Marinheiro de Água Doce (1921)

An idle, wealthy playboy foolishly joins the Navy when the father of the girl he wants to marry tells him to get a job to prove himself worthy.

Director:

Fred C. Newmeyer (as Fred Newmeyer)

Writers:

Hal Roach (story), Sam Taylor (story)

Stars:

Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Noah Young

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Harold Lloyd	...	The Boy
Mildred Davis	...	The Girl
Noah Young	...	The Rowdy Element
Dick Sutherland	...	Maharajah of Khairpura-Bhandanna

Storyline

When The Girl's father insists that, before he will agree to The Boy's marrying his daughter, he must first prove that he can do something more worthwhile than act the playboy. He joins the navy. When his ship docks at a Middle Eastern kingdom, The Girl and her father also arrive by yacht. The local maharajah kidnaps The Girl and it is up to The Boy to rescue her.

---

Plot Keywords:

ship | rescue | sailor | port | street fight | 

---

Genres:

Comedy

---

Did You Know?

Trivia

Both Lloyd and Hal Roach would haul the initial cuts of their films to theaters in the outskirts of Los Angeles for unannounced test screenings. They would carefully gauge the reactions of these audiences to individual scenes and re-cut the films accordingly. This film was unusual in that it was conceived as a 2-reel short but the 4-reel (just over 40 minutes) first cut tested so strongly with the test audience they were loathe to cut any of it. By audience default, it became his first feature-length comedy, by accident.

---

Goofs

When The Girl takes the cigar away from the old woman on the streets of Khairpura-Bhandanna, she turns and sees Harold approaching; she then immediately reaches out her arms to embrace him and she's holding the cigar in her right hand. In the next shot, as she has her arms around Harold's neck, the cigar is now in her left hand.

---

Quotes

The Steele Magnet: Invite your friends for a long cruise on my yacht. I'm going so far from business I won't even hear a wrong telephone number.

---

Connections

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

User Reviews

Charm Added To The Humor

This is Harold Lloyd's first "longer" film, going far longer than what was usual at the time (20-28 minutes per movie) but it moves as fast as movies half the length.

I haven't labeled too many of his films "charming," but that might fit here: charming and funny, of course. It has the usual silent-film wild ending that most feature silent comedies had. Instead of some streets, we have a chase through the Rajah's palace (including a pool) with all kinds of slapstick gags in the mix.

Earlier, rich-boy Harold becomes a common Navy sailor and the scenes on the ship, although not laugh-out-loud comedy, are in that charming category as the big bully seaman winds up being Harold's friend and fan.

All in all, without going into the whole story, it's simply a nice movie: nothing spectacular but definitely worth watching.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

None English

Release Date:

21 January 1925 (Portugal)

Also Known As:

Marinheiro de Água Doce

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hal Roach Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

46 min (2002 restoration) 47 min (Turner library print)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1