A good movie

To be honest, for a very long time, I was completely oblivious about Harold Lloyd’s work so it was pretty neat to finally discover his movies. I wonder how many of his movies I have eventually watched but I think it will be the last one for the time being. Anyway, even if it might not be his best movie, I certainly enjoyed it though. One thing I did like was the fact that there was actually more or less a real plot this time so it did feel less disjointed than most of his other movies I have seen so far, at least, until the 3rd act. Furthermore, even though I apparently already saw a few silent features starring Jobyna Ralston, I thought she was super charismatic and charming here. One thing that didn’t really work in my opinion was the running joke of the main character constantly stuttering when he was nervous though. Indeed, a stutter is something more sonic than visual so I don’t think it worked well in a silent movie like this one. I mentioned that this movie did feel less chaotic than his other movies but it actually did change with the 3rd act though. Indeed, basically, the last 30 mins (and we are talking about a movie barely lasting 90 mins), it became some really wild non-stop chase during which the main characters kept stealing vehicles to prevent the love of his life to marry someone else. To be honest, I’m not so sure how I felt about this madcap sequence. I mean, sure, it was quite spectacular and fairly entertaining but, in my opinion, it was also a huge departure from the rest of the movie. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, it was still a really solid silent comedy and is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

7/10