Customer Reviews

Mad Wednesday [VHS]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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!

It's difficult to figure why anybody would bother using a poor 16mm print to transfer to DVD when there must be good 35mm prints out there, but this is another case of showcasing a very poor 16mm print. Otherwise, this is an excellent madcap film, but it doesn't start cooking until the Edgar Kennedy bartender scene, and Kennedy was absolutely masterful. From this scene on, the rest of the film is a romp. There was much luck with the sequences with Jacky the lion, so Sturges must have lived a charmed life. All the performances shine.

The Dylan (?) lyric "To laugh and cry in a single sound" came to mind the first time I saw this movie as part of a Saturday night film series at the local university 25 years ago -- it's just brilliant, a wild and manic ride that ends up being completely life-affirming, you just want to cry out at the end of the movie, it's too good to be true. This is one of the best movies I've ever seen.

What makes this film truly great is how many different styles of comedy it has. You see not only slapstick and situation based comedy, but also some fabulous dialog and scare comedy. I didn't want to watch this movie at first, thinking it'd be a run of the mill b/w film, but was amazed, and immediately rewound and watched it a second time.

I love this movie and could watch it many times. It includes the best part of an earlier Harold Lloyd movie, the football scene from The Freshman. There is also a wonderful scene where he hangs from a lion off the side of a building.

The only thing wrong with this DVD is that the transfer is not the best. The video and sound quality could be better, but is not horrible like the Milky Way DVD from the same company.

This was so funny. Made me think of the Bringing up Baby, and Philadelphia Story and some of Lucille Ball's antics. Sight gags and rapid funny dialogue. First few minutes kind of slow but once it gets going it was hilarious. I loved the bartender scene. As a fan of movies made before 1960, I cannot understand why I have not heard about this movie before. I can only say it is funny and you will enjoy it. I would let my grandchildren watch this movie.

Overreader

The idea of former silent comedy star Harold Lloyd teaming with the great Hollywood auteur Preston Sturges was truly inspired and the result, this film, is proof.

Embedded in the same job for 22 years, Harold Diddlebock (Lloyd) goes nowhere fast, forever, until he's let go by his supercilious, unctuous boss (throw in any other similar adjective and it would fit).

Harold loves adages, epigrams, and saws, and for the entire span of his working life, has the wall next to his desk plastered with them. When he's let go, he removes every last one of them and takes them with him, so as not to forget the truth of what life is all about. Or at least those parts of life for which these adages apply.

Thus, our hero is a rather, shall we say, by the book kinda guy. So when he goes on an unintentional bender, this radical restructuring of his brain molecules brings about some decidedly unexpected results. He buys a plaid suit loud enough to wake people living on the other side of the world. He buys a cowboy hat big enough to double as a doghouse for a Doberman pinscher (or however you spell that darn dog's name). And he buys a circus, too.

Yep, a circus--one of the main attractions of which is Jackie the lion. Jackie means well, but her bark (roar, is more like it) is definitely worse than her bite. In fact, her bite never happens, but the bark/roar is there a lot of the time. This gets Harold into big trouble, and therein lies the rub.

One of the best screwball comedies of the 40s (made in 1947), The Sin of Harold Diddlebock should not be missed by fans of great comedy. Well folks, we now have Sullivan's Travels, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, and The Lady Eve on DVD. There's talk of Palm Beach Story following in the relatively near future--hopefully true, since that is a pure gem. Now how about Unfaithfully Yours, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, and even more?

Preston Sturges forever!!

With the advent and proliferation of "Infomercials" and "Paid Programming" which have come to fill the late night air waves of nearly every television station in the country, one is no longer able to catch some of the little known classic films which brought so much pleasurable entertainment to earlier generations of Americans. One such case of a film fading away into obscurity is The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. Filled with witty humor and Harold Lloyd's flare for outrageous stunts, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock is a must-see film which brings the action-packed humor of the silent era into the modern age and lays the foundation for so much of what passes for comedy today. The Sin of Harold Diddlebock is a 'coming of age' story which takes a comic look at a tragic character - the American worker who, after being used up by his employer of over twenty years, is forced into retirement with nowhere to turn and no options for his future. When he finally learns to let go and get in touch with his younger self, to once again 'think,' the real action begins and he comically turns despair into the great American success story as he breaks with a number of closely held social conventions of his time. This is a hopeful, light-hearted, uplifting film. A must see for anyone who thinks that life might have passed them by.