Speedy (1928)

Very well executed

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Powerful

This is an astonishing documentary that will wring your heart while it bends your mind

For Harold Lloyd's final silent film he chose to shoot most of it in New York City, no doubt using the facilities of Paramount's Astoria Studios as Paramount did release this film that Lloyd himself produced. And now with the demolition of the old Yankee Stadium, there is precious little left from that time in 1928 when Speedy was shot and released to the movie-going public.Harold is his usual shy self who just can't seem to hold down a job. He can't even go have a good time with his girl Anna Christy without all kinds of things going wrong for him. But of course in the end he does redeem himself by saving Christy's father's horse drawn trolley franchise by making the route on time in the face of overwhelming obstacles by some unscrupulous people.There was always a common thread it seems with both Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton and to a lesser degree Charlie Chaplin. They could be the worst kind of screw ups for most of the film, but from somewhere within always seemed to develop the intelligence and fortitude to defeat those bad guys in the end.Old Yankee Stadium makes its appearance here and also in the film playing himself is Babe Ruth who Lloyd when he's a taxi driver gets to take to the game. The Babe was at the height of his career when he did his cameo in Speedy. He had just hit 60 homeruns the year before and in 1928 he would slip to a mere 54 homerun season.More than Yankee Stadium were the shots of Coney Island. The fabled amusement area at the bottom end of Brooklyn is a real treasure trove of locations for Lloyd's sight gags. It's pretty run down now, but as a kid I can tell you it looked more like 1928 in the Fifties than it does nowadays. Steeplechase Park, Luna Park, a lot of the rest of it is now gone.Speedy shows Harold Lloyd the silent comic at his best and the film itself is quite a piece of nostalgia for native New Yorkers like me.

038: Speedy (1928) - released 4/7/1928; viewed 2/24/06 The River Thames floods in London, drowning 14. The 1928 Winter Games open in Switzerland. Charles Lindburgh is presented the Medal of Honor for the first trans-Atlantic flight.BIRTHS: William Peter Blatty, David L. Wolper, Vidal Sassoon, Jeanne Moreau, Frank Frazetta, Fats Domino, Ariel Sharon, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. DEATHS: Thomas Hardy, Douglas Haig.KEVIN: I found our final silent Lloyd film to be kind of disappointing. I suppose that after all the films we've seen from Lloyd, the best was already behind us so the expectations were unfairly raised for the final film. In the scene where we first meet Harold Swift, he's working at the local bar and doing lots of tricks with the bottles and glasses that are quite impressive for a man with only eight fingers. After he's fired from that job, he immediately gets a job as a cab driver, where he proves to have the worst luck in the world dealing with his fares and the cops. It was also nice to see Coney Island in the late 1920's, and a cameo by Babe Ruth, who shows that it was easier to do celebrity cameos during the silent era when acting and saying lines wasn't really a problem (and keep in mind, the word "cameo" wasn't used in that way until Around the World in 80 Days). During the chase across town in Girl Shy, I very much hoped that Speedy would measure up to that level of comic grandeur, but sadly the climax of this film, where he has to save his girlfriend's grandpa's horse-and-cart trolley business, fell far short of expectations. That, and I miss Jobyna Ralston.DOUG: Our last Harold Lloyd film, Speedy (which rests comfortably between Chaplin's The Circus and Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr.) was unfortunately not my favorite. While there were some very good bits of business (a crab in Harold's coat pocket causes trouble for anyone near him), the overall film just isn't as entertaining as, say, Kid Brother. What this film does give us is a look at Coney Island in 1928, not to mention a cameo from Babe Ruth. All films are also documentaries of the time they were made in, after all. Our hero, Speedy, initially seems perfectly fine with losing one job after another after only a day's work, so at first he seems downright irresponsible and careless. After messing up a delivery, he doesn't even bother to return before grabbing a newspaper and looking through the want-ads. The trip to Coney Island (I'm surprised he'd saved enough money for such a trip, but if he could do it in The Freshman, he can do it here) has some very good gags, some involving Harold's new suit getting dirty, some involving a dog, and some with the aforementioned crab. Later, though, Harold has to show his stuff when he must rescue his girlfriend's grandpa's horse-drawn trolley-car from evil gangsters who want to run it into the ground. The finale chase scene is pretty cool, particularly an unplanned accident where Harold crashes the trolley into an L-Train support, and must improvise by replacing the broken wheel with a sewer cover. Ann Christy is Harold's new girl, and just doesn't quite fill the void left by Jobyna Ralston. Looking at the timeline, it is worth noting that in the year after The Jazz Singer introduced sound into movies, the three masters of silent comedy (Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd) were all still doing excellent work (The Circus, Steamboat Bill Jr., Speedy).Last film viewed: The Kid Brother (1927). Last film chronologically: The Circus (1928). Next film viewed: Anna Christie (1930). Next film chronologically: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).The Movie Odyssey is an exhaustive, chronological project where we watch as many milestone films as possible, starting with D.W. Griffith's Intolerance in 1916 and working our way through, year by year, one film at a time. We also write a short review for each and every film. In this project, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the time period, the films of the era, and each film in context, while at the same time just watching a lot of great movies, most of which we never would have watched otherwise.

I really wasn't that familiar with Harold Lloyd until I saw this silent. I wasn't going to watch it at first, but I got immersed in it almost immediately! What glorious and successful use of slapstick! I'm not even into slapstick that much, but this one had me "rolling in the aisles," or should I say my living room chair.Mr. Lloyd had a knack of making fun of himself, which to me is the essence of anything comical. I guess that's why I don't watch anything too recent, since so much comedy these days is either at somebody else's expense, or just plain stupid. Here we have the hero, Lloyd, trying to do something nice for someone else, while having absolute perseverance throughout impossible trials and tribulations. That makes it even better. No violence, thank goodness! Mr. Lloyd was a genius, and he ranks with Buster Keaton in bringing timeless laughs.

If you have never seen a Harold Lloyd film you owe it to yourself to see Speedy. Filmed in 1928 this was Lloyd's last silent movie and it is funny. The story revolves around "Speedy" ,an unfortunate character who has a hard time holding down a job. There are lots and lots of sight gags and slapstick humor.