Safety Last! (1923) starring Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis
Synopsis of Safety Last!
In Safety Last! Harold Lloyd plays a small-town fellow, trying to become a success in the big city. So he can afford to marry his sweetheart, of course. But he’s barely surviving on his pitiful salary as a department store clerk. Until he tries a desperate publicity stunt …
Review
Harold Lloyd’s silent comedy, Safety Last, is remembered for the hair-raising climb up the outside of a building. And understandably so! It’s both hair-raising and laugh out loud funny. But a sizable part of what makes it funny, is how it comes about. And why.
Harold’s a small-town bumpkin, who’s gone to the city to make his fortune. In order to be able to marry the girl he loves. But, he only makes $15 per week. A small sum, even back in the 1920’s. And thinking with his heart rather than his head, he keeps spending money on trinket to send to his girl back home. To the point of pawning his goods — and his roommates! In addition, in his daily letters to her, he’s grossly exaggerating his success.
Harold – The Boy: Oh, pal … She’s just got to believe that I’m successful … until I am.
There’s a lot of comedy in Harold, trying to make a success of himself in the city. Including when he’s accidentally “kidnapped” by a laundry truck, and desperately trying to get back in time. And then, his girl makes a surprise visit — since he’s doing so well!
To make things worse, Harold’s supervisor is one of those self-important people, trying to get Harold in trouble. He’s in fear for his job, until he overhears the department store owner talking about the need for a spectacular publicity stunt, to get people into the store.
What could be more spectacular than a human fly, scaling the outside of the multistory department store building? And he’s seen his roommate scale a building earlier to escape a police officer! So, everything gets set up, and it’s $1,000 for Harold! To split with his roommate.
Bill, The Pal: Say, for five hundred dollars I’d climb to Heaven, an’ hang by my heels from the pearly gates.
The best laid plans …
But, his pal’s gotten in trouble with a police officer! So, Harold has to start the climb, and his pal will swap places with on the next floor! But that police officer’s very persistent! So Harold keeps climbing, with hilarious interruptions! Ranging from pigeons, to workers pushing a board out the window, and then trying to get around a clock blocking his way! Eventually, with the help of a rope, he gets past it, and all the way to the top! Only to be hit in the head, and nearly fall to his death! Thankfully, Mildred’s there to save him. And, he gets caught in a rope attached to a flagpole, swinging wildly!
Eventually, all’s resolved, the love birds can get married …. And the film ends with the cop still chasing the pal!
Comedy highlights of Safety Last!
- Harold being “kidnapped” before his shift starts.
- A hilarious series of attempts at getting back to the store before he’s fired.
- Once he’s there, trying to sneak past the floorwalker.
- In trouble for not looking presentable, quickly trying to pull himself together — including using a bald man’s head as a mirror while he combs his hair!
- The climatic climb up the building, which is both hilarious & hair raising.
Cast of characters
- Harold Lloyd (The Cats-Paw, Dr. Jack) … Harold – The Boy
- Mildred Davis (An Eastern Westerner) … Mildred, The Girl
- Bill Strother … Bill, The Pal
- Noah Young (Grandma’s Boy) … The Law
- Westcott Clarke … The Floorwalker
Editorial review of Safety Last! courtesy of Amazon.com
The best-remembered film by the great silