Customer Reviews

The Harold Lloyd Collection, Vol. 1 (Slapstick Symposium)

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I will always have a special place reserved for Harold Lloyd for it was he who first introduced me to silent movies with his 1962 compilation HAROLD LLOYD'S WORLD OF COMEDY. But it has been very difficult to see his films since then as he and later his family have kept them under lock and key. A number of his best known features such as SAFETY LAST (the one where he hangs from the clock hands) were released on VHS by HBO back in 1992 but they have long been unavailable.

Harold's granddaughter Suzanne, who now heads the Lloyd Family Trust, was responsible for those releases. She had planned to issue them on DVD in 2002 but for whatever reasons that never happened. This collection from Kino and Lobster Films contains his first feature film GRANDMA'S BOY from 1922 (one of Harold's personal favorites and a blueprint for many of his later films) along with 7 shorts that show off Harold at his best. Some of the earlier shorts feature a young Bebe Daniels as his love interest while the later ones and GRANDMA'S BOY feature his future wife Mildred Davis.

Lloyd was a superb athlete and some of the physical stunts he pulls off especially in BUMPING INTO BROADWAY, I DO and AN EASTERN WESTERNER rival anything done by Buster Keaton. What makes some of them even more remarkable is that in 1919 while filming the short HAUNTED SPOOKS (not in this collection but available elsewhere from Kino), he lost the thumb and first finger of his right hand in a freak explosion and wore a glove with special appendages for the rest of his career. If you look carefully during GRANDMA'S BOY and the Mildred Davis shorts you'll be able to see it.

This collection is a must for any fan of silent comedy and especially the long suffering fans of Harold Lloyd who, except for the 1992 releases which disappeared all too quickly, have had to put up with second and third rate copies. All of the shorts are restored and most of them look pretty good while GRANDMA'S BOY looks great. As in the other releases in Kino's SLAPSTICK SYMPOSIUM series, the musical accompaniment is by Neil Brand who does his usual fine job...POSTSCRIPT: NOVEMBER 15, 2005 - Harold Lloyd's major feature films have just been released in a 7 DVD set called THE HAROLD LLOYD COLLECTION. The DVDs are also available separately.

I've been a longtime Harold Lloyd fan, having watched the "Hooray for Harold Lloyd" syndicated series back in the '70's. Even though "Safety Last" is still my all time favorite (most everyone's fave it seems), the shorts in this DVD come a close second. The quality is superb, considering the age of the films (over 80 years old!).

"Grandma's Boy" is a beautifully made film. Lloyd's facial expressions are worth the price alone for this DVD. Seeing him transform from a weakling to a hero is just spectacular. Harold plays a meek, mild-mannered man who is terrified of everything; he then ends up becoming a deputy sheriff! Harold single-handedly captures the "town tramp" who's been causing trouble. The way he does it is pure Lloyd genius; you'll have to get the DVD, because I'm not going to spoil the story by telling how he does it!!!

"I Do" is pure over the top Lloyd. His befuddlement at how to fill the baby's bottle (he and Mildred Davis are babysitting newlyweds in this one) and putting it back together with a sea of milk flying everywhere, is an absolute scream! Seeing him trying to take care of two kids at once is so funny; I'm sure he's not the first person to be THAT overwhelmed in taking care of little ones, with no experience whatsoever.....

"Just Neighbors" is hilarious. Harold and his neighbor (Snub Pollard) are the best of friends until Harold comes over to help with the chicken coop that Snub is building. All hell breaks loose after that, and the fight scene between the two neighbors is hysterical. Let's just say that everything but the kitchen sink flies across their dividing fence, and the results had me and my family on the floor in fits of laughter!

"Bumping Into Broadway" was clever. Our hero is an aspiring theatrical playwright, and Bebe Daniels is his next-door neighbor (and chorus girl) in the apartment building they live in. Harold helps poor Bebe out with the rent, so she doesn't get thrown out. Harold realizes he doesn't have any money to take care of HIS rent expense. Lloyd's physical prowness is on display here; he is all over the apartment building trying to ditch the landlady and her son (who's the rent enforcer) and escape. His ability to climb over,under, and around ANYTHING is put to full use here.

