Product Details

• Actors: Harold Lloyd, Frances Ramsden, Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee
• Directors: Preston Sturges
• Writers: Preston Sturges
• Producers: Preston Sturges, Howard Hughes
• Format: Black & White, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Delta Music Music in
• VHS Release Date: February 10, 2003
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000DC9J
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #383,447 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Also known as The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, this collaboration between silent comedy star Harold Lloyd and screwball comedy genius Preston Sturges was meant to be a splashy comeback for both. Unfortunately, it sank at the box office. It's not surprising, because the movie's story line is a wayward tangle, and every scene is a strange mini-movie of its own--but that's exactly why it's worth watching today. Mad Wednesday starts with footage from Lloyd's 1925 classic The Freshman. Because of his success on the football field, Harold Diddlebock (Lloyd, who seems to have hardly changed in 22 years) is offered a job. Full of hope and promise, the former gridiron champ finds himself in a bookkeeping position that consumes the next 30 to 40 years of his life, until he's abruptly fired. Stunned, Diddlebock takes his first drink; when he awakes two days later, he has no idea what he's spent the last 48 hours doing. It turns out he's bought a circus and... well, you get the idea. Every scene is its own little gem of delirium, including one in which an artistic bartender invents the drink that launches Diddlebock into his drunken spree. But the scene in which Diddlebock explains to a lovely coworker how he fell in love not only with her, but with her six or seven older sisters before her, is almost as delightful. Lloyd isn't always adept with Sturges's madcap dialogue, but the sterling supporting cast of character actors makes that language spin like a top, including Rudy Vallee, Franklin Pangborn, Lionel Stander, and Margaret Hamilton (better known as the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz). --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Arouse the Artist in Me., September 26, 2002

By 

the wizard of uz (Studio City, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mad Wednesday [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Is how the bartender responds to Harold Diddlebock (Harold Lloyd) when told that he's about to have the first drink of his life.

Harold gets talked into it by 'Wormy' a deliciously street-wise octagenerian urchin that asks him for a loan of a couple of bucks. Harold complies, despite the fact that he's just been fired from his job.

The inspired bartender concurs with Wormy that Harold needs a drink to ease his troubles and---in a scene only Preston Sturges could have written---creates a "Diddlebock" in his honor.

Originally entitled 'The Sin of Harold Diddlebock', the real sin is in being unable to rent it in most video stores. This has got to be one of the top comedies ever made.

Lloyd came out of retirement to make this film after meeting and befriending kindred maniac, Preston Sturges.

In "Mad Wednesday" Lloyd performs some of the funniest sight gags ever captured on celluloid, employing his trademark high-risk stunts. (Ever see 'Safety Last'?) Houdini would have been proud.

In all his movies Lloyd played a hopelessly naive gung-ho optimist who triumphed against the world despite his childlike sweetness.

But here the formula takes a twist, thanks to Sturges.

Lloyd is now a middle aged failure who has been stuck in a menial job for the last twenty years, a weary, disillusioned man who is pathetically in love with his co-worker, an impossibly beautiful ingenue (There's always an impossibly beautiful ingenue in a Sturges film ). And then he gets fired. . .

Neddless to say, all will end well, and he will triumph and get the girl in the end.

But not before going berserk on "The Diddlebock" which transforms him from a meek innocent into a lunatic gambler and high roller with a taste for um... somewhat loud attire.

Poor Harold wakes up sober two days later to find himself the owner of a circus, replete with strongmen and bearded ladies who are owed back pay and hungry lions that need to be fed.

It's all silly fluff of course but the genius of Preston Sturges's writing makes us cheerfully suspend our disbelief and go along for the ride.

Only Lubitsch and Billy Wilder came close to Sturges in the ability to give the audience superbly witty dialogue while maintaining a believable world of madcap lunacy where events move at breakneck speed.

An great farce, starring a comic legend, written and and directed by the best.

Enjoy.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five-star hilarity....family has watched it numerous times!, May 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mad Wednesday [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a hilarious comedy! My family has rented it numerous times, then we were disappointed that it disappeared from the video rental stores. It gets off to a bit of a slow start, but gains comic momentum and has you rolling in the aisles (off the couch?) It ends up being quite a different movie from what you think it might be at the beginning. It takes a comic look at a man briefly using alcohol to escape his work-induced depression, and eventually finds true love in the end. But getting to the end takes you on a hilarious, mad-cap, nerve-wracking roller-coaster ride! Harold Lloyd is a forgotten comic genius whose work equals that of Peter Sellers, Rowan Atkinson, Charlie Chaplain, and others of the same caliber. I am excited that I can purchase this comic gem from Amazon.com!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, fast-pased dialogue. Sturges' and Lloyd's best, July 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mad Wednesday [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I'm always amazed at all the "film buffs" who aren't familiar with "Mad Wednesday" (title later changed to "The Sin Of Harold Diddlebock"). Directed by Preston Sturges, who's WORST movie is worth watching! This was a "comeback" role for Harold Lloyd (who proves what a talented all around actor he was ‹ for those only familar with his silent films). The usual Sturges company of actors, as well as a small but most memorable role by Edgar Kennedy, make you have to supress some of your laughter, or you'll miss the next joke. Full of funny little details. Note: Margaret Hamilton ("The Wicked Witch of The West") as his bitchy sister and a scene where a real Lion accidently takes a bite at Harold Lloyd, who continues with his lines with no cut in the scene. As great a movie as anything Frank Capra or Billy Wilder ever made. If you've never seen a Preston Sturges movie, see this one, "Hail The Conquering Hero," "The Miracle At Morgan Creek," "The Palm Beach Story," or "Sullivan's Travels." They're all gems!