Sadly Harold Lloyd's films are nowhere near as well known as his rivals Chaplin and Keaton. Lloyd himself rarely reissued his work and since his death the films have been seen very rarely on TV and video compared with all the other film comedy greats. Hopefully this state of affairs will be at least partially reversed when his films are issued on DVD late in 2005 and Lloyd will at last get some recognition for his genius as both a comedian and auteur. In the Twenties he was more consistently popular than Chaplin or Keaton and his films are funnier too. Although he never took the credit he could have claimed to be the director of all his silent features, this side to him, his domination of his work has become obscured by time, limited exposure and his own innate modesty.

Lloyd began his film career as a Chaplin imitator first as a character called Willie Work later as Lonesome Luke. He took a long time to find his feet as a film comedian, learning his craft the hard way. He probably made around 100 shorts before the results were any better than not bad but when he hit on the glasses character he struck a nerve with the audiences of the time. Lloyd's first notable film is the two reeler Bumping Into Broadway (1919) and his rarely seen shorts include some gems like An Eastern Westerner (1920), I Do (1921), Never Weaken (1921) and Now or Never (1921). During the filming of Haunted Spooks (1920) he posed with a fake bomb for publicity photographs but the bomb went off causing him to lose the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, after that he wore a special glove to conceal his disability.

Lloyd is most famous today for his so-called thrill pictures in which he climbed buildings but he only made five of these out of an output of well over 100 films. The most well known image of Harold is of him hanging from the clock in Safety Last! (1923) one of his best films. A few of his early features like A Sailor Made Man (1921) and Doctor Jack (1922) are more flimsy in their premises than the three reel shorts though all his films had very funny moments. Lloyd was a master of sight gags and as a laugh provoker had no rivals. Grandma's Boy (1922) added an extra dimension to his comedy by incorporating character into the gag framework. The timid young man who becomes a hero was to be a common Lloyd theme that he was to return to in his best films like The Freshman (1925) and The Kid Brother (1927).

Some sequences in the Lloyd silents are among the most exciting and funniest in film history such as the final chases in Girl Shy (1924) and Speedy (1928) and the collapsing tuxedo in The Freshman (1925). Occasionally though Lloyd reverted to his earlier feature work in films which had incredibly funny sequences but lacked dramatic unity such as Hot Water (1924) and For Heaven's Sake (1926).

Unfortunately he never quite got a hang of the talkies despite some reasonable attempts Lloyd's go-getting character didn't really work in the world of sound and seemed indelibly linked to the roaring 20s. Sound appeared to emphasise the character's defects but also Lloyd increasingly abandoned the style of hilarious gag sequences for comedy founded on dialogue.

After his final disappointing attempt at a comeback under the direction of Preston Sturges (The Sin of Harold Dibblebock (1946)) he retired to his Green Acres mansion. Having kept control of almost all his films he was a very rich man.

Through neglect Lloyd's film-making genius has been forgotten certainly among general film critics and the general public but he remains one of the funniest men ever to walk in front of a camera.



FILMOGRAPHY

1913    FROM ITALY'S SHORES    performer
1914    HIS HEART, HIS HAND AND HIS SWORD    performer
1914    SAMSON    performer
1914    WILLIE    performer
1915    A FOOZLE AT THE TEA PARTY    performer
1915    INTO THE LIGHT    performer
1915    JUST NUTS    performer
1915    MISS FATTY'S SEASIDE LOVERS    performer
1916    LONESOME LUKE LEANS TO THE LITERARY    performer
1916    LUKE LUGS LUGGAGE    performer
1917    BLISS    performer
1917    BY THE SAD SEA WAVES    performer
1917    THE FLIRT    performer
1917    LUKE'S BUSY DAY    performer
1917    LUKE'S LOST LIBERTY    performer
1917    OVER THE FENCE    performer
1917    PINCHED    performer
1917    RAINBOW ISLAND    performer
1918    THE BIG IDEA    performer
1918    THE CITY SLICKER    performer
1918    IT'S A WILD LIFE    performer
1918    ON THE JUMP    performer
1918    PIPE THE WHISKERS    performer
1918    SPRING FEVER    performer
1919    BUMPING INTO BROADWAY    performer
1919    CAPTAIN KIDD'S KIDS    performer
1919    FROM HAND TO MOUTH    performer
1919    HIS ROYAL SLYNESS    performer
1920    AN EASTERN WESTERNER    performer
1920    GET OUT AND GET UNDER    performer
1920    HAUNTED SPOOKS    performer
1920    HIGH AND DIZZY    performer
1920    NUMBER, PLEASE    performer
1921    AMONG THOSE PRESENT    performer
1921    I DO    performer
1921    NEVER WEAKEN    performer
1921    NOW OR NEVER    performer
1921    A SAILOR-MADE MAN    performer
1922    DOCTOR JACK    performer
1922    GRANDMA'S BOY    performer
1923    SAFETY LAST    performer, screenwriter
1923    WHY WORRY?    performer
1924    GIRL SHY    performer
1924    HOT WATER    performer
1925    THE FRESHMAN    performer
1926    FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE    performer
1927    THE KID BROTHER    performer
1928    SPEEDY    performer
1929    WELCOME DANGER    performer, producer
1930    FEET FIRST    performer
1932    MOVIE CRAZY    performer, producer
1934    THE CAT'S PAW    performer
1936    THE MILKY WAY    performer
1938    PROFESSOR BEWARE    performer, producer
1941    A GIRL, A GUY, AND A GOB    producer
1942    MY FAVORITE SPY    producer
1947    THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK/ MAD WEDNESDAY    performer