Director: Sam Taylor
Cast: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Oscar Smith, Noah Young
Have I Seen It Before: Never.
Did I Like It: There’s a moment in Modern Times (1936) where Chaplin as the Tramp roller skates through a remodeling department store. You’ve probably seen the shot. It looks like he’s about to die a horrible death about a half dozen times. To my mind, it was always one of the more daring slapstick stunts put on film.
And then somebody had to do a Youtube video explaining how he did it. Chaplin was never in danger, and it’s a simple illusion using an optical printer. I wished I hadn’t watched it, but now I have and the illusion is always going to be a little bit less. It’s a big reason I try not to engage in any extended conversation with a magician. It just leads to heartache.
That’s the beauty part about this film, as well. There are a great number of times I’m watching this film and I’m thinking, “Thank God John Landis wasn’t working in the 1920s*. Otherwise, a lot more people would have died.” Also, a perfectly reasonable complimentary reaction would be, “Imagine what Lloyd and Co. could do now/Imagine what Tom Cruise would have done had he been in the 1920s.” People dangle off cars in mid-chase. They jump off of said moving vehicles, only to jump back on them. People don’t fall, no matter how much my previous understanding of gravity makes me want to believe that they will. It’s thrilling, you know? To see people disregard their safety for my entertainment, regardless of the decade. It might be the most pure thrill that the cinema can pull off.
Please, please don’t tell me how they managed to pull it off here. It’ll bum me out.
*Or, for that matter, the 2020s, but that’s probably not pertinent to this discussion and more of a reflection of Blues Brothers 2000 (1998).