Customer Reviews

The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection Vol. 1

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Volume 1 of the 3-volume Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection includes Lloyd's best-remembered thrill comedy, Safety Last!, which is on no account to be missed. However, the complete 7-disc collection is priced very attractively -- at just a little more than double the cost of the 2-disc Volume 1, it is probably the better value.

Volume 1
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Disc 1:
Girl Shy (1924)
Safety Last! (1923) w/ commentary by Leonard Maltin and director Richard Correll
An Eastern Westerner (1920)
Ask Father (1919)
From Hand to Mouth (1919)

Disc 2:
The Milky Way (1936)
The Cat's Paw (1934)
Why Worry? (1923)
Featurette "Harold's Hollywood: Then and Now"

How often does an opportunity like this come along? Not only to get a chance to see Harold Lloyd in action, one of the classic film comedians of all time, extremely popular in his day, but to see a movie like Safety Last, a film which wasn't even seen by that many people - EVER? To own a copy of the film...when I learned of that possibility, I truly felt shivers run up my spine.

Many people HAVE seen the classic photo of a man hanging from the face of a clock, high above a city. Consider that this photo, taken from the film, was created BEFORE the days of special effects which are so easily created for movies today. Think about HOW this scene was filmed.

Many have argued that Lloyd put himself in terrible danger to create some of those scenes, that he simply had to, that there was no way to create them otherwise. See what you think.

But first, simply sit back and enjoy the films themselves. Try to imagine living in the days when Harold Lloyd films came out, if you can. Try not to compare him to Chaplin or Keaton but experience him as the unique genius he was. I think his films are wonderful, even when judged by the preferences of today's filmgoers.

And be grateful that you have the opportunity to add this set of films to YOUR collection. Truly a must for film buffs and historians, not to mention anyone who simply wants to experience something very different from the films shown today.

Amazon lists the films in this series and other reviewers have listed the plots of those films so I'm simply urging you to get this collection (or the more extensive collection that is available as well) while you can.

Two of the Lloyd films in this set, Milky Way and Cat's-Paw are talkies from the 1930's. The other six are silent films from the late teens to mid twenties.

I thought the talkies were truly awful, entirely forgettable. Lloyd's voice is high and annoying, and these films are dramas although with a few funny moments. Lloyd is entirely a fish out of water here, as one of the best silent comedians of the 20's is attempting to do talking dramas in the 30's. All of the manic energy of his 20's films is missing.

The silent films are great fun, however, and run around 4 1/2 hours. So, they alone make this package a good deal.


Lloyd constantly gets into jams, and watching him wriggle out is very entertaining. The picture quality of these and other Lloyd silents I've seen is extremely good - the best I've ever seen for films this old. The musical scores fit the movies very well.

Safety Last - most readers of this review will probably be familiar with Back to the Future. The scene where Doc Brown is hanging from the clocktower with his right hand and grabbing for an extension cord with his left hand looks based on a similar scene in Safety Last, although Lloyd is grasping for a rope rather than an extension cord.

The shots of 1920's Los Angeles are fascinating.

Harold Lloyd was definetly among the silent movie era's best comedians.My two favourite films in this compilation are Safety Last and Girl Shy.Until I bought this DVD set,I had only seen the image of Harold dangling from the clock near the top of the building.So I finally got to see the actual movie.It was nerve wracking.Our Gang member Joe Cobb appears at the beginning of Girl Shy.But my favourite part of this film is when Harold tries to stop a certain wedding from taking place.First he steals a streetcar,then a cop's motorcycle,than a wagon pulled by two horses.He really made those horses run.Hilarious.

I have to agree about the two Harold Lloyd talkies,The Cat's Paw and The Milky Way.Pretty cheesy in comparison to his silent films.Especially The Cat's Paw.That film's final scene is rather disturbing.

This volume is the best to buy if you are not planning to develop a complete library of Harold Lloyd's work. This volume contains Safety Last, with the iconic image of Lloyd dangling from the clock hands as he tries to scale a high rise to execute a publicity stunt for the department store he works for. This movie is not nearly the most satisfying of Llyod's output, but it is entertaining. Much funnier and better executed is Why Worry, about a millionaire hypochondriac who takes a vacation for his health in a volatile Latin American country in the grips of civil war. The sheer quantity and continuity of funny moments in this movie is breathtaking, and is about the best introduction to Lloyd's genius as you can get. By the time of this movie, Lloyd had developed his most successful formula: his character typically has a flaw (shyness, hypochondria) that needs to be overcome. Challenged by a bully and/or the love of a beautiful girl, Harold jumps into almost super-human action. We see this formula in An Eastern Westerner and Girl Shy as well. But Why Worry is, in terms of sheer persistent laughter, the best of this collection.

The other movies made at the prime of this career, including Girl Shy, An Eastern Westerner, and From Hand to Mouth, are also priceless gens. This collection also contains glimpses into the early and late careers of Lloyd, and effectively demonstrates that his productivity spanned a long interval of time. The earliest film in the collection, Ask Father, is remarkably charming, funny and creative. Lloyd's early glasses character tended to be all energy, with few character flaws except perhaps obsessiveness. Here Lloyd's character is infatuated with a businessman's daughter, and much of the humor derives from his repeated attempts to gain access to the elusive father to ask his permission to marry his fickle offspring. Bebe Daniels, Lloyd's first romantic partner in his movies, is very funny and appealing in this and other of Lloyd's movies of the time.

