Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection Vol. 2

The second volume of the definitive Harold Lloyd collection in no way plays second banana to Vol. 1.
This splendid two-disc set might be the best of the three Lloyd
volumes, and on its own serves as a worthy introduction to one of silent
cinema’s comic geniuses. It has three of Lloyd’s finest features, Grandma’s Boy, <>The Freshman, and The Kid Brother, one of his funniest sound features, and a smorgasbord of topnotch shorter films.

The Freshman
(1925) presents Lloyd’s successful screen persona fully realized:
hopeful, plucky, a regular guy with high ambitions. He plays a college
plebe whose ridiculous ideas about making himself ingratiating to others
(including hilariously inapt jig during a handshake) makes him the
laughingstock of the campus. The movie concludes with a justifiably
famous football sequence, later excerpted by Preston Sturges for his
Lloyd-starring comedy, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. The Kid Brother (1927) is Harold as the weak link in the tough Hickory family, while Dr. Jack
(1922) casts him as a country doctor whose ordinary ways prove sharper
than they seem (his co-star, as in some other films here, is future wife
Mildred Davis). In Grandma’s Boy (1922) Lloyd plays a small-town
fellow who lives with his frisky grandmother; convinced of his own
cowardice, he yearns to compete for the hand of a pretty girl. His
courtly call to the girl’s home is the occasion for uproarious battle
with a ridiculous "formal" suit, mothballs, and a litter of kittens
attracted by the goose grease on his shoes. There’s also a long (and
quite funny) flashback to Lloyd’s ancestor, tangled in a Civil War
fracas.

The short films include Bumping Into Broadway (1919), which gives an early glimpse at Lloyd’s athleticism, and Billy Blazes, Esq. (1919), which puts Lloyd in the Old West. The gem is High and Dizzy (1920), a warm-up for his classic Safety Last (on Vol. 1), which has a great sequence with Lloyd tipsily navigating a ledge on a high building. Feet First
(1930), Lloyd’s second talking picture, has Harold as an
upwardly-striving shoe salesman trying to finesse his way up the ladder.
Some good shipboard sequences in the middle of this one, but the main
drawing card is a throwback: Lloyd re-visiting the Safety Last
hanging-from-a-building sequence, but this time working every variation
known to slapstick. It’s really funny, and shows his physical dexterity
to be undiminished (the bit is marred only by the insensitive racial
jokes at the expense of actor Willie Best, who is billed under his
wince-worthy performing name, Sleep ‘n Eat). Commentaries on two films
and lots of production stills round out the package, along with a short
doc about music for silent slapstick comedy.