|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Harold Lloyd's place as the "third genius" of silent comedy (with Chaplin and Keaton) should be cemented by the release of his best work in splendid prints on DVD. The Harold Lloyd Collection, Vol. 1, a two-disc set, leads off with the most famous of Lloyd's pictures, the 1923 "thrill" comedy Safety Last. The bespectacled Mr. Lloyd found his spot in comedy by playing the persona seen here: an optimistic go-getter, energetic but not particularly remarkable, who perseveres as he moves up the ladder. In Safety Last, he really moves up: Harold is a department store clerk who concocts a publicity scheme for his store, which results in a climactic, hair-raising ascent up the outside of the building (at one point hanging from the hands of a huge clock). The ingenious shooting of the sequence--no rear projection of digital effects here--made audiences gasp at Lloyd's apparent peril. (His acrobatic stunts are all the more remarkable when you realize that Lloyd lost two fingers on his right hand in a 1919 publicity stunt involving a prop bomb).
There is at least one other masterpiece on Vol. 1, the wonderful Girl Shy (1924), in which Harold is a small-time tailor's apprentice who can't speak to women but nevertheless has penned a how-to book entitled The Secret of Making Love. A stream of terrific gags (look for how Lloyd employs a dog on a train) and a nice love story blend smoothly, and the movie has an extended chase sequence using car, horse, streetcar, motorcycle, and firetruck. There's also the 1923 Why Worry?, Lloyd's last feature with longtime producer Hal Roach, which suffers just a bit with its odd milieu (tropical island beset by revolutionaries) but has some hilariously weird routines built around compact Harold and the giant John Aasen (8 feet, 9 inches).
A trio of shorter films are included, including 1920's From Hand to Mouth, which puts Lloyd in a Chaplinesque down-and-out situation. A new nine-minute featurette, Harold's Hollywood: Then and Now, visits Hollywood location sites from Lloyd films. Indeed, one of the pleasures of watching Lloyd's films is his outdoorsy use of 1920s L.A. locations and outmoded vehicles such as streetcars. Two Paramount sound features are also here, the oddball Cat's Paw and the entertaining The Milky Way. The latter has Harold as a milkman who boxes his way to a title fight; the comedian's spirit jibes well with the breezy direction of Leo McCarey.
Lloyd was a canny businessman who kept control of his own films, which is one reason most of these prints look so good. His estate, and granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd, were closely involved in assembling these treasures. --Robert Horton
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Harold Lloyd Still Thrills Audiences,
This review is from: Lloyd;Harold V1 Comedy Collect (DVD)
Harold Lloyd is sometimes forgotten by modern day film buffs, but he was a giant in his heyday. This collection features his most famous silent film, Safety Last! from 1923. Its human-fly building-climbing scene still makes the heart jump no matter how often one watches it. This really is a must-see film.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.9 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews) 27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific intro to Lloyd, but the whole set is a better value,
By Donald Rogers - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Lloyd;Harold V1 Comedy Collect (DVD)
Volume 1 of the 3-volume Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection includes Lloyd's best-remembered thrill comedy, Safety Last!, which is on no account to be missed. However, the complete 7-disc collection is priced very attractively -- at just a little more than double the cost of the 2-disc Volume 1, it is probably the better value.
Volume 1 ======= Disc 1: Girl Shy (1924) Safety Last! (1923) w/ commentary by Leonard Maltin and director Richard Correll An Eastern Westerner (1920) Ask Father (1919) From Hand to Mouth (1919) Disc 2: The Milky Way (1936) The Cat's Paw (1934) Why Worry? (1923) Featurette "Harold's Hollywood: Then and Now" 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A rare chance to see (and own) Safety Last among other Lloyd rarities,
By K. Corn "reviewer" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Lloyd;Harold V1 Comedy Collect (DVD)
How often does an opportunity like this come along? Not only to get a chance to see Harold Lloyd in action, one of the classic film comedians of all time, extremely popular in his day, but to see a movie like Safety Last, a film which wasn't even seen by that many people - EVER? To own a copy of the film...when I learned of that possibility, I truly felt shivers run up my spine.
Many people HAVE seen the classic photo of a man hanging from the face of a clock, high above a city. Consider that this photo, taken from the film, was created BEFORE the days of special effects which are so easily created for movies today. Think about HOW this scene was filmed. Many have argued that Lloyd put himself in terrible danger to create some of those scenes, that he simply had to, that there was no way to create them otherwise. See what you think. But first, simply sit back and enjoy the films themselves. Try to imagine living in the days when Harold Lloyd films came out, if you can. Try not to compare him to Chaplin or Keaton but experience him as the unique genius he was. I think his films are wonderful, even when judged by the preferences of today's filmgoers. And be grateful that you have the opportunity to add this set of films to YOUR collection. Truly a must for film buffs and historians, not to mention anyone who simply wants to experience something very different from the films shown today. Amazon lists the films in this series and other reviewers have listed the plots of those films so I'm simply urging you to get this collection (or the more extensive collection that is available as well) while you can. 12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Side-splitting Silents! Terrible Talkies,
By R. Houck - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Lloyd;Harold V1 Comedy Collect (DVD)
Two of the Lloyd films in this set, Milky Way and Cat's-Paw are talkies from the 1930's. The other six are silent films from the late teens to mid twenties.
I thought the talkies were truly awful, entirely forgettable. Lloyd's voice is high and annoying, and these films are dramas although with a few funny moments. Lloyd is entirely a fish out of water here, as one of the best silent comedians of the 20's is attempting to do talking dramas in the 30's. All of the manic energy of his 20's films is missing. The silent films are great fun, however, and run around 4 1/2 hours. So, they alone make this package a good deal. Lloyd constantly gets into jams, and watching him wriggle out is very entertaining. The picture quality of these and other Lloyd silents I've seen is extremely good - the best I've ever seen for films this old. The musical scores fit the movies very well. Safety Last - most readers of this review will probably be familiar with Back to the Future. The scene where Doc Brown is hanging from the clocktower with his right hand and grabbing for an extension cord with his left hand looks based on a similar scene in Safety Last, although Lloyd is grasping for a rope rather than an extension cord. The shots of 1920's Los Angeles are fascinating. |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Movies & TV > Action & Adventure > Comic Action
- Movies & TV > Classics > Comedy
- Movies & TV > Classics > Kids & Family
- Movies & TV > Classics > Silent Films > Comedy
- Movies & TV > Classics > Westerns
- Movies & TV > Comedy > Classic Comedies
- Movies & TV > Kids & Family > Classics
- Movies & TV > Westerns > Classics
- Movies & TV > Westerns > Romance
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
