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HAROLD LLOYD (1893-1971), the third genius of silent comedy, made more films than Chaplin and Keaton combined, out-paced both at the box office, and, as for gags and laughs, “few people have equaled him and nobody has ever beaten him” (James Agee). Remembered as The Man on the Clock, Lloyd’s legendary “thrill pictures” were but a small part of an extraordinary career. Luckily, Lloyd carefully preserved his negatives and, through the restoration efforts of The Harold Lloyd Trust, the UCLA Film and Television Archive and Sony Pictures, all of his feature-length silent masterworks, along with most of his talkies and the crème de la crème. of his shorts, are available in glistening new 35mm prints — most with new stereo orchestral scores. CLICK HERE FOR SCHEDULE OF ALL FILMS IN SERIES |
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SOME PROGRAMS PRESENTED AS DOUBLE
FEATURES (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
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SPECIAL THANKS TO SUZANNE LLOYD, GRANDDAUGHTER OF HAROLD LLOYD, AND CHUCK JOHNSON OF THE HAROLD LLOYD TRUST; MICHAEL SCHLESINGER, SUSANNE JACOBSON, GROVER CRISP, HELENA BRISSENDEN & RITA BELDA (SONY PICTURES); BOB O’NEIL AND PAUL GINSBURG (NBC UNIVERSAL); ROBERT GITT AND TODD WIENER (UCLA FILM AND TELEVISION ARCHIVE); AND RUSTY CASSELTON. ALL FILMS IN THIS SERIES (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF PROFESSOR BEWARE AND THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK) ARE RELEASED BY SONY PICTURES REPERTORY. |
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PRESENTED
WITH GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM THE IRA M. RESNICK FOUNDATION.
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| ENDED |
THE KID BROTHER 
(1927) Lloyd’s most unsung masterpiece, as mild-mannered
but resourceful Harold assembly-lines the domestic chores for his
rough-neck brothers, tenderly romances the girl from a visiting
medicine show, and at last wins his sheriff father’s respect, after
a hair-raising battle aboard a derelict ship.
Plus thrill short HIGH AND
DIZZY (1920). Harold gets soused on home-made hooch, then follows sleep-walking
Mildred Davis onto a skyscraper ledge.
Click here for more about KID BROTHER
1:05, 3:10, 5:15, 7:20*, 9:25
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 7:20 show
of THE KID BROTHER.
Recorded orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed
and conducted by Carl Davis at all other shows.
Recorded orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed, arranged and conducted
by Robert Israel at all shows of HIGH AND DIZZY.
| ENDED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
(1923) Rich hypochondriac Harold’s health cruise includes a
blithe saunter into a Latin American revolution. Foot for foot, HL’s
most gag-laden work, and with his greatest foil — an eight-and-ahalf
foot giant. “An absurdist film, a serene exercise in primitive
surrealism and perhaps the most consistently lunatic feature
Lloyd ever made.” – Richard Schickel.
Click here for more about WHY WORRY?
1:00, 4:15, 7:30*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 7:30 show.
Recorded orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed, arranged
and conducted by Robert Israel at all other shows.
(1932) Mistakenly recruited for a Hollywood talent search,
Harold finds himself at a formal party wearing a surprise-filled
magician’s coat, botching take after take in his screen test,
and attracted to both a rain-sodden girl and a Latin spitfire
(Constance Cummings in a brilliantly ambiguous performance
as both). Perhaps Lloyd’s best talkie; he was satisfied when
a deaf audience was baffled only twice.
Click here for more about MOVIE CRAZY
2:20, 5:35, 8:50
| ENDED |
SPEEDY(1928) Jazz Age idols meet, as baseball-crazy soda jerk/cabbie
Harold and passenger Babe Ruth (the Sultan of Swat playing
himself) hurtle to old Yankee Stadium. Extensive New York
location work is highlighted during a frenzied finale, as Harold
races Gotham’s last horse-drawn trolley right through
Washington Square Arch! “No
filmmaker had ever made such
flamboyant use of New York.” –
Kevin Brownlow.
