Safety Last! (1923)

A store clerk organizes a publicity stunt in which a friend climbs the outside of a tall building.

Directors:

Fred C. Newmeyer (as Fred Neymeyer), Sam Taylor

Writers:

Hal Roach (story), Sam Taylor (story)

Stars:

Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Harold Lloyd	...	Harold - The Boy
Mildred Davis	...	Mildred, The Girl
Bill Strother	...	Bill, The Pal
Noah Young	...	The Law
Westcott Clarke	...	The Floorwalker (as Westcott B. Clarke)

Storyline

In 1922, the country boy Harold says goodbye to his mother and his girlfriend Mildred in the train station and leaves Great Bend expecting to be successful in the big city. Harold promises to Mildred to get married with her as soon as he "make good". Harold shares a room with his friend "Limpy" Bill and he finally gets a job as salesman in the De Vore Department Store. However, he pawns Bill's phonograph, buys a lavaliere and writes to Mildred telling that he is a manager of De Vore. One day, Harold sees an old friend from Great Bend that is a policeman and when he meets his friend Bill, he asks Bill to push the policeman over him and make him fall down. However Bill pushes the wrong policeman that chases him, but he escapes climbing up a building. Out of the blue, Mildred is convinced by her mother to visit Harold without previous notice and he pretends to be the manager of De Vore. When Harold overhears the general manager telling that he would give one thousand dollars to to anyone...

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Plot Keywords:

department store | publicity stunt | human fly | man with glasses | national film registry | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 April 1923 (USA)

Also Known As:

El hombre mosca

Filming Locations:

Atlantic Hotel, Broadway, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$121,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$623,809, 31 December 1923

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hal Roach Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

70 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Closing night film of the 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

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Goofs

When "the boy" receives his paycheck from the store employee, he opens it to see his pay stub, and on it is the name "Harold Lloyd" which is the name of the actor, but is not supposed to be the name of the character. The character, as in most of his films, is only supposed to be known as "the boy". It is the only incident in Harold Lloyd's entire film career in which he plays a character using his true name. The scene was edited in without Lloyds knowledge, and didn't become aware of it until the movie was complete.

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Quotes

Harold - The Boy: [Pretending to be the General Manager] STUBBS. - - I don't wish to be annoyed by any more of your petty complaints about personal appearance - - You know, you're no collar ad, yourself.

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Connections

Featured in The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies (1995)

User Reviews

Without a Net

One of the best contructed full-length comedies of the twenties. Harold Lloyd was not as outrageously inventive as Chaplin, nor as sentimental. His style was a kind of minimalist one, taking a simple idea -- say, being a hasseled salesman in a clothing store and needing desperately to become a success -- and building on that small situation until, by the hilarious climax, he finds himself swinging from the bent minute hand of an oversized clock on the side of a building many stories above the street. (Human flies were popular around this time, as were flagpole sitters and goldfish eaters.) When a mouse crawls up the leg of his trousers, not only does Loyd go through a sort of break dance trying to get rid of it but when he finally does shake it out, the mouse falls down the wall of the building and in the process removes a toupee from a spectator peering out of a lower window. All of this without matte work. Not to say that the earlier scenes in the store aren't extremely amusing, because they are. Loyd had a very mobile face and like most silent comedians a deft physical manner. He makes a splendidly fawning salesman. A very funny movie indeed, and thrilling as well. Any five minutes of the climax, taken at random, makes one dizzier than whole sections of Clint Eastwood or Sylvester Stallone hanging around the Eiger or elsewhere in the Alps. Somehow, Loyd managed to make a self-deprecatory joke out of his athletic skill, while nowadays stars use what amount of it they have as an opportunity to show off their bravery and, when possible, their bulging muscles. Let's hear it for the silents.