What Harold Lloyd may have lacked in the raw comedic talent and creative genius departments, he made up for in guts. For Chaplin and Keaton, his Silent Era contemporaries, comedy and filmmaking instinct came naturally. Lloyd had to work harder at it, and in doing so sometimes took more risks. In 1923, Lloyd would take the biggest risk of all, and in doing so create one of the most iconic images of the 1920s. You’re probably familiar with the image – a bespectacled young man hanging from a clock face several stories above the traffic below – even if you’re not sure of its origin. That is Harold Lloyd up there on the side of that building – and the film is Safety Last!
The film opens with a great trick shot of The Boy (Lloyd) behind bars and about to be hanged. Suffice to say he escapes the noose, but I’ll leave it for you to see how. From there, it takes about 50 minutes for Safety Last! to get to its thrilling and climactic wall-crawl. Until then, we follow The Boy, a youngster from the small town of Great Bend who’s relocated to the big city to make his fortune. If he can make good, he’ll send for his sweetheart back home (The Girl, played by Mildred Davis – Lloyd’s real-life wife until her death in 1969). Trouble is, the work he’s found is unglamorous, tiresome, and doesn’t pay well. He consistently complicates things by sending daily letters to his darling filled with tales of wealth and success. When she shows up for an unexpected visit, the heat is on.
The first part of the film is funny, but not in league with Chaplin or Keaton. Lloyd is likable and has good timing, but his gags (or maybe his character) don’t incite the guffaws of the other silent greats. While Lloyd’s Boy (or Glasses, as he was otherwise known) was relatable to audiences as an everyman trying to make good, he lacked the delicate and ethereal quality possessed by his comedic contemporaries. He lived on planet Earth and played by the laws of nature that The Tramp or Keaton’s Great Stone Face weren’t necessarily beholden to. This is not meant to sell Lloyd short. He was a hell of a talent – just one of a different sort.
Then comes the big climb. As someone who suffers vertigo from looking over the railing at the mall, Safety Last! has me reeling. Nearly 100 years later and it is still not for the faint of heart. Some clever camera angles and the occasional stunt double for the two or three long shots were used, but for the most part, it’s Lloyd up there without a net. With every story climbed something new goes wrong. The danger increases with each foot and so does the anticipation and anxiety. Pigeons, guard dogs, angry cops, and broken clocks all do their part to stop our hero from reaching the summit – and they nearly do time and again. The penalty for failure is death – and not in the figurative sense. It is an absolutely thrilling experience.
The title of the film is a clear play on the slogan “Safety First,” and an apt one at that. In 1923, there was no way to shoot the sequence safely. Lloyd has said that for some shots there was some scaffolding with a mattress on it a few stories below to catch him should he fall. Can you imagine that? You’re several stories in the air and a mattress 10 or 20 feet down is supposed to save your life. Insane.
Strangely, everyone involved in the sequence seems to downplay its hazards in later interviews and writings. I guess that’s how things were done in 1923 – just another day at the office. Today, with the benefit of hindsight, CGI, and even the slightest sense of self-preservation, it’s very easy to see the madness of what Lloyd pulled off. He not only worked hard for his comedy, but he also risked his life for it.
I’m not saying I think actors should go to the lengths Lloyd did in Safety Last! but because he did, it’s hard not to compare subsequent attempts at “death-defying” stunt work to his accomplishment. The funny thing is, in 1923 had anyone yet figured out how to safely pull off the stunt, they probably would have done so. The last thing anyone wanted was their biggest star splattered all over a busy Los Angeles intersection. On the other hand, had that been the case, had proper precautions been taken, there’s a good chance we wouldn’t be talking about Harold Lloyd and Safety Last! right now.
James is a writer, skateboarder, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.