Topic: Captain Kidd’s Kids (1919) - Harold Lloyd

[metaldams]

      CAPTAIN KIDD’S KIDS’ is the second short Harold Lloyd made in the two reel format and while it may not be one of the better ones, it is still a lot of fun.  Out of the 13 two and three reel shorts Harold made, you will not find a stinker in the bunch.  This would be the last Lloyd film for long time Lloyd leading lady Bebe Daniels.  She would go on to have a very successful film career without Harold and it’s crazy to think she was only 18 here.

      The plot of this one is pretty basic.  Lloyd wakes up drunk from his bachelor party on the day he is supposed to marry Bebe Daniels.  Bebe calls Harold to inform him her mother heard about the party and is calling off the wedding as a result.  Harold is informed Bebe and her mother are off to the Canary Islands, so Harold, with butler Snub Pollard, board a ship to find her.  After getting into a confrontation with robbers, Harold and Snub are thrown overboard, only to find a ship with female pirates.  Bebe is on the ship and the captain is her mother.  From this plot, everything flows logically, as things tend to do in all of Harold’s mature films.  A lot of the Columbias and other silent comedians feel like bizarre fever dreams where I lose the plot and say, ‘What the Hell? Just go with it.”  Here, it’s all pretty easy to follow and the gags flow logically from the situation.

      My favorite bits?  Harold sleeping with a block of ice on his hungover head while Snub Pollard tries to wake him is a lot of fun.  The drowning gag between Snub and the janitor is great.  They are underwater for an extremely long time where in real life, they would obviously be dead.  Since this is a comedy, this obviously doesn’t happen and Harold takes his sweet and casual time before eventually getting them out.  I do enjoy these underwater gags and another great example of one is in the Charley Chase one reeler ALL WET (1924).

      Once on the ship, there is a real nice gag where Harold is feeding the girls bowls of soup.  He has the bowls lined up on a plank where he can wash them with a spray and feed a bunch of girls at one time.  A very cool gag and an idea that would be explored further by Buster Keaton in THE SCARECROW (1920).  There’s a fun bit with Harold playing the ukulele and the pirate girls dance and the end of the pirate scene climaxes in a great slapstick chase fight.  Overall a very fun film.

[HomokHarcos]

I'm a big Harold Lloyd fan, glad to see we are doing threads on his films. I think he should be more popular, because I actually believe his films are the most accessible out of any silent comedian. Most of his one-reels are lost, but fortunately everything after is extant. This was an impressive short film, Hal Roach often had pretty good sets and this is no different. As a child I never liked pirate/swashbuckler settings, but they have grown on me. Harold Lloyd playing on the instrument and getting everybody to dance was hilarious, as was the part in the kitchen. I like seeing people get burnt in comedies. As for Bebe, one hand her age makes me happy they got a replacement, on the other hand she had charisma and was a great comedic actress. She had a very successful solo career, enough so that she's not just remembered for being Lloyd's lading lady.

[Umbrella Sam]

As with most Lloyd comedies I’ve seen, this is a fun film with fun gags. Ironically, though, considering the setting, the actual climax is a bit underwhelming. I think they tried fitting a bit too much in there in so little time and that’s why it doesn’t really work that well. That being said, there are some really good gags in here. The bowls on the plank is really creative, the part where he’s getting everyone to dance is really funny, and I do like seeing Harold constantly hitting Snub Pollard when he gets the chance. Probably my favorite part is when he accidentally leaves Snub and the other guy in the water while he goes to answer the phone.

I’m also glad to see we’ll be covering Lloyd’s comedies. I know pretty much all of his features, but have yet to actually explore a good amount of his shorts, so it will be an interesting journey.

[metaldams]

As with most Lloyd comedies I’ve seen, this is a fun film with fun gags. Ironically, though, considering the setting, the actual climax is a bit underwhelming. I think they tried fitting a bit too much in there in so little time and that’s why it doesn’t really work that well. That being said, there are some really good gags in here. The bowls on the plank is really creative, the part where he’s getting everyone to dance is really funny, and I do like seeing Harold constantly hitting Snub Pollard when he gets the chance. Probably my favorite part is when he accidentally leaves Snub and the other guy in the water while he goes to answer the phone.

I’m also glad to see we’ll be covering Lloyd’s comedies. I know pretty much all of his features, but have yet to actually explore a good amount of his shorts, so it will be an interesting journey.

Yeah, we’ll definitely be doing the Lloyd two/three reelers and Chaplin Mutuals.  If you haven’t seen the majority of his shorts, you’re in for a fun ride.

[Paul Pain]

Another fun film.  This one really has the full spectrum of silent comedy covered as far as stunts are concerned.  One thing I like about Harold Lloyd is that his characters are always extremely resourceful, much like Keaton, but Lloyd's are typically simpler solutions.

I'm going to enjoy this run. 

[Umbrella Sam]

Another fun film.  This one really has the full spectrum of silent comedy covered as far as stunts are concerned.  One thing I like about Harold Lloyd is that his characters are always extremely resourceful, much like Keaton, but Lloyd's are typically simpler solutions.

I'm going to enjoy this run. 

This may be a controversial opinion, but I find Lloyd to be the most versatile as far as playing different characters goes. In most of his features, he takes on some sort of different personality type you don’t see in the others (timid in GIRL SHY, geeky but ambitious in THE FRESHMAN, a male Cinderella in THE KID BROTHER, etc.) and despite these changes, he’s always convincing in each role he plays.

[metaldams]

This may be a controversial opinion, but I find Lloyd to be the most versatile as far as playing different characters goes. In most of his features, he takes on some sort of different personality type you don’t see in the others (timid in GIRL SHY, geeky but ambitious in THE FRESHMAN, a male Cinderella in THE KID BROTHER, etc.) and despite these changes, he’s always convincing in each role he plays.

Agreed.  Lloyd was a bit more normal and had a less defined character than say Chaplin or Langdon.  Those two had otherworldly characters while Lloyd didn’t - but that means Lloyd could do more versatile stuff because he wasn’t one of those characters.  Keaton was caught in between the otherworldly and normal, but leaning more towards the former.  All great actors.

[Allen Champion]

Because Lloyd's character appears more "normal,"  his selfish and destructive actions are all the more disturbing.  Chaplin and Keaton would only hurt someone in self defense, (ignoring Chaplin's early Keystones), but in film after film Lloyd deliberately and willfully harms others to achieve his personal or strictly materialistic goals.   The sociopathic dark side of the roaring 20s, Lloyd is the least appealing of the silent comedy big shots.  Your mileage, of course, may vary.   

[metaldams]

Because Lloyd's character appears more "normal,"  his selfish and destructive actions are all the more disturbing.  Chaplin and Keaton would only hurt someone in self defense, (ignoring Chaplin's early Keystones), but in film after film Lloyd deliberately and willfully harms others to achieve his personal or strictly materialistic goals.   The sociopathic dark side of the roaring 20s, Lloyd is the least appealing of the silent comedy big shots.  Your mileage, of course, may vary.

I guess when I say normal, I mean in appearance.  He’s not sociopathic in every film, yet he has his moments.  Commits theft and destruction to stop that wedding in GIRL SHY and does a ton of fake it until you make it lying in SAFETY LAST.