Plus HAUNTED SPOOKS (1920). Harold flops at suicide, but braves a
haunted house; this was the film interrupted by his hand-maiming prop bomb
accident.
Click here for more about SPEEDY
1:00, 3:10,
5:20, 7:30*, 9:40
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 7:30 show of SPEEDY.
Recorded
orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed and conducted by Carl Davis at all
other shows.
Recorded orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed, arranged and conducted
by Robert Israel at all shows of HAUNTED SPOOKS.
| ENDED |
(1924)
In “arguably the greatest
chase in film history” (Richard
Schickel), stuttering bumpkin
Harold, author of how-to
lovemaking guide “The Boob’s
Diary,” desperately tries to reach his girl’s wedding to a
bigamist via car, police car, firetruck, trolley, motorcycle,
horse wagon, ad infinitum.
Plus NEVER WEAKEN (1921). Unlucky-in-love Harold unsuccessfully tries
suicide, then has it thrust upon him aboard a hanging girder.
Click here for more about GIRL SHY
1:10, 3:15, 5:20, 7:25*,
9:30
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 7:25 show of GIRL
SHY.
Recorded orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed, arranged
and conducted by Robert Israel at all other shows.
| ENDED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
(1924) Morning, afternoon and evening of “one of those days”:
Harold, with an armful of packages and a live turkey in a jampacked
streetcar; first spin in
the new Butterfly 6, with backseat
driving from the front seat
by Mother-in-Law-from-Hell;
and the dinnertime chloroform
mickey that goes awry.
Click here for more about HOT WATER
1:00, 4:00, 7:00*, 10:00
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 7:00 show.
Recorded orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed, arranged and conducted by
Robert Israel at all other shows.
(1938)
Egyptologist Lloyd finds himself on a 3,000-mile
chase from L.A. to N.Y. to
escape a fate foretold on an
ancient tablet. En route tries to change
clothes in a car with a drunken William Frawley, disguises his car as
a
tent, and runs atop railroad cars to escape an impending tunnel. Print
courtesy NBC Universal.
2:15, 5:15, 8:15
| ENDED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
(1922) Spineless coward Harold is inspired by grandma’s
magic talisman and his “hero” granddad — in a Civil
War flashback that reportedly inspired Keaton’s The General—
to finally take on the fearsome tramp terrorizing the
neighborhood. Re-shot to add gags to his first feature with
“heart,” this was Lloyd’s personal favorite. “One of
the best constructed screenplays I have ever seen.” – Chaplin.
Plus AN
EASTERN WESTERNER (1920). Harold is a blasé tenderfoot packed off to a ranch.
Click here for more about GRANDMA'S BOY
1:00, 4:25, 7:50*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 7:50 show of GRANDMA'S
BOY.
Recorded orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed, arranged and conducted
by Robert Israel at all other shows of GRANDMA'S BOY and at all shows of AN
EASTERN WESTERNER.
(1930) To impress his girl, ambitious shoe clerk Harold
Horne, graduate of the “Personality Plus” success course,
finds himself on a Hawaiian liner sans money, cabin, or
change of clothes — then in a mail sack on the side of a
downtown L.A. building, in a harrowing talkie remake of the
Safety Last thrill sequence.
2:35, 6:00, 9:30
| ENDED |
(1925) Eager-to-please frosh Harold introduces
himself with a nifty-keen jig, goes broke on soda shop treats, makes
the team as a tackling dummy, but finally gets his chance at the Big
Game. Harold’s satire of 20s college and football mania was his
biggest silent success. See the “sequel” on
May 12. “One of the
authentic comedy classics of the American screen.” – Andrew
Sarris.
Plus I DO (1921). Babysitter Harold invents new milk-feeding techniques.
Click here for more about THE FRESHMAN
1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30*, 9:30
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 7:30 show of THE FRESHMAN.
Recorded
orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed, arranged and conducted by Robert Israel
at all other shows of THE FRESHMAN and at all shows of I DO.
| ENDED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE (1926) “A man with a mansion — A miss with a mission.”
