Dunces and Dangers (1918) User Reviews

A Skyscraper Thrill Comedy a Year Before Harold Lloyd's First

[tonstant viewer · 10/10 · 6 January 2011]

This one-reel comedy will have you screaming and sweating, as Larry Semon and his girl are chased up and down the sides of buildings, fighting heavies on rooftop ledges, skittering across rickety bridges in mid-air and see-sawing on ladders over the city far below.

Hans Koenekamp was the cinematographer, and he later became senior visual effects wizard at Warner Brothers. This short will help show you why.

And it's all a full year before Harold Lloyd stepped out on a ledge for the first time.

Highly recommended.

Pretty crazy stuff from Semon--and a lot of fun.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 3 September 2012]

I do not know if there is a better quality print out there, but the public domain copy I found was in terrible shape—very fuzzy and a bit crooked at times.

Larry and his wife are desperately poor—with no food. However, the butcher and grocer show up to collect money they are owed and they won't take no for an answer. They are ready to take anything and everything and eventually chase the pair up onto the room—where various stunts occur. These stunts are pretty common for a Larry Semon film and the building stunts look pretty dangerous—and predate Harold Lloyd's famous building walking stunts in "Safety Last". Lloyd's are better performed (they managed to make them look more realistic) and the film is funnier, but Semon scored a success in this slapstick short—one that should be remembered today. Well worth seeing and with a cute finale.