called Willie Work. After a series of partings over money and subsequent reconciliations, Roach and Lloyd created a new character, called Lonesome Luke, which became popular, despite Lloyd’s dislike of imitating Charlie Chaplin, which the film distributor, Pathé, demanded.
Then Lloyd found the idea that was to become his trademark and change him from a good comedian to a major star: the glasses. Lloyd persuaded Roach and his distributor to abandon Lonesome Luke and in 1917 Lloyd shed grotesque comedy clothes and characterizations for a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. In doing so, Lloyd created an American archetype, an optimistic and determined go-getter sporting spectacles and a toothy smile.
Lloyd retained the "Glass Character" (as Lloyd called his comic persona) throughout the rest of his motion picture career, which spanned 34 years and over 200 comedies. Among his most famous films are Grandma's Boy (1922), Safety Last! (1923), The Freshman (1925), The Kid Brother (1927), Speedy (1928) and Movie Crazy (1932), all included here amongst many other gems in this most comprehensive of collections.
Contents: A Sailor Made Man, Among Those Present, An Eastern Westerner, Ask Father, Billy Blazes Esq, Bumping into Broadway, Dr Jack, Feet First, For Heaven's Sake, From Hand to Mouth, From the Vault, Get out and Under, Girl Shy, Grandma's Boy, Haunted Spooks, High and Dizzy, Home Movies, Hot Water, I Do, Kid Brother, Mini Biogs, Movie Crazy, Never Weaken, Now or Never, Number Please, Safety Last (with commentary), Speedy, The Cats Paw, The Freshman, The Milky Way, Welcome Danger (never before available), Why Worry?.
Harold Lloyd - The Short Films
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Harold Lloyd - The Definitive Collection
