An Eastern Westerner (1920)

Director:

Hal Roach

Writers:

Frank Terry (writer)
H.M. Walker (titles)

Release Date:

2 May 1920 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short | Family | Western

Plot:

Blase eastern boy is shipped off to a ranch in the 'wild west ' by his father.

Plot Keywords:

Two Reeler | Dancing | Cheating At Cards | Mistaken Identity | Saloon

Cast

Harold Lloyd	...	The Boy
Mildred Davis	...	The Girl
Noah Young	...	Tiger Lip Tompkins, The Bully, Leader of the Masked Angels
James T. Kelley		(as Jim Kelley)
Sammy Brooks
Mark Jones
Wallace Howe

Runtime:

20 min | USA:23 min | USA:24 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

UK:U

Filming Locations:

Hal Roach Studios - 8822 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Rolin Films

Trivia:

Shortly before this film was made, Harold Lloyd was involved in an accident where a "prop" bomb exploded as he held it in his hand. Lloyd lost his thumb and index finger on his right hand in the explosion. The Goldwyn family had a flesh-colored prosthetic glove made for him so that he could continue his movie work. In many scenes in this movie, you will note that Lloyd's right hand is deliberately not being used. Furthermore, with some of the stunts Lloyd performs, it's difficult to tell that he is handicapped at all!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Keepers of the Frame (1999)

One of Harold's best short comedies

Anyone who wonders why Harold Lloyd was so popular during the 1920s should take a look at this film: it's one of the most satisfying short comedies he ever made. AN EASTERN WESTERNER is consistently clever and amusing, well-paced and packed with gags right down to the final fade-out. What's more, Harold himself is charming in every scene, displaying just the right blend of self-assurance, exuberance and humility. I must confess I find Harold a little hard to take in some of his early comedies --sometimes he's so aggressive he borders on obnoxiousness-- but here he's an appealing figure from the opening sequence onward, growing ever more sympathetic as the story rolls along.

AN EASTERN WESTERNER gives us exactly what the title promises, an out-of-place dude forced to deal with life in the wild & woolly West. There's a girl [of course] and a bully [ditto], and it all culminates in a chase. Harold follows in the footsteps of Douglas Fairbanks, whose 1917 comedy appropriately titled WILD AND WOOLLY follows a similar scenario. But although he's a Metropolitan guy, Harold (like Doug before him) is no bonehead, and it's refreshing to see that he quickly applies his smarts to the situation at hand and manages to come out on top. At the same time, he's no smart aleck. When his attempts to impress leading lady Mildred Davis backfire and she laughs at him, Harold is big enough to join in and laugh at himself, and we like him for it. This likability wasn't always present in Lloyd's earlier films, where gags were all-important and his behavior was sometimes callous. In AN EASTERN WESTERNER, Harold has graduated from clown to hero.

Beyond its value as a laugh-provoker this movie might also be of interest to fans of early Westerns, for the filmmakers appear to have taken pains with production details to a degree that is surprising in a two-reel comedy. This really looks like a Western! The town of Piute Pass (where, we're told, "it's considered bad form to shoot the same man twice in the same day") is as genuinely dusty and rough-looking as the town of Hell's Hinges, and the bully of Piute Pass could appear in a William S. Hart epic without having to change costume. Sequences in the saloon involving fighting, card-playing and dancing could be excerpted and passed off as clips from "real" Westerns of the era. These gratifying details are merely a bonus, for this pleasant comedy is already well worth seeing.