This early Lloyd feature plays more like an extended short, but shows Lloyd beginning to grasp how to shape material for length and dramatic effect, not just slapstick hijinks. He plays a spoiled rich kid, which is never as sympathetic as when he plays the poor young go- getter, who falls for a tycoon's daughter but somehow winds up enlisting in the Navy at the same time. The early machinations to get him into the Navy aren't that good, fairly slapsticky teens-short stuff. (Mild spoilers ahead.)
For a reel or two the main plot is laboriously hauled into position, with both Lloyd and the girl sailing separately near the same papier-mache kingdom of an eastern Rajah, and friendship established between Lloyd and a big gorilla of a fellow sailor-- which is nothing special in itself, but the kind of quieter, character-driven stuff that features need to feel more substantial than short films.
Finally the girl is kidnapped by the rajah, and Lloyd comes to the rescue in antics rather reminiscent of his short Somewhere in Turkey. This part is fast-paced action with some of his most dexterous physical humor I've ever seen, and my kids and I laughed throughout the second half. A Sailor-Made Man may not be among Lloyd's stronger features, but it clearly shows him as an up-and-comer with the versatility to handle both physical slapstick and credible dramatic/romantic material, and no one who saw it then was likely surprised by the outstanding films that soon followed.
For a reel or two the main plot is laboriously hauled into position, with both Lloyd and the girl sailing separately near the same papier-mache kingdom of an eastern Rajah, and friendship established between Lloyd and a big gorilla of a fellow sailor-- which is nothing special in itself, but the kind of quieter, character-driven stuff that features need to feel more substantial than short films.
Finally the girl is kidnapped by the rajah, and Lloyd comes to the rescue in antics rather reminiscent of his short Somewhere in Turkey. This part is fast-paced action with some of his most dexterous physical humor I've ever seen, and my kids and I laughed throughout the second half. A Sailor-Made Man may not be among Lloyd's stronger features, but it clearly shows him as an up-and-comer with the versatility to handle both physical slapstick and credible dramatic/romantic material, and no one who saw it then was likely surprised by the outstanding films that soon followed.