Watch Safety Last! For Free

Excellent but underrated film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A Hal Roach Studios production, released through Pathé. Copyright 25 January 1923 by Pathé Exchange, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 1 April 1923. U.S. release: 1 April 1923. 7 reels. 6,300 feet. 73 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Anxious to impress his girl, a humble department store employee finds himself cast in the role of a human fly. NOTES: Only movie appearance of real "human fly", Bill Strother.A domestic rentals gross of $1.5 million established the movie in third position (with The Hunchback of Notre Dame) as one of the most popular movies of the year. Only The Covered Wagon and The Ten Commandments (both shown at roadshow prices) took more money at U.S./Canadian ticket windows in 1923.Voted number seven in The Film Daily annual poll of more than 300 film critics.Oddly, the movie did not make The New York Times "Ten Best" list for the year at all , or even the supplementary list where the critic preferred Lloyd's next movie, Why Worry? COMMENT: Not Lloyd's best film, nor even his funniest nor most thrilling, but the one everybody remembers and relates to, Safety Last established Lloyd as Chaplin's closest competitor. Meticulously constructed, cleverly directed and handsomely produced on real Los Angeles locations (including the Brockman Building), the movie features Lloyd in almost every single scene—and even in the few clips where Lloyd is not physically present, the other players are either talking about him or establishing "business" for him to use in later scenes. This concentration pays many laugh and thrill dividends throughout, especially in the climactic climb. In fact, Safety Last is that rare commodity, a classic movie that still delivers the same punch, the same thrills, the same triggers to outbursts of laughter that audiences responded to on its original release. AVAILABLE on DVD through New Line. Quality rating: Ten out of ten.

It's interesting to watch Safety Last! and see that in at least one big way it served as a prototype for romantic comedies for ages to come. Look at the scenario before us: Harold Lloyd as the Boy (let's just call him Harold Lloyd) is in love with The Girl (a very good, if two-dimensional, Mildred Davis) and leaves the country- side to find work in the city to make more money for the both of them. He constantly buys her jewelry, making her think he's doing very well for himself, which isn't the case - he works in a garment store and is basically another clerk serving the gaggles of frenzied women looking for their fabric - and this gives her the impression that she should go to see him. She does, and he puts up the facade further that he's the general manager of the store. And it get to the point that it sets off the main conflict/climax of the film: they can get married (right!) and get a house... if he gets a $1,000 - and how does he do that? Attract more people to the store by, what else, having a friend climb a building. Yeah, his friend. Oops.Romantic comedies of the modern age are loaded with these misunderstandings - if the protagonist just told the other lead what was going on for real, the story would collapse. One might almost want to put the finger of blame on Safety Last! for so many movies since that have made the Deception-Plot-Contrivance an accepted norm. And YET, here it does work, because there is a sweetness to all of the comedy, while Lloyd goes about in his bewildered state, trying to keep up appearances for his girl, and finding himself, ultimately, hanging off the roof of a building. Whether he finally tells her at the end is hardly the point; we see him on the ledge of a building with all manner of a dog, a mouse, a painter with a 'gun' (woops), and the cop who's chasing his buddy (who should be doing this) up the building, and there's all the excitement and suspense you need! If Chaplin was the Elvis of silent comedy, and Keatin the Chuck Berry, then it could be said that Harold Lloyd was Buddy Holly: the seemingly unassuming nerdy-guy with the glasses and 'normal' demeanor, who, just from the look of him in this film, is set the most in our world. Not that the other silent comics didn't have their foot set in reality, but the one in Safety Last is a little less fantastical, and its death- defying nature really comes as a last resort for the character. But I put Lloyd in the same camp as those guys just as Holly with the old rock-n-rollers for the reason of guts and ingenious comic timing: Lloyd knew how to get his effect, and would not stoop to pulling ridiculous gags like getting a 'Kick Me' sign on a cop's jacket, or pretending his lady had fainted to get out of his general manager's office.Safety Last's romantic-comic contrivance doesn't bother me, and actually works really well, because the movie is just stuffed with contrivances at every turn, everything is all based on a misunderstanding and trying to hide away to not get caught; the opening has this right away as Harold takes the wrong suitcase - a baby, actually - and almost misses his train by hopping on another car. Another classic moment comes by having to hide from his landlord with his friend, by getting behind their coats and hanging from the hangers! (This gets an immediate call-back a moment later, just as funny to me if not funnier due to it being repeated). And Lloyd and his writers (including Hal Roach) are just splendid at making manic comic moments which are over 90 years old but are still fresh - see when the mass of frantic ladies are trying to get what they need at the store, and to get just one little old lady what she needs he exclaims there's a $50 bill on the floor(!) If anything, for me, the mid-section in the store, showing Harold Lloyd at his garment-store job having to serve the people and the many, many mishaps and gags that ensue, along with those that come when the Girl comes around and things get even crazier and wackier, may even be funnier and stronger than the final climb - at least, I should say, in laughs. Not that the comedy doesn't continue during the climb, it does. But it's really more of the sense that 'Wait, hey, is he REALLY going to fall?!' that makes the climb sequence so exhilarating to watch. Sadly, if one looks up the trivia, it spoils if it was really real - some of it did have stunt work, and it wasn't done completely without a platform, though that was mostly for the camera. That I didn't think about that watching the climb though, that I thought it was just little Harold trying to climb up, one brick layer at a time, is kind of a testament to the magic of movies, silly as it sounds.I bought into what Lloyd and the filmmakers were doing, making things suspenseful step by step, and as long as you can do that, then you're in great hands. Safety Last! is just behind the masterworks of Chaplin and Keaton in terms of spot-on timing and clever craft for gags and jokes, and probably has the same level of verve at the end as The General. If it doesn't have the most honest main character, why carp - more chances for comedy have to occur this way sometimes, otherwise it just becomes a story of a guy in a garment store with his Girl.

If one were to name three musketeers of silent film comedy,actor Harold Lloyd's name would easily be listed with those of actors Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin."Safety Last" is one of Harold Lloyd's most successful comedy films as an actor.Although it has been listed as a comedy film,Safety Last does feature high doses of dramatic content.It is also a love story involving two innocent people who experience a happy end. In many ways,"Safety Last" examines how tough is the life for a villager in a big city.It is a comment on difficult working conditions where one is able to lead a decent life solely through one's wits.Harold is able to outsmart his boss at his workplace as he would like to make it big in life in order to make his girl friend happy.For this reason,he is ready to play all kinds of funny tricks including climbing a 12 storey building.Lastly,Harold Lloyd clutching the hands of a large clock is an image which is etched in most cinéphiles' minds.However,it continues to inspire many brave people all over the world but mocks those fake action sequences where one can easily detect logical as well as technical loopholes.What makes this film legendary is that it happened in 1923, an era when there we no high tech gadgets to help actors with risky scenes.

" . . . soon as I ditch this cop." So yells Bill Strother (playing "The Pal") to Harold Lloyd (in the role of "The Boy") amid the latter's precarious exploration of the OUTSIDE facade of a Los Angeles high-rise during a publicity stunt gone awry. At the height of the "Age of Ballyhoo," during which one could become famous by merely sitting atop a flagpole for a few weeks, a chain of events have forced The Boy to promote his experienced wall-climbing friend in a PR event which will set him up for marriage to "The Girl" (Lloyd's eventual real-life wife, Mildred Davis). The mishaps which have endangered The Boy's future naturally continue, compelling him to make his own dare-devil debut before a throng of thousands. At a time when Mount Everest was as yet unconquered, it certainly is refreshing to see a man "win" a woman through what is arguably a skill and certainly a brave act (as opposed to what Dustin Hoffman's character does at the end of THE GRADUATE, cravenly "stealing" another man's bride from the altar).