Customer Reviews

The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection Vol. 2

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

Harold's "Kid Brother" and "The Freshman" are in this volume-2. They are very funny, entertaining, clever, and well worth seeing.

Harold's films have a girl he is trying to win, bullies, chases, and clever humor. The "Kid Brother", in the old west, has the youngest brother outsmarting his bully, older brothers. "The Freshman" is the perils of a freshman college student falling prey to some clever pranks of the upperclassmen.

These silent-films are not movies with just music; they are planned 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 frail. However, Harold was very able, he was very quick, nimble, balanced, and had unusually strong, climbing strength; getting him away from those bullies just in time.

Harold's "Safety Last" is his best. (In the other volume-1, or in the 3-volume-set). I recommend volume-1 first, then volume-2, or the 3-volume-set. Volume-3 has "Speedy", which is funny, but not as good as the these others, "Speedy" does show Coney Island amusement park rides in the 1920's, a scene with Babe Ruth, and volume-3 has a 15-minute extra of Harold's palatial estate.

I remember watching Harold Lloyd as a kid. When I came across these DVDs I had to try at least one. The DVD and reproduction quality are excellent, I'm very pleased at with buy. As a kid I remember Harold Lloyd being funny but now that I'm an adult I can really appreciate the genious and humor even more. A great DVD - I can't wait to buy the rest of the set.

We "found" Harold Lloyd films on TMC when they were have a Harold Lloyd day. I have never been a silent movie fan, but this guy was so funny we watched several. I had to have the one talkie, "Feet First". Harold Lloyd is a funny guy and pretty athletic to do the stunts he did.
Him being stuck on a scaffolding going up and down a building was hilarious.

There was a wonderful surprise when I watched the Comedy Collection. Jobyna Ralston. She is in 7 of the masterpieces we get to see. She interacts with Lloyd as a classic, beautiful setting enhances an exquisite jewel. The chemistry they generate together is a major reason why these 7 movies she did are still as good as they were when they were made so long ago and far away.

This collection has more prime cuts from the TRUE king of silent comedy (Sorry Charlie!).

We have here an interesting collection of our man's varying personas. The everyman go-getter (Dr. Jack & Feet First) and the geek who overcomes (Grandma's Boy, The Freshamn, and the Kid Brother).

In DR. JACK (with cameos from the Our Gang kids), our hero is a likeable commonsense country doctor who tries to foil the plans of a quack to exploit a rich family. GRANDMA'S BOY is the foundation of Harold's geek tales. Here, he's a pitiful coward whose Grandma encourages him to have guts and fight a persistant bully and the tramp who terrorizes the town. THE FRESHMAN has Harold as the White Steve Urkel. This pathetic nerd goes to college and goes up to people with a stupid dance and says "step right up and call me speedy." He becomes the school joke, but see what happens. It's a great story about being yourself, as is THE KID BROTHER, another geek vs. bullies tale distiguished by some really heartwarming moments and a hilarious scene with a monkey.

However, things go south with the early talkie FEET FIRST, with Harold as an ambitious shoe salesman. Like most early sound films, it's wooden and unfunny (except for Harold's ridiculous pontificating speech about shoes "Without shoes, we'd all be- BAREFOOT!" delivered with gusto). You'll skip a number of chapters on this one! The film goes on with a sound remake of the "human fly" scene from SAFETY LAST, marred by some Stepin Fetchit stereotype antics by Willie "Sleep & Eat" Best (Harold, who is usually nice to Blacks and other ethnic groups in his films refers to Best as "Charcoal!" Fortuantely, this was a rare exception for this usually likeable character).

With that said, go for it.