Harold Lloyd in “For Heaven’s Sake”
Today is the anniversary of the release date of the Harold Lloyd feature For Heaven’s Sake (1926).
Directed by Sam Taylor, this comedy casts Harold in his callow young rich man mode, falling in love with a young missionary girl (Jobyna Ralston) and helping save her father’s soup kitchen. While the comedy may sound sacrilegious, it is anything but. Harold eventually winds up a convert and marries the girl, and (in case you’re wondering where the humor comes in) befriends a couple of dozen drunken hoboes along the way, in a number of scenes that recall Douglas Fairbanks’ The Habit of Happiness.
Some funny clips:
For more on silent and slapstick comedy please check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
To find out about the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
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