This collection also shows that during the sound era Lloyd, while no longer in his prime creatively, was still producing interesting, creative ventures. Of the two sound movies in this collection, by far the best is Cat's Paw, in which Lloyd portrays a naive but determined Chinese missionary's son who returns to the big city to find a woman to marry. Some of the gags here, especially the faked execution sequence at the end, is a bit forced, but the story is interesting and there are still moments of genius to witness. Milky Way, chronologically the last in the series, has very little going for it and will be of interest only to die hard Lloyd enthusiasts.

Anyone really interested in the great silent movie films and stars of the 20's must have this video of material finally made available. Llyod was right up there with the best (Chaplin and Keaton, among others). Included in this DVD is arguably his best full length film, "Girl Shy." The cinematic quality of the DVD itself is great.

I've been a Harold Lloyd fan since I was a teeanger and the television show "Hooray for Harold Lloyd" came on and films like "Why Worry" (which, ironically, I saw on TV the night a riot took place in my neighborhood when I was 15) and "Safety last" occasionally appeared on late night television.

In seeing this set, I'm reminded of why I prefer Lloyd to Keaton and Chaplin. Chaplin's films have always struck me as more interesting than funny and while I enjoy the Bus man (Keaton, that is), his characters tended to be too bizarre to relate to, so you laughed AT him and not WITH him. Harold Lloyd was different. Most people can identify with wanting to become successful, trying to overcome bullies, getting a girl, and being popular among one's peers. So although he occasionally got into wild and unlikely predicaments, you still laughed WITH and rooted for him because you could see a lot of yourself in Harold Lloyd.

Now on to the films. WHY WORRY is an amusing tale of Harold unwittingly coming across a Latin American revolution. John Aasen as the giant makes a good comic partner with Harold. SAFETY LAST is the masterpiece with our man as the "Human Fly" (the famous clock tower scene). When I saw this at the university of South Carolina sixty years after its original release, audiences STILL gasped in shock as I did while seeing this film for the first time since then. GIRL SHY is an underrated masterpiece. Similar in some ways to the Bus man's SEVEN CHANCES, the audience really takes to our man and his troubles in this one, as the tries to overcome a crippling shyness to get a girl and the INCREDIBLE chase scene. You'll really root and cheer for Harold in this one.

THE CAT'S PAW is again loosely similar to the Bus Man's SPEAK EASILY in plot. Here our hero is a white man raised among the Chinese (his parents are missionaries) who comes to America and unwittingly stumbles into corrupt politics. I'd keep the kiddies away from the last few minutes (if you've seen it, you'll know why. One poster has alluded to this scene but I will not spoil it-obviously pre-code censorship). In AN EASTERN WESTERNER, our man actually fights off a Ku Klux Klan-type group out west.

Since most of these films were done at Hal Roach Studios, some of the original Our Gang kids make cameos from time to time. But in either case, these films are still wonderful to watch today and will return Harold Lloyd to the fond place he had among moviegoers 80 years ago. So sit back and enjoy the Napoleon Dynamite of the 1920s as he rocks on (quite literally in the first scene of AN EASTERN WESTERNER where he's kicked out of a dancehall-see why)!

I just watched The Cat's Paw from this collection, which is a talkie from 1934. This set also has The Milky Way from 1936, as well as some of his best silents from the 20s. You might be surprised by Lloyd's talkies, since they are more drama than comedy. Light drama with some funny moments, but mainly just pleasant dramas. The earlier Movie Crazy 1932 and Welcome Danger 1929 are similar. Unfortunately, this set does not include Welcome Danger or the later Professor Beware 1938. This is unfortunate because in Professor Beware, Lloyd does finally make a very funny film again. This set also is missing the 1947 Mad Wednesday. The Cat's Paw is definitely one of the weaker Lloyd talkies. By the end of the film, you feel the plot has worn thin, but it still has some good moments. It just seems like Lloyd did not have very good scripts or gag writers in the 30s. He still could have made some much funnier films than what is shown here. I am talking just about the talkies here, not the hilarious silents.

Harold Lloyd was a top star in his day; and for good reason.

This has "Safety-last", Harold Lloyd's best film, produced by Hal Roach, producer of "Little Rascals, Our Gang", and "Laurel and Hardy". "Safety Last" is very clever, has an interesting story, very funny, laugh-out-loud-funny in one scene, unique, with some danger. It is not a film with just music; rather a film designed so you understand the action, just by watching, at a good pace. A lost art. (I did not care for Harold's later, talking-pictures.)

Harold was funny, when chased by bullies, as Harold was short, skinny, had straw-hat and glasses, looking unathletic. So convincing, film critics today still believe him unathletic. However, Harold was very athletic. Harold was very quick, nimble, balanced, and had unusually strong, climbing strength; getting him away from the bullies just in time.

Also worth seeing are Harold's movies: "The Kid Brother", and "The Freshman", both in volume-2 or in the 3-volume-set. "Speedy" is also interesting, though not as funny as these others, if you are budgeting, is in volume-3, or the 3-volume-set.