"Are Crooks Dishonest?" was cute. Bebe Daniels is a "psychic" and Harold & Snub are a couple of con-artists themselves. The skit with the "fake jewelry" is ingenius. The two guys are pulling fake rings out of their pockets and "pretending" to find them on the ground, saying to people that they "lost" them. Then, each person who's around to help them recover the "lost" jewelry ends up getting conned into buying the lovely merchandise, thus making Harold and Snub $200 richer! Bebe catches onto them and proceeds to con THEM out of the money, with typical chaotic Lloyd results.........

"His Royal Slyness" features Harold's real-life brother Gaylord as a Prince and Harold as his look-a-like, who end up switching places. Harold tries to woo a Princess (Davis) with typical Lloyd charm. The scene with the indoor pool and the soldiers is one of the best gags in the film. Very funny.

"Number Please?" is worthwhile for the story of Harold and Roy trying to woo Mildred...and for the scenery, which was shot at an amusement park. A great look at a long-since gone Los Angeles........

"An Eastern Westerner" is quite the romp. Harold ends up out West (after a very funny incident in a nightclub/casino/speakeasy-take your pick of place) and finds himself vying for Mildred's attention from an evil cowboy and his cronies, then ends up saving the town from the "Masked Angels" (bandits extraordinaire-the cronies of course!), showing Lloyd's amazing physical abilities yet once again.......

Overall, a great DVD. I got the honor to be the first one to review it (after it was released)! Highly recommended, we have to honor the comic pioneers of the cinema in any way that we can.........

Folks with an interest in silent screen comedy will welcome this selection. Until this release, it has been easier to obtain the short films of Keaton and Chaplin than those of the third of the major silent clowns, Harold Lloyd. Short film comedies of these three are facinating because they reveal the development of the character, and also uniquely reveal the essence of the clown in ways that the longer films do not. In my mind, mature short films like Cops (Keaton) and The Adventurer (Chaplin) are often more satifying to watch than their longer efforts.

Harold Lloyd's character offers an interesting contrast to Keaton and Chaplin. Chaplin's stories rely heavily on the struggle of the poor tramp against poverty and injustice. Keaton's nemesis is more often fate as revealed in nature or machine. Lloyd's glasses character fights more often against his own limitations, typically shyness (Grandma's Boy), or being thrust into a culture into which he does not fit well (An Eastern Westerner, His Royal Slyness). Lloyd also eschews the pathos of the tramp and the dark world view of Keaton in favor of an eternally optimistic vision of an individual overcoming his limitations.

The Lloyd collection samples short comedies of the comedian between 1918 and 1922, and also contains his first feature film, Grandma's Boy. All of the films are interesting to watch, and the resolution of the prints is generally excellent. Grandma's Boy clearly reveals a fully developed formula for the Lloyd character, and is also the probably the funniest of the bunch. Of the other films, the best are Neighbors, a clash that arises out of mutual clumsiness between Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, and Snub Pollard, and An Eastern Westerner, the classic story of a tenderfoot trying to cope in the wild west. In general, this collection reveals the unique genius of Harld Lloyd -- like Keaton, he does not start out trying to mimic Chaplin, the original master, but develops his own gags and story formulae. There are many moments in this collection that reveal Lloyd's genius, and I recommend this collection, especially to students of silent comedies, and of course to Harold Lloyd fans like myself.

While most of the films on here are very strong and solid, I don't think they're guaranteed to turn every first-time viewer into a huge fan. When I rented this from the library to see what all the fuss over Harold was about, I kind of had mixed reactions. I really liked 'Grandma's Boy,' the very early short feature-length film, and also enjoyed, among the shorts, 'I Do' (which was my personal favorite), 'Just Neighbors,' 'Number, Please?' (except for the disappointing ending), and 'Are Crooks Dishonest?' Though apparently a number of people really like them, I wasn't that captivated by 'An Eastern Westerner,' 'Bumping into Broadway,' or 'His Royal Slyness.' Still, it did make me generally interested enough to want to see more, and the next time I had a chance to see more, during the mini-marathon Turner Classic Movies ran of Harold's films during April 2005, I did become a big fan based on seeing some of his great full-length features. I think the ideal introduction to a new fan would be a feature-length movie, like 'Grandma's Boy' on this disc; it really serves to establish Harold's screen persona of the shy awkward smalltown boy, having to overcome obstacles such as cowardliness, meekness, local bad guys, and people who don't take him seriously. He was one of those comedians who was more like just a regular guy (with the simple physical modification of glasses) who got into normal understandable situations and trouble and had to use his own wits and summon his own courage and strength of character to get out of them and save the day. Because most of the shorts on this disc are from so early in Harold's career (some of them even from before the accident that nearly took his own life in September 1919), they might not be appreciated for their humor and brilliance by a new fan who is probably more apt to want to see Harold at the peak of his creativity, not when he was still learning the ropes and developing his character more and more.

