Tonight's movie was the silent film "Speedy" (1928), my first Harold Lloyd movie. Lloyd was the third great comedian of the Silent Era, along with Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, and though Lloyd may be somewhat lesser known nowdays than the other two, in his time he was actually the Box Office Champ. His films outgrossed even Chaplin's over the course of his career. As with Buster, before we began his retrospective at CSUN, I knew little about Harold Lloyd other than that he was the guy who hung off the face of that clock tower, many stories in the air, in that famous old movie. He was the handsome-but-goofy guy with the round black glasses from old Hollywood.
But seeing Buster Keaton's movies for the first time really opened my eyes to the genius of these early film stars, and not only for their comedic skills but for their filmmaking skills in an era when all the filmmakers were still learning - how to move a camera, how to edit an action scene, how to maintain continuity of motion. All that stuff and more.
By the late 20s, feature length motion pictures had only been around for 15 years or so, and when you go back to the short films of Buster and Lloyd, and before them Fatty Arbuckle, we are talking pre-1920, and so there was nothing to copy from, no "bar" to reach for or jump over. Filmmakers had to learn editing, camera movement, continuity and mise-en-scene from scratch. This makes it even more impressive when you see an elaborate action and stunt scene in a Keaton film, and now tonight in a Harold Lloyd film too.
Grimsley came over to watch it with me; I got the movie from the Libe as usual. The Criterion restoration print was very clean. And Harold Lloyd? Well, he is outstanding. An entirely different onscreen presence than Buster Keaton. Buster always begins his films somewhat downcast, always dignified, and then rising to whatever challenge presents itself.
Harold Lloyd, at least from the one film I've seen him in, is presented almost as a rebel. He is handsome (as was Buster in an unconventional way) and he looks like a college preppie from the era. But he is out to do things his own way from the get go, undermining anyone who tries to stop him, especially cops. Cops were always the foil in silent movies. You know how Hijinx Usually Ensue? Well, in "Speedy", Mayhem Ensues. Lloyd is a guy who can't keep a job and doesn't care to. First he is a Soda Jerk, then a Taxi Driver, both with disastrous results. He says "screw it" and takes his girlfriend to Coney Island for a fun time. It is very cool to see that legendary amusement park from almost 100 years ago in a clean black and white print. Once again we see how modern the early 20th century was, and then I remind myself that it really wasn't that long ago. 1928 was only 32 years before I was born, and here I am (as we all are) in the Most Modern Of All Eras.
Harold Lloyd finally has to Man Up in "Speedy" in order to save his girfriend's grandfather from financial ruin. The old man owns a horse-drawn trolley line that is in jeopardy from brand new railway companies who want to put him out of business. It falls on the energetic Lloyd to keep the horse trolley running and thus to stave off the scheming railroad magnates.
With the help of a hyperactive dog, he does just that. The last half hour of this film is an action packed series of conflicts and chase scenes that are truly spectacular even by today's standards, and are simply amazing considering they were created 89 years ago.
To even the most ardent modern movie fan, the prospect of watching Silent films can seem daunting. You think, "yeah, I'm sure they're good films......but they're Silent, and really old". That was my feeling exactly before I dipped my toes in the water for my first Silent movies. I began with horror (of course, haha), watching stuff like "Nosferatu" and "Vampyr", and then moving on to Fritz Lang's "Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler". That one was four hours long, so I watched it over two nights, but it was so good that it cemented in me the knowledge that I could "do" Silent Movies.
We live in the Sound Era, at a time when movies are more technically sophisticated than ever, so for us, Silent Movies are always gonna be an acquired taste. But if you give them a chance, if you even try watching one, you might find that they are easier to watch then you thought. That's what happened with me. I still didn't watch a lot of them, but then we had this Buster Keaton retrospective at CSUN, and that has opened the floodgates, at least partway.
Most movies I will watch will always be sound films because that is how films have been made since 1929. But now, I am not only no longer averse to watching Silent Films, but in the case of the early comedians, I want to watch them all. We are seeing most of Buster's films at CSUN, and now - after seeing "Speedy" at home tonight - I'm gonna have to see all of Harold Lloyd's as well.
He is a riot, just like Buster Keaton. These guys were the truly off-the-wall comedians who started it all, and their work not only holds up 100 years later but is still strikingly original. ////
So that's my take on Lloyd, after one film, and on Silents in general. :):)
Elizabeth, I hope you had a good day, if you are still reading. I mean, I know you are still reading - I just don't know if you read every day, or just once in a while. Some days I don't see any FB posts, but of course I know you are not only busy but still setting up your life in a new city.
But the main point is that I hope you had a good day. :):)
Hope things are going well, too.
I have been re-energized a bit by the letter I got from the CIA, and it's hard to understand unless you are me, but I feel like "finally"! the door is open......just a crack.....towards an answer, in my 20 year quest for answers, about what happened to me in September 1989.
One day, maybe even a hundred years from now, it might be known worldwide, and if not "common knowledge" then at least known to people who are interested in such things (i.e the Secrets of The World), and accessible to anyone who cares to look.
I have lived almost half of my life not knowing why something happened to me.
Something extreme, and very far off the radar of anything normal.
The friends in my life who were part of the experience have always denied it, to me and to themselves. They have chosen to live in the Dreamland in which they believe or disbelieve it happened.
I have known, for certain since 1993, that What Happened In Northridge actually did happen.
There is no Dreamland. There is only Real Life. And in Real Life, there are only two possibilities for things that are said to occur.
Either they happened, or they didn't happen. There is no in between, there is no foggy Dreamland, except in sleep. But not in real life.
I know this.
The CIA knows this.
I hope my friends know it, the ones who were there in 1989.
I feel as if something is Turning, like a giant that has been buried in the Earth. I feel that it is up to me now, more than ever, to be persistent, and to not drop the ball.
Just to be steady, and to keep writing letters, thinking them out in advance, what I want to ask, what I want to say, using precise language to respond with, in concordance with the ultra-legalistic way in which the CIA (and FBI, et al) words their replies to requests for information.
The main thing is that there is no turning back from this point. No more letting years pass by between lacadaisical, half-hoping request letters.
Now I have got to go forward and keep at it, and I will.
See you in the morning.
SB, post if you can. :):)
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