Safety Last!

Ah, that famous image.  You needn't be a scholar of silent cinema to know this still.  There's Harold Lloyd hanging from the clock near the top of his building, a retail store in the Big City.  He works there as a lowly clerk, but his girlfriend has been led by her beloved to believe he is a manager.  Needless to say, there a plethora of complications, leading to Harold's incremental climb, one he wasn't even supposed to make, were it not for that pesky copper.  There wouldn't be a movie without such dilemmas.  This one has a happy ending for its young couple.  But on the way to that end there's been a lot of deception on Lloyd's (the actor's character name is the same as his) part.  I guess we're not supposed to be concerned with that.

The value in 1923's SAFETY LAST! is the slapstick ballet.  Smooth and inventive.  Lloyd has some good ideas, and really understands how to segue one physical gag into several more.  It's a constant pleasure to watch his work, under the eyes of directors Freed C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor.  Never have I seen women's scarves used to such effect. The opening visual of what appears to be a prison is very clever.  I also really liked the hiding in the overcoats scene.

Unlike Chaplin and Keaton, Lloyd doesn't seem too interested in exploring the social or political mores of the time.  Or maybe they're just more subtle here.  Yes, I get the "climbing the corporate ladder" metaphor.  This is the first and at the time of this writing the only Lloyd feature I've seen, so maybe I'm wrong.  But his brand of comedy feels less distinguished than that of his peers.  No one can argue that SAFETY LAST! is not influential, though.  Or that Lloyd is nothing if not entirely dedicated to the craft. 

The entire movie, not quite an hour and ten minutes, likewise felt a bit airier than I was expecting.  Despite the short running time, I also felt the pace lag in moments.  I was not bothered by characters in blackface or a can't miss joke about Jews.  It was the time, right? These were not mean spirited jabs, and the WASPs certainly get their ribbing well enough.

Lloyd is also a pleasant fellow but wasn't all that charismatic.  I need a deeper dive in his filmography, I guess.