Zillionaire Harold nonchalantly wrecks a few of his roadsters,
then for love, proves a surprisingly effective recruiter for a
slum mission. With a chase climax — this time to his own
wedding. “A comedy of gags that follow upon each other with
amazing rapidity.” – New York Times.
2:05, 5:05, 8:05*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 8:05 show.
Recorded orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed, arranged and conducted by
Robert Israel at all other shows.
(1936, LEO MCCAREY) Lloyd essays 30s screwball
comedy as a mild-mannered Brooklyn milkman ballyhooed by promoter
Adolphe Menjou into a contender for the middleweight crown.
3:20, 6:20, 9:20
| ENDED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
(1922) Country doc “Jack” Jackson goes
on a house call to a sick doll, then releases “Sick-Little-Well-Girl” Mildred
Davis from the clutches of quack Ludvic von Saulsbourg — by
scaring the living daylights out of her.
Plus... Ten gallon-hatted Harold spoofs the Westerns of William
S. Hart in BILLY BLAZES, ESQ. (1919).
1:00, 4:25, 7:50*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 7:50 show of DOCTOR JACK.
Recorded orchestral score (Dolby Stereo) composed, arranged and conducted by
Robert Israel at all other shows of DOCTOR JACK and at all shows of BILLY
BLAZES, ESQ.
(1934, SAM TAYLOR) Lloyd’s most bizarre comedy is a blend of
30s idealism and proto-fascism, as naïve Chinese missionary’s
son Ezekiel Cobb is persuaded by a political machine to run for
mayor of a graft-ridden town. From a story by the author of
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.
2:25, 5:50, 9:15
| ENDED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK (1947, PRESTON STURGES) Icon of the 40s Sturges
directs Icon of the 20s Lloyd. Opening with The
Freshman’s football
finale, it then reveals Harold 22 years later
as a soon-to-be-fired dead-end
bookkeeper. But then, trying his
first drink ever, Harold suddenly
goes nuts. Produced by Howard
Hughes, who re-edited it and
re-released it as Mad Wednesday.
1:00, 3:50, 6:40, 9:40
(1921) Oblivious lounge lizard
Harold decides to “join your Navy,”
then finds himself saving his
sweetheart from a lascivious
sheik’s harem. Lloyd’s accidental first feature: intended
as a two-reeler, but test audiences howled all the way through the
four-reel rough cut. Print courtesy UCLA Film And Television Archive.
2:45, 5:35, 8:25*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 8:25 show.
Period music
compilation at all other shows.
(1929)
Mild-mannered botanist Harold Bledsoe — recruited
because dad was the former police chief — goes fingerprint
happy to help quell the San Francisco gang wars and track down
Chinatown dope kingpin The Dragon. Completed as a silent, but
scrapped when sound loomed, Welcome Danger was largely reshot
and turned into a weird part-talkie hybrid that, due to the
public’s fascination with hearing Lloyd’s voice for the first
time, became the comedian’s biggest money-maker ever. While the
original silent version is lost, the camera negative of a silent,
intertitled version of the talkie — made for “unwired”
theaters
— did survive in Harold Lloyd’s vaults for 75 years. This version
has now been restored by the UCLA Film And Television Archive in
a glowing print that looks like it was made yesterday (it may rate
as the best-preserved silent film in existence). But, photographic
brilliance apart, this silent version — although using much the
same footage as the talkie, plus some extended sequences and
a few minor cast differences — is a much brighter, much funnier,
much more alive work than the rather primitive sound film. As
UCLA’s Jere Guldin wrote recently, “Welcome Danger works
better as a silent. Snappier and better-paced than its sound
double, it proves an enjoyable coda to a silent film career that
was among the cinema’s brightest.” Suppose a lost Louis
Armstrong solo were suddenly to surface, or a number cut
from an Astaire-Rogers musical? For movie lovers, the
discovery of an unseen
silent feature by one of
the screen’s greatest
comic geniuses is cause
for equal celebration.
A SONY PICTURES
REPERTORY RELEASE
1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45*, 10:00
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner at 7:45 show.
All other shows feature new music composed and performed by Steve Sterner, recorded
and played back live on the Yamaha
Disklavier acoustic piano.
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SAFETY LAST