Topic: High and Dizzy (1920) - Harold Lloyd

[metaldams]

      Short number seven out of thirteen, so smack dab in the middle of the current Harold Lloyd journey is 1920’s prohibition era thrill comedy, HIGH AND DIZZY.  Very appropriate title.  Harold Lloyd is “high” in the substance sense, along with Roy Brooks in that they are drunk on alcohol and it also makes them “dizzy” the way they stumble around hilariously.  The “high” can also elude to the fact towards the end, Harold and Mildred are high in the air on the ledge of a building.  Making it all the more spectacular, Harold is still drunk, or dizzy, as he’s on the ledge.  Yes, there were a few precedents for SAFETY LAST! as far as thrill comedies go and HIGH AND DIZZY is one of them.  Another future short will be another.

      The story is Harold is a doctor who hasn’t had a patient in a while and is desperate for work - the cobweb on the telephone is a real nice touch to illustrate this.  When he finally gets a patient, it’s Mildred Davis being brought in by her father.  She has an issue sleepwalking.  Being a Harold Lloyd short, they fall in love right away to the point where Mildred’s father takes her away because Harold is more interested in everything about his daughter but her diagnosis.  In the title card, Harold asks Mildred if she believes in love at first sight.  Then any novice lip reader can read Mildred saying, “I do.”  A funny gag in between where Harold wants to impress upon them he has a busy practice, so he dresses as an old man and some tall guy with this plastic like extension on his head.  Pretty funny and surreal.

      After Mildred leaves, Roy Brooks shows Harold this hidden alcohol he has.  When the bottles get uncorked and the drinks starting spilling over, Roy and Harold drink everything to save it and get completely plastered in the process.  From here, the two are a drunk comedy team very much like Chaplin and Arbuckle in THE ROUNDERS.  It’s a lot of fun seeing them stumble across town with suspicious cops, various different obstacles on sidewalks, trying to get in and out of cars and some hotel lobby high jinx with a bell and bell boys being summoned mistakingly.  Harold’s drunk faces and various flips he does (especially over the hotel lobby desk) are all impressive.     

      Eventually Harold, still drunk and in a hotel room up high several floors, runs into Mildred again - in sleepwalking mode.  Mildred and Harold, in their compromised states, both end up on the ledge of the building.  Of course no one gets hurt but the thrill is there and they come close.  In his drunken state, it takes Harold a while to figure out he’s on a ledge and when he does, we get that classic close up of his hair spiking up in shock, just like in HAUNTED SPOOKS and similar to Moe in some Stooge shorts.  The ending marriage gag is also a lot of fun. 

      Another really good short overall.  The thrill gag stuff, as awesome and realistic looking as it is here, would be improved upon in future films.  Definitely check this one out.

[Paul Pain]

These drunk and stumble comedies never gel with me the way other plots do.  Harold Lloyd, however, has a real special touch with how he handles this trope and does it really well.  The negative in this one is that some of typical "drunk and stumble" elements are a bit overplayed here, which is a first in this series of alternating weekly Chaplin and Lloyd shorts.  Similarly, the ol' sleepwalker trope has never been funny to me and has already required too much suspension of disbelief to enjoy at all.  However, it's still a fun comedy as these elements work together to create a non-stop slam-bang series of chaos.

If I were rating these, I'd probably still give it 7.5/10 or 8/10 in spite of its flaws as those don't take up too much of the short.

Let's talk the positives now.  Harold Lloyd actually plays a funny drunk, as does Roy Brooks.  The gags at the beginning in the doctor's office are great and probably that alone could have been milked to make an entire short if they had wanted to do so.  Throughout the short there are these nice little touches add ambiance to really put you the viewer in the 1920s even if it's the 2020s.  The physical comedy in this one is quite impressive.  For a really good example, notice how far over Harold is leaning when's pretending to relax against the air when standing on the ledge.  He is really leaned over there, and it must have taken practice not to fall during the takes on that one, especially with one foot having no support there.  The man is a master of physical comedy like Buster Keaton is, but they are so entirely different from each other.

[HomokHarcos]

This feels like a comedy with three different sections: Doctor gags, drunk antics and a thrill section. It’s not as coherent a story compared to the previous two feelers Lloyd made.

My favorite part was the drunk comedy but. I like seeing comedy teams, so Harold and Roy getting drunk together, is a lot of fun. It’s funny they have all that alcohol stores in a drawer.

The first time I saw a sleepwalking thrill comedy was with Olive Oyl in a Popeye cartoon. I didn’t realize it was such a prominent comedy trope, although I think it’s much more effective in live action because there’s not a sense of danger watching a cartoon. Harold Lloyd made thrill comedies his own and he would do it much better later.

[Umbrella Sam]

Mostly good. Drunk comedies are kind of hit-and-miss with me, and this one mostly hits. I think they rely on it a bit too much to the point where it gets a bit stale, especially when it’s just Harold and Roy Brooks in the bathroom, but Harold’s movements throughout are still a joy to watch. I especially like when he walks over the couches. The thrill stuff is also good; very convincing and I too like seeing the spiky hair thing again. Interestingly, I knew this was an iconic image of Lloyd’s, yet somehow never knew he did it more than once, but sure enough, it’s both here and in HAUNTED SPOOKS. The ending’s definitely rushed, but it is still fun seeing them work in the downstairs neighbor with the closing gag. My favorite gags are the ones at the beginning with Harold pretending to be multiple of his own customers. He comes up with some creative disguises and it’s paced very well.