GIRL SHY (1924)

Harold Lloyd brought most of his team along (including game-changing new co-star Jobyna Ralston) when he left Hal Roach Studios for his own independent outfit, releasing first thru Pathé, then Paramount.  And right away output is newly grounded in believable stories and multi-layered character development while continuing with unsurpassed comic construction.  He’s still playing the nice small-town fella dreaming beyond his station/abilities*, typically winning here as a tailor’s apprentice too bashful to approach girls.  Stuttering madly in their company, though loud whistle noises can jumpstart him, why he’d talk a blue streak if he could only get comfortable.  Instead, skipping the town dance, he stays home to finish his book, The Secret of Making Love: A Practical Guide.  ‘Vampires?’  (‘vamps,’ btw, not the undead.)  Try Indifference.  Flappers?  A Cave Man approach.  Laughed out of a publisher’s office, he finds hope helping rich townie Jobyna Ralston sneak her little dog on the train to the city.  He can even talk to her!  If only she weren’t spoken for.  That’s the setup, filled to the brim with delightful/hilarious attempts to get his love-life in gear, climaxing with a truly phenomenal ride-to-the-rescue so he can stop her marriage to an already married man.  (She mistakenly thought Harold didn’t care.)  This last reel & a half, as Harold moves thru a series of stolen cars, trucks, horse-drawn-cart, free-running horses (including a gasp-worthy spill), an out-of-control trolley car, a hurtling LOL wonder of thrills and close calls.  One of the great compound gag sequences in all cinema.  Two films later, Lloyd released THE FRESHMAN/’25, one of the biggest comedy hits in Hollywood history which may explain why this breathlessly funny climax isn’t as celebrated as it deserves to be.  (Note: Look for the approved Harold Lloyd Estate edition from granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd.)

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Race issues and the Silent Era.  For once, instead of ‘trigger warnings’ about BlackFace or insulting stereotypes, GIRL SHY resonates with legit, if comic, contemporary issues.  Speeding to reach the church on time, Harold swerves on to a one-lane road and runs right into a Black driver.  Someone’s got to back up.  Unwilling to waste a second, Harold offers to swap cars instead.  They’ll both back up.  Looking at his Model ‘T’ flivver vs Harold’s fancy vehicle (and unaware Harold’s is stolen), the Black driver is very willing to swap!  Harold soon loses control and runs into the ditch; car ruined.  But we also follow the Black driver who backs directly into the police, on the tail of this stolen vehicle . . . now driven by a Black guy!  Talk about Driving While Black arrests.  Worse, the driver doesn’t know about the case of bootleg booze in the back seat, jostled in the rush so that bottles start to POP as if guns were being shot.  Clutching his chest, he’s sure he’s been shot.  Yikes!  Some racial injustices never go away.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *No natural comic zany, Lloyd had to create an outsider status to hang gags & persona on.  Hence the ‘glasses’ character to help make him look more natural underdog/less upstanding Chamber of Commerce type.