Harold Lloyd - TCM "Star of the Month"

guy incognito · Apr 7, 2003

I actually had meant to post this a couple of days ago but forgot to. Last night they showed The Freshman, For Heaven's Sake, The Kid Brother, and probably my favorite Lloyd film, Speedy. Great, great stuff.

Link

TCM salutes comic genius of Harold Lloyd

By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — He made more films than Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton combined, but Harold Lloyd has always been a footnote among silent-film comedic geniuses. All because of an unfortunate decision.

But Sunday, Turner Classic Movies begins a four-week Lloyd retrospective, including all 11 of his full-length silent films from the 1920s as well as his five 1929-34 talkies and assorted shorts. Lloyd is TCM's "Star of the Month," the first silent star to ever receive that treatment.

"Refusing to show the movies on TV was probably not a wise decision," says Suzanne Lloyd, 50, Harold's granddaughter and host of the series. "It hurt him image-wise, because people didn't know who he was. But to be able to now show the films the right way, commercial-free, in restored prints with new scores. .. is exactly what he wanted."

TCM ran a sneak peek of Lloyd films last April. At the time, Suzanne, the president of the Harold Lloyd Trust, had been working with the UCLA Film and Television Archive to restore the prints and commission new scores for the films.

"They weren't all ready, but we wanted to get some exposure for the book, so TCM was nice enough to show some of the films." The book is the lavish coffee-table tome Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian (Abrams, $45), which she co-wrote last year with Jeffrey Vance. It is scheduled for a second printing this summer.

This month would have marked Lloyd's 110th birthday. The TCM festival begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT Sunday with The Freshman, which Suzanne Lloyd exhibited last May at UCLA with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra performing live. The event was hosted by silent film fan Dustin Hoffman, and attended by celebs such as John Cusack and Larry David.

Even to those who've never seen a silent film, the iconic image of the man in the straw hat and round glasses hanging off a 10-story clock tower (from Safety Last!) still resonates 80 years later. But in the book, Suzanne says it's The Freshman that was Harold's "finest film and arguably his funniest," as well as his most commercially successful.

To Chaplin's tramp and Keaton's sad sack, Lloyd was the eager-to-please young American go-getter, and in The Freshman he's determined to be big man on campus. Forces are against him, popularity-wise, until he makes good in a triumphant school football game.

Other highlights Sunday include The Kid Brother (10:30 p.m. ET), Lloyd's personal favorite, a Cinderella-type story about the black sheep of the family turning family opinion by the last reel and Speedy, (midnight ET) Lloyd's final silent feature, in which he tries to save the last horse-led streetcar in New York, and gets to meet his idol Babe Ruth in a Yankee Stadium cameo.

Some poor quality prints exist of limited Lloyd films on videocassette, and Suzanne Lloyd has been trying to cut a deal to produce the entire restored library on DVD, but has yet to find a manufacturer she is satisfied with.

Thus, she says she has stopped reading the messages she receives through her www.haroldlloyd.com Web site taking her to task for the non-DVD availability, "because it's just too painful."

Suzanne, an only child, was raised by her retired grandfather on Greenacres, the 18-acre Beverly Hills mansion Lloyd shared with his former leading lady and wife, Mildred. Her mother, after a divorce, fled to Switzerland.

Lloyd had made so much money from films, real estate and broadcasting investments that he didn't have to work. Suzanne was 19 when her grandfather died, and he left his films to her. Greenacres was later lost because of huge tax liabilities, but Suzanne has Lloyd's movies, photographs, posters and assorted other memorabilia in storage. She spends most waking minutes working on keeping her grandfather before the public.

"People need to know who he is," she says. "I need to carry the torch for him."

Entertainment Tonight's Leonard Maltin says that had Lloyd's films been as readily available as Chaplin's and Keaton's, "he never would have lost ground to them." Maltin's new newsletter, Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy, takes its name from Lloyd's first 1932 talkie.

Maltin introduced Lloyd's Girl Shy at a Los Angeles screening for silent film buffs recently, and talked about the joy of watching a movie that has nothing to do with digital effects.

