Safety Last! (1923)

The story begins as a young man (played by Harold Lloyd) is preparing to board a train headed for the big city.  Before he departs he promises his love that he will send for her and marry her when he makes it in the city.  Shortly after he arrives int he city he becomes a clerk at the DeVore Department Store selling fabrics.  He writes his girlfriend daily and sends her extravagant gifts that are well outside of his purchasing ability, thus giving his girlfriend the idea that he is wealthy finally.  She travels to the city to see for herself and shows up unexpected to the department store; he sees her and pretends to be the general manager of the store.  This leads from one cleaver lie to another, digging him deeper and deeper in trouble.  Later in the day he over hears the real general manager expressing that he would give $1000.00 to anyone who could increase the customer base to the store.  This gives the boy an idea to run a stunt of having someone climb the twelve stories of the building.  The boy approaches his roommate and arranges to split the thousand dollars with him, if he trades places with him after about two stores.  Inevitably this plot falls apart and the boy has to climb the building by himself; this is one of the most famous scenes in movie history that no one has seen, but everyone is aware of.

Harold Lloyd was probably the most profitable silent movie star of all time, simply because he made more movies that Chaplin and Keaton, but over the years he preserved the movies and essentially kept them to himself, they have since been re-released for our era to enjoy, and I am here to tell you that he is a joy to watch.  He does not come across as forceful like his counterparts, he seems to be very down to earth and like the rest of us, in that he has to work for what he gets in life.  I am going to try and find some more of his films to watch.  I found this one on www.youtube.com, but it did not have music with it (so it was a real silent film), and I seemed to enjoy it far more, because the music can sometimes distract me from the film itself.  Ryan, I know that you do not like silent films too much but please take the time to check this one out sometime, it is well worth your time.  Since I know that you will not, I am going to post some scenes from the movie for you to watch.  I am going to find space on my list for this five star movie.



Yes, he did most of the climbing by himself, and he is even missing some of his thumb and fore finger from an explosion in a previous movie. Absolutely amazing.  The first 2/3 of the movie are funny, while this last part is breath taking.  This would be a great movie for you to watch with your kids.

Speaking of kids I picked up a book from the library that you might be interested in.  It is called The Best Old Movies for Families, A Guide to Watching Together, by Ty Burr.  He is a movie critic for the Boston Globe and goes through and list many movies for each genre, and explains why you should watch them with your kids, where you might pause the movie and have discussions about points of interest (such as politically incorrect images/statements/practices; or why there was the Depression, etc.)  I have found many movies that I would like to watch with my kids and family from this book.