From Hand to Mouth (1919)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Directors:

Alfred J. Goulding
Hal Roach

Writer:

H.M. Walker (title designer)

Release Date:

28 December 1919 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short | Action

Plot:

A penniless young man tries to save an heiress from kidnappers and help her secure her inheritance.

Plot Keywords:

Will | Inheritance | Dog | Rescue | Police Chase

Cast

Harold Lloyd	...	The Boy
Mildred Davis	...	The Girl
Peggy Cartwright	...	The Waif (as Peggy Courtwright)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
'Snub' Pollard	...	The Kidnapper (as Harry Pollard)

Runtime:

USA:22 min (Turner library print) | USA:24 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Rolin Films

Trivia:

First pairing of Harold Lloyd and future wife, Mildred Davis.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "American Masters: Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius" (1989)

One of Harold Lloyd's best two-reelers...

From Hand To Mouth is one of Harold Lloyd's best short comedies. The character that Harold plays in From Hand To Mouth is of course the boy with the glasses, however, he is rather Chaplinesque in scenes such as Harold looking through the café window and showing affection towards a waif played by Peggy Cartwright. The film also marks the debut of Mildred Davis in a Lloyd film. Four years later after Harold and Mildred made several great comedies together, they got hapilly married. Harold's first important leading lady, Bebe Daniels, had now left Lloyd to join Cecil B. DeMille. From Hand To Mouth was Harold's third two-reel comedy and one of his most successful. Harry ‘Snub' Pollard again provides a great deal of laughs as he always did in the early Lloyd comedies. In From Hand To Mouth, ‘Snub' plays a kidnapper who with his gang kidnaps Mildred and Harold must somehow save her. However, Harold in fact joins up with the gang before finally rescuing Mildred. Mildred Davis was great as Harold's leading lady in the film and so she stayed with Harold for the rest of her life. In From Hand To Mouth, Harold also tries to shake off his influence of Charles Chaplin and so he creates some great comic routines including chase sequences and messing around with policemen. One of the best scenes in the film is where Harold first gets tricked by bending over to pick up a wallet on the sidewalk and a kid drags it away with a string. Then on another street, Harold notices another wallet on the sidewalk but does not pick it up so not to be embarrassed. As he glances around the corner to see if there is anyone mischievous there, another fellow comes and picks up the wallet, which has heaps of money in it. Then in a brilliant tracking shot, Harold follows the fellow who picked up the wallet so that Harold can have it for it is he who found it. This sequence inspired Buster Keaton's 1924 comedy Sherlock Jr. In one scene in Sherlock Jr. Keaton follows his nemesis in the same style as Lloyd did in From Hand To Mouth.

From Hand To Mouth is one of Harold Lloyd's best films and deserves an 8 out of 10.