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Never Weaken (1921) - Harold Lloyd

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metaldams:



      Onto the final Harold Lloyd short before he gets into features and also my favorite - NEVER WEAKEN.  If I DO was the off the beaten track but interesting experiment, Harold is back doing what I and probably some others expect in Lloyd shorts, brilliantly milked gag comedy.  This entire short is some comic situation being milked for all the laughs they’re worth and is split into three parts - Harold trying to get Mildred some customers, Harold trying to commit suicide and finally, the big thrill sequence.

      The first ten minutes focuses on the first part.  After a nice intro with Harold and Mildred where they’re both through windows in different rooms and Harold is slipping her a ring on a string, we find out Mildred is being let go because the doctor’s office she works for has few patients.  Harold sees this acrobatic guy who takes falls and convinces him to take bumps on the street, have Harold “cure” him, and then give cards to the doctor’s office from people on the street to draw business.  Good comedy out this situation.  After losing the acrobatic guy, Harold finds more creative ways to actually get people to hurt themselves and then give the card for the office.  Ah yes, kind Harold indeed.  The soap and water on the street gag that causes people to slip is brilliant and causes quite a visual scene, but my favorite part is Harold walking with the knocked out guy as he tries to conceal the man’s unconscious state from a police officer.  Eventually, Harold hooks the man to an ice truck and as the truck rides away, it causes the unconscious man to walk away robotically.  Hysterical, a huge laugh for me.

      That first part was great, but the next two parts are even better.  Next, Harold sees Mildred kissing and talking to a man about marrying her.  Harold sees this and wants to commit suicide.  What Harold doesn’t see but we do is that the man is her brother and marrying her means he’s a newly ordained minister who can perform the ceremony.  Anyway, like in HAUNTED SPOOKS and Keaton’s HARD LUCK, we get a bunch of great suicide gags.  What’s really funny about all this is that it’s obvious Harold doesn’t really want to commit suicide.  For example, Harold attempts to drink poison but delays it with several different nervous gestures and even puts cream in the poison to add flavor.  The stabbing himself gag is delayed with unbuttoning his coat the right way.  He decides not to go that route when he pricks his finger and draws the tiniest bit of blood.  Next is a gun.  All he has the do is shoot himself but instead, he does the old routine of blindfolding himself tying a gun to the door and calling up a janitor to open the door so it goes off.  So yeah, a lot of funny delay gags with Harold being suicidal.  Even funnier, but not the funniest part, that would be next.

      After a bulb falls to the ground, a blindfolded Harold thinks he’s shot.  Near an open window on a high rise building, a grid from a construction site comes and gets under the chair, taking Harold outside high in the air.  In a brilliant bit, Harold hears harp music and thinks he’s in Heaven.  He takes the blindfold off and is near a statue of an angel.  Harold starts to realize he might not be within the pearly gates when he hears some devilish jazz music below.  Harold then looks down and sees he’s in trouble.  He eventually lands on the grid of a construction site and all Hell breaks loose.  From a setting and camera angle point of view, I would imagine this had a huge influence on Laurel and Hardy’s LIBERTY.  The gag with the ladder and Harold hanging onto the grid with his foot hanging off the ledge is jaw dropping.  Same when he falls and catches the grid hanging on the chain.  One of the great thrill sequences ends this short.

      So yeah, I’m inspired to describe a lot of this stuff because it’s so good.  The whole short is sequenced brilliantly and there is not a single dull moment.  My pick for Harold’s best short.  From here on out, Harold is moving into features and like I said with the Chaplin stuff I haven’t covered yet, those will be reviewed randomly in my “review whatever I want want” weeks.  The first one of those weeks will be two weeks from now, as next week we do the first Abbott and Costello show episode.

Umbrella Sam:
This is one I’ve seen multiple times before, and that’s probably not surprising. The second half of this short so reenforces the common image of Harold as a “hanging off of buildings” type of thrill comedian that it’s probably considered a natural choice for showing on TV any time they do a Lloyd retrospective. It definitely is great. The first half shows the trickster Harold causing mayhem that audiences had become accustomed to by this point. I love the image of all the mayhem after he drops the soap and water on the street and casually presents business cards to each person. I also agree about the unconscious guy and the truck; such a hilarious image seeing the guy walking along with the truck. The suicide gags work once again because of how obvious it is that Harold isn’t serious about it. I like the constant excuses he causes to delay, especially when he goes to the dictionary to figure out how to spell out a word for his note. And then, of course, the construction site parts...absolutely brilliant. I know there was some camera trickery involved, as there was in SAFETY LAST!, but...man, it still holds up so well. It’s still as thrilling (and scary) as it always has been. Top it off with a rather sweet ending involving Mildred avoiding ending up in the same situation with Harold, and you’ve got a perfect end to Lloyd’s work in short subjects. Fantastic short from start to finish, definitely essential Lloyd.

HomokHarcos:
Outside of Safety Last I think this was Harold Lloyd's best thrill comedy. Even though that's what he is most known for a lot of films didn't revolve around an ending of that sort.

I thought the suicide gag stuff was very funny. I know there has been an increasing amount of criticism over this type of comedy recently as there are concerns that it makes light of suicide, but I like dark comedy so it never really bothered me. I just find the ways he tries to commit suicide to be very funny, and as mentioned it's clearly shown that he really doesn't want to go through with it. The smashing lightbulb and Harold thinking he got shot is gag that's been used several times, but I'll always find funny.

About the thrill part, I think it's funny that even after thinking he killed himself, hearing the harp music and seeing an angel, it's the jazz music that immediately disqualifies that possibility. Funny that jazz was viewed as that scandalous. The construction sequence reminds me of a Popeye cartoon where Olive Oyl is up high sleepwalking, and I believe we've already watched one where Mildred Harris herself is sleepwalking and getting into dangerous situations. No big deal here, as it's done more affectively.

This is an end to a very good Harold Lloyd run of shorts. I know classic movie fans who mainly watch features, and I think they're missing out by net viewing the shorts. Looking forward to rewatching the Abbott and Costello show!

metaldams:
I too get a kick out of how jazz music was symbolized as the Devil’s music in this short.  In 1921, there was no Slayer.  That dastardly Elvis has yet to shake his hips.

Paul Pain:
I reiterate what I said on a different short featuring a different silent comic... If you don't like this short, then I don't like you.

A comedy classic occurs in NEVER WEAKEN in what metaldams has wonderfully summarized before me.  There are so many things for which to praise this short, and the only thing that one could quibble over... Oh, wait, there is nothing to quibble over.

Much like Buster Keaton, the peak of Harold's shorts leads into his movies.

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