silent movies have always been something of a double-edged sword for me as i love the innuendo that is necessary to carry the movie where dialogue can distract from the body language and facial expressions of day-to-day life, in a silent movie it is almost everything. so much is conveyed by the movement of a hand, the subtle glance that expresses so much more than words. on the other hand i miss the dpeth of relationship and the expression of the inner self that sometimes surfaces in the better movies through dialogue.
one of the more deservedly famous early silent movie stars was harold lloyd. harold was born in burchard, nebraska in 1893.
in his life he made nearly 200 comedy films both silent and “talkies”. in addition to his natural comedic talent. harold is famous for the incredibly dangerous stunts he undertook in the course of making many of his films. for example you might be familiar with this hair-raising scene
in which harold dangles precariously from a clock high above the street . . . here’s a brief excerpt from the film “safety last” . . . if you’d like to know more about harold then you should definitely pay a visit to this website dedicated to all things harold lloydesque.
in this post i’ll be sharing harold’s final film. in this film, he reprises a character first portrayed by lloyd in a 1925 film. this film details what has happened to the hero, harold diddlebock who (twenty years earlier) had enjoyed a huge triumph on the college football field. harold diddlebock tells the story of a jazz age go-getter who finds himself stuck in a dull, dead end book-keeping job for years, only to be let go with a tiny pension.
harold seeks comfort in a bar, at which point (after hoovering back the first drink of his life, and a specially prepared drink in his honour), he blacks out and reawakens on a thursday. the remainder of the film follows harold as he tries to figure out what happened while he was unconscious.
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