Safety Last! ***** (1923, Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother) – Classic Movie Review 7915

Directors Sam Taylor and Fred Newmeyer’s grand 1923 silent classic movie Safety Last! stars Harold Lloyd and tells the effortlessly humorous tale of a country lad (Lloyd), involved in a romantic love affair with a girl (Mildred Davis), who heads for the town to make his fortune.

Safety Last! is a well-balanced, often quite brilliant mixture of action and slapstick comic routines, which adds up to one of Lloyd’s best thriller comedies. The skyscraper climbing sequence (done without any back projections or special effects or CGI of course) is one of the cleverest, funniest and, deservedly, most famous in silent movies. It is the one where he ends up hanging from a clock face. 

Harold Lloyd did have an uncredited stunt double, Harvey Parry, and Bill Strother performs stunts (uncredited) too.

The 1990 restored print (the alternate version), produced by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill for Channel Four, comes complete with a new score by the deservedly ubiquitous silent movie composer Carl Davis.

Also in the cast are Noah Young, Bill Strothers, Mickey Daniels, Westcott B Clarke, Anna Townsend, Charles Stevenson, Gus Leonard and Helen Gilmore.

Safety Last! is directed by Sam Taylor and Fred C Newmeyer, runs 70 minutes, is made by Hal Roach Studios, is released by Pathé, is written by H M Walker (titles) Harold Lloyd (uncredited), Sam Taylor (story), Tim Whelan (story) and Hal Roach (story), is shot in black and white by Walter Lundin, is produced by Harold Lloyd and Hal Roach, is scored by Carl Davis.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7915

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