Safety Last! (1923)

The Boy: "Oh, pal- She's just got to believe that I'm successful - until I am"

By Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor
With Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis and Bill Strother

I met this classic silent movie by accident, it had a very good rating and seemed like a classical comedy so I decided to see it.

Safety Last! depicts the story of a young boy who goes to the city to make a living. He is desperately in love with his fiancé and spends all the little money he makes as a store clerk to impress her with gifts. She deduces that he must be pretty rich and decides to surprise him by visiting him. However, he won't tell her the truth of his situation and decides instead to pull a miracle by doing a publicity stunt that should allow him to get married... at the risk of his own life.

The movie reminded me of classical comedies such as The General (1926) or The Kid (1921) and most of the comical relief stem from the same kind of situations. However, I found Harold Lloyd to lack the charisma of Charles Chaplin or Buster Keaton. Nevertheless, the situations that arise at the store are quite funny and if they might not get you to cry out loud you'll probably smile for a good portion of the time.

The film culminates in the stunt which is a pretty impressive climb of a building. This looks both hilarious and dangerous. Situations arising from it are both absurd, like animals stopping the climb and endangering him, and breathtaking when he is hanging in the void.

I have to admit that I enjoyed the time where he was at the shop trying to act like he owned the place in front of his fiancé more than the climb as it felt annoying to always see the pal run away with the cop, although, it was to be expected.

I liked: Funny situations. Comical slides. Impressive stunt.

I disliked: Some of the events were too forced to be comical. The story ends abruptly.

73/100
It's the kind of movie you can watch with pretty much anyone and you are guaranteed a few laughs.