At last - Harold Lloyd films on DVD; and about time too.
Excellent print quality throughout most of this DVD.
If only the musical accompaniment was supplied by "The Crescent City Jazz Band" as it was for the brilliant "World Of Harold Lloyd" series in the 1970's.
However, the comedy is what counts and I suppose I could always turn the sound off and play the music from the aforementioned series.
Now how about a DVD release of "Welcome Danger" which has never been shown in the UK.

OK, I've been a fan of Lloyd since age 11, too long ago for me to admit, and I am quite pleased to see at least a smattering of his work released on DVD. While the existing film quality of bits of two of the shorts exhibits nitrate deterioration, most of the material is almost pristine (even if the titles look to have been reshot and not original, for whatever reason). The humor, however, remains belly-busting funny, often with more laughs per reel, I think, than some of the better known Chaplin stuff (or maybe I am just getting Chaplined-out?) My kids, ages 12, 10 and 8, loved the more slapstick antics of Harold's various predicaments/solutions, in addition to cheering him on as he (eventually) prevailed in the feature "Grandma's Boy". I heartily recommend Lloyd to anyone looking for a fun addition to their DVD collection. If you have never seen a silent comedy, or have only seen Chaplin and/or Keaton, you are in for a treat. Now, if only Kino or the Lloyd Trust would get more of his work out on DVD and video!

HALLELUJAH! It's ABOUT TIME that the TRUE KING of silent comedy (Sorry Charlie) gets his due on DVD! With that said, GRANDMA'S BOY has our man doing what he does best. He's an everyman who almost anybody can relate to trying, in this case, win the girl and defeat the town bully. Sounds familiar and hackneyed? Not so. Harold Lloyd's genius was his ability to make you empathise with him as a person and not merely as a character to laugh at.

Many people in their thrities and forties today remember the syndicated 1970s televison show HOORAY FOR HAROLD LLOYD which introduced us to the true king of silent comedy who should have taken his rightful place among the Little Tramp and the Bus man.

To the folks at KINO and AMAZON-BLESS YOU! Now if you'll bring out other Lloyd classics such as SAFETY LAST, WHY WORRY, and THE FRESHMAN (Step right up and call me Speedy!) lovers of TRUE CLASSIC COMEDY will LINE UP to buy this stuff and be ETERNALLY GRATEFUL. MERCI BEAUCOUP!

At the time of posting this review, this DVD hasn't been released yet...but with a respected name like KINO producing this collection it has to be top quality! The Art Of Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon The Forgotten Clown, and the Arbuckle & Keaton collection that were released by KINO were stunning...and I'm sure that these new releases (Lloyd, Charley Chase, Stan Laurel) will be just as wonderful.

If you're a fan of Harold Lloyd, or slapstick comedy in general, you'll love the films in this collection. PLEASE buy this DVD...the more interest in it, the better the chances are that more collections will be released in the future. The films of Harold Lloyd MUST be seen by this generation and generations to come. They have, sadly, been collecting dust for far too long...thank you, Suzanne Lloyd for giving us a handful of your grandfather's work...PLEASE release more of the films, in these troubled times the world needs an escape and a good laugh...and no one can make us laugh harder than the master...Harold Lloyd.

Ah...this was back when they actually made films. Most people think of only 2 masters of slapstick back in the 1920's, Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Well, Lloyd was as good as them, if not better. The cornerstone of American Comedy, Safety Last(1923) shows us is that Lloyd was more daring than his other 2 contemporaries, like in the scenes where he climbs the skyscraper and I'm sure everyone has seen the priceless scene where Lloyd hangs terrified from the hands of the big clock on the top of the skyscraper. Check this out and see true comedy.

... it was about time they start releasing Harold Lloyd. And I hope too this DVD is only to ease the waiting for "Safety Last !". And, as usual, since it's not only his best one, but as well a small masterpiece, it is doomed to be released after a whole heap of crap from TV series (sorry for the redundancy) which should never had been made in the first place: but, since the studios' motto seems to be "Garbage First!!".....