DVD The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
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 |
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Review(s): DVD The Sin of Harold Diddlebock | |
| Another great Preston Sturges film.. |  |
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!!
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| Very Underrated | |
This film is generally reviewed as a failed Sturges movie. However, anyone who loves the insanity of movies like "The Miracle of Morgan Creek" will probably love this one too. This film stands up to repeated viewings. It would be great to see a DVD with both "Mad Wednesday" and the slightly different cut "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock."
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| You Arouse the Artist in Me. | |
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.
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