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DVD The Harold Lloyd Collection (Slapstick Symposium)
This collection of vintage Harold Lloyd comedies is worth the price just for Grandma's Boy, a splendid hourlong feature from 1922. Lloyd plays a small-town fellow who lives with his frisky grandmother; convinced of his own cowardice, he yearns to compete for the hand of a pretty girl. His courtly call to the girl's home is the occasion for battle with a ridiculous "formal" suit, mothballs, and a litter of kittens attracted by the goose grease on his shoes. There's also a long (and quite funny) flashback to Lloyd's ancestor, tangled in a Civil War fracas. Lloyd, whose aquiline features were rounded off by horn-rimmed glasses, was more handsome and less clownish than many of his slapstick brethren, which made his acrobatic outbursts all the more surprising. That talent is well-displayed in the seven short (mostly between 20-25 minutes) films on this DVD, including Number, Please, which climaxes with a brilliant sequence involving a stolen purse, and His Royal Slyness, which also offers a look at Lloyd's brother Gaylord. --Robert Horton
Review(s): DVD The Harold Lloyd Collection (Slapstick Symposium)
Possible door in for new fans
While most of the films on here are very strong and solid, I don't think they're guaranteed to turn every first-time viewer into a huge fan. When I rented this from the library to see what all the fuss over Harold was about, I kind of had mixed reactions. I really liked 'Grandma's Boy,' the very early short feature-length film, and also enjoyed, among the shorts, 'I Do' (which was my personal favorite), 'Just Neighbors,' 'Number, Please?' (except for the disappointing ending), and 'Are Crooks Dishonest?' Though apparently a number of people really like them, I wasn't that captivated by 'An Eastern Westerner,' 'Bumping into Broadway,' or 'His Royal Slyness.' Still, it did make me generally interested enough to want to see more, and the next time I had a chance to see more, during the mini-marathon Turner Classic Movies ran of Harold's films during April 2005, I did become a big fan based on seeing some of his great full-length features. I think the ideal introduction to a new fan would be a feature-length movie, like 'Grandma's Boy' on this disc; it really serves to establish Harold's screen persona of the shy awkward smalltown boy, having to overcome obstacles such as cowardliness, meekness, local bad guys, and people who don't take him seriously. He was one of those comedians who was more like just a regular guy (with the simple physical modification of glasses) who got into normal understandable situations and trouble and had to use his own wits and summon his own courage and strength of character to get out of them and save the day. Because most of the shorts on this disc are from so early in Harold's career (some of them even from before the accident that nearly took his own life in September 1919), they might not be appreciated for their humor and brilliance by a new fan who is probably more apt to want to see Harold at the peak of his creativity, not when he was still learning the ropes and developing his character more and more.
Harold Lloyd, the GREAT
Ah...this was back when they actually made films. Most people think of only 2 masters of slapstick back in the 1920's, Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Well, Lloyd was as good as them, if not better. The cornerstone of American Comedy, Safety Last(1923) shows us is that Lloyd was more daring than his other 2 contemporaries, like in the scenes where he climbs the skyscraper and I'm sure everyone has seen the priceless scene where Lloyd hangs terrified from the hands of the big clock on the top of the skyscraper. Check this out and see true comedy.
A Pair Of Glasses And A Smile
At last - Harold Lloyd films on DVD; and about time too.
Excellent print quality throughout most of this DVD.
If only the musical accompaniment was supplied by "The Crescent City Jazz Band" as it was for the brilliant "World Of Harold Lloyd" series in the 1970's.
However, the comedy is what counts and I suppose I could always turn the sound off and play the music from the aforementioned series.
Now how about a DVD release of "Welcome Danger" which has never been shown in the UK.
Related DVD's The Harold Lloyd Collection (Slapstick Symposium)
The Buster Keaton Collection presents three of the first films (one, The Cameraman, a near masterpiece) Keaton made for MGM beginning in 1928, an arrangement that gradually ushered the great comic actor and director into the sound era but ultimately deprived him of creative control. The Cameraman, considered by many to be Keaton's last important silent work, is an unusual story about a tintype portrait photographer (Keaton) who becomes a newsreel cameraman in order to win the heart of a secretary (Marceline Day). After flubbing an assignment by double-exposing some action footage, the hapless hero tries to prove himself in several memorable sequences of Keatonesque knockabout comedy (including a Chinatown street battle). There are also a couple of grace notes, such as... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Buster Keaton Director(s): Edward Sedgwick - Buster Keaton DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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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... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Harold Lloyd - Frances Ramsden Director(s): Preston Sturges DVD Release Date: Released the 27 January 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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The great Stan Laurel was 37 years old when he definitively teamed up with Oliver Hardy in 1927. So what had he done up till then? The Stan Laurel Collection valuably fills in a gap, with 17 comedy shorts Laurel made for producer Hal Roach between 1923 and 1925. Laurel was already a veteran vaudevillian, with many previous stabs at film work, when he embarked on this series for Roach. The comic personality on display will not be instantly familiar to Laurel and Hardy fans. In a frantic piece like Oranges and Lemons, Laurel is much closer to the acrobatic mischief of Chaplin than to the slow-burning simpleton he perfected opposite Hardy. Laurel was a busy gag-writer and worked on story and direction as well, and it says something about his imagination that these shorts range... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Stan Laurel Director(s): Harry Sweet - Joe Rock DVD Release Date: Released the 03 August 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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