Customer Reviews

The Actors: Rare Films Of Harold Lloyd

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I was almost going to give this DVD compilation a rating of four stars instead of five. Why? Distributed by Classic Video Streams, the silents here look as implied: Copied from internet video clips. The images are often fuzzy and there's some footage missing. But considering that all these rare Lloyd gems are nearly a century old, one can probably do little to restore them, which is why I gave it a five star rating. After doing over a 100 silent shorts, we're lucky that a handful survived (most likely due to Lloyd himself storing them safely away in a vault). Watching them, one can guess why Lloyd became so popular in the Teens & Twenties: He created such an energetic but likable young man. Compare this with the Lonesome Luke short "The Cinema Director"---try as he might, Lloyd's no Chaplin, and he's simply not funny here. I can understand why Lloyd became so dissatisfied with the Luke character & didn't truly find his niche in cinematic history until he invented the "glasses" character.
Packaged in a space-saving slim case design (with uncomplicated graphics), "Rare Films.." is an interesting look into the beginnings of Lloyd's phenomenal film success, and a glimpse into the days when comedy was blossoming & pleasures were simple.