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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Good movie, but the transfer sucks, August 27, 2004
This is a good Harold Lloyd movie, although not one of his best (but they are all pretty good.) The problem with the DVD is that the quality of the transfer is very bad.
The video quality is poor. It is washed out in places. Contract is bad. Part of the titles are cut off.
The sound quality is absolutely horrible. In many places it shrieks like an old speaker turned up too loud. It was painful to listen to this movie at any other than a very low (i.e. barely make out the words) sound level.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wait for the Collection, September 16, 2005
This will be released as part of the Harold Lloyd set coming out in November. I'm sure we'll see a better looking and sounding print. This promises to be quite a release and may do much to revitalize the reputation of a unique comedy genius.
I watched this film two times the first evening I got a copy; I was a little astonished. As a wacky comedy from that era it's not on the level of The Awful Truth or Bringing Up Baby--it's a notch below--but it's very good and has plenty of imaginative and gut-busting moments. I was roaring through the entire ending, and that's the way it should be with a good comedy.
The aspects that prevent this from being a front-runner are a not-totally-there script, a fun but vaguely awkward performance by Adolphe Menjou as a fight promoter, and some lumpiness to the flow of the proceedings. Screwball comedy, based as it is on generally unbelievable premises and coincidences, requires carefully calibrated velocity and pacing to keep the audience from noticing the unreality of the situations. The best examples have theatrical precedents--Arsenic and Old Lace, in its film incarnation, still feels like a stage play but it works brilliantly because it's relentless. All this movie was missing was more inspired direction.
Still, Lloyd, and much of the cast, are a pleasure, and the fun almost always never stops. A solid four-star with plenty of five-star moments--including one scene where Lloyd plays a sort of boomerang game with his hat.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful talkie, July 1, 2010
When Burleigh Sullivan (played by Harold Lloyd), a mild-mannered milkman, is credited with knocking out the middleweight champion, he suddenly finds himself offered a career as a prizefighter. Little does Burleigh know, though, that his manager has set him up, and all of his fights are rigged. The final fight is going to be a doozy, and Burleigh is going to need...something, if he is going to make it through!
This was one of the last of Harold Lloyd's films. It is a wonderful talkie, one that contains real flashes of the old Harold Lloyd. True, there's no hilarious high-altitude capers, no police chase scenes, but there are some pratfalls and Harold showing some of his old athletic ability. I found it to be a rather funny movie, a real nice black-and-white goofball comedy. Perhaps it's not in the same league with the earlier silent movies, but it is a lot of fun anyway, and well worth watching!
By the way, there are some familiar faces in this movie that I enjoyed seeing again, including Charles Lane in one of his earliest films, and Lionel Stander (the gravel voiced butler, Max, from Hart to Hart)!
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