Review of Safety Last! (1923) by Jonathan B — 25 Oct 2018

This is a real classic comedy of the silent era and well worth hunting out to see it. This is the film where famously, Harold Lloyd climbs the outside of a building and ends up dangling above the street from the fingers of a large clock.

While watching this, just bear in mind that Lloyd had lost a thumb and finger some years earlier while he was holding a bomb that went off in his hand. Quite how he ends up on the outside of the building that houses the department store where he works as a fabric salesman is rather convoluted but hardly matters as the comic genius of the piece covers the holes in the plot.

Lloyd has a cheery and affable disposition that makes him instantly likeable and endearing. You are literally willing him to succeed as you laugh at his antics as he launches hi madcap plan to gain a prize that will secure his future with the girl he loves.