One thing I just don't get about this otherwise charming Lloyd film: why do they show the sailors dancing with each other? Any way you look at it, it's bizarre. Have they been at sea too long? Though I doubt if Lloyd was gay (he was a legendary Lothario who photographed nude starlets in 3D), the heavy white makeup, heavily made-up eyes (making them slightly "bedroomy", which women loved) and bee-kissed lips were somewhat androgynous. When Joel Grey chose his makeup palette for Cabaret, I wonder if he consciously or unconsciously was influenced by Lloyd. Also, I am always amazed at the fact that Lloyd in person really didn't resemble his character. He was good-looking in a fine-featured Montgomery Clift sort of way, but his facial expressions were completely different. His brother Gaylord looked more like "the Boy" than Harold did! This wasn't just due to makeup and glasses; I am sure it was done from the inside. His slow-blooming facial expressions (in Why Worry?, when he discovers Jobyna Ralson in his lap, and Never Weaken, when he realizes he is on a beam 30 stories up) are what make him so brilliant. I don't think anyone else in comedy was that subtle. He seemed to know that a closeup was extremely intimate. And what is it with women swooning over him, I mean women NOW? I see messages plastered all over the 'net about how much they love him and wish they could be with him. Now THAT's magic.
Review of A Sailor-Made Man