"Today, we know it's computers and assume we're watching a trick," he says. "He used tricks too, but the tricks were invisible, and in some ways, his illusions were more convincing than anything you could do with computers."

Case in point: When posing for a publicity still for his film Haunted Spooks, Lloyd tried to light a prop bomb with a lit cigarette. The bomb turned out to have some explosive power, and it blew up in his hand, leaving him with just two fingers.

When he recovered from the trauma, he was fitted with a prosthetic glove. Lloyd climbed the building in Safety Last! without a stunt double or fake buildings. "Which makes his stunt work all the more astonishing," says Maltin.
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Steve Hoffman · Apr 7, 2003

I watched some last night. Nice new prints. Beautiful looking!

He was a nice guy I hear and I love to watch his stunts!

Read a book by Kevin Brownlow called "The Parade's Gone By" if you want to find out more about Silent Films. Published in 1968 when interest in the old films was nil. It's the best book ever written about them, by the best and most wonderful champion of the silent film. Kevin Brownlow is a restoration hero of mine!

Ed Bishop · Apr 7, 2003

Originally posted by Steve Hoffman
I watched some last night. Nice new prints. Beautiful looking!

He was a nice guy I hear and I love to watch his stunts!

Read a book by Kevin Brownlow called "The Parade's Gone By" if you want to find out more about Silent Films. It's the best book ever written about them, by the best and most wonderful champion of the silent film. Kevin Brownlow is a restoration hero of mine!
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I'm sorry I missed them . Well, the DVD's will have to come, and hopefully TCM will rebroadcast some.

I have a Lloyd book on 3-D photography; apparently, long after he went out of vogue in Hollywood, he became an ace photographer and did much 3-D work, mostly for his own amusement.

Brownlow is a great writer: I have his David Lean biography, which is an incredible read. I've written down that title, Steve, something for my lazy library to track down.

ED

Beatlelennon65 · Apr 7, 2003

What is it going to take to get these released on DVD? I have never seen any of these movies but I would love to rent/buy them. It's crazy that they are not on DVD.

guy incognito · Apr 7, 2003

TCM's schedule for the rest of the Lloyd films being shown this month can be found here.

Thanks for the book recommendation, Mr. H. I'll have to try and dig up a copy somewhere.

Michael · Apr 7, 2003

Man I wish I had an HD recorder and cable...Heck, I'd be happy and TRILLED to have these on VHS...I really love hs stuff! Absolutely incredible!

Ere · Apr 8, 2003

Originally posted by Steve Hoffman
He was a nice guy I hear and I love to watch his stunts!

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My Mom told me that she got to meet him around 1956 at a retrospective of some of his films in LA and that he was as charming as could be, also very handsome in person.

His granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd edited a book of his stereo still photography, 3-D Hollywood, filled with his shots of Hollywood and other celebs. It also includes another one of Marilyn in a negligee about to put a record on a little portable player ... I'll scan it and post if I can dig it out...

Ere

Evan L · Apr 8, 2003

One of the "Three Greats" of silent film comedy(the others being, of course, Chaplin and Keaton). Some of his short films are among the finest of the 1920's. Brilliant, inventive, and the only silent comedian "normal guy", he truly was one of the greatest comedians of his time.

guy incognito · Apr 13, 2003

The Lloyd showcase continues tonight with several of his talkie titles. They just showed The Milky Way, probably his best sound film, and now they're starting Welcome Danger, his first-ever talkie. Tonight is the first time this title is being shown to the public since its initial theatrical release in 1929!

Lloyd's sound films don't nearly approach the level of his silents, but give TCM credit for insuring that no facet of his career goes unexplored this month.

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Harold Lloyd - TCM "Star of the Month"

guy incognito Senior Member Thread Starter

Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

Beatlelennon65 Active Member

guy incognito Senior Member Thread Starter

Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

Ere Senior Member

Evan L Beatologist

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Harold Lloyd - TCM "Star of the Month"

guy incognito Senior Member Thread Starter

Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

Beatlelennon65 Active Member

guy incognito Senior Member Thread Starter

Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

Ere Senior Member

Evan L Beatologist

guy incognito Senior Member Thread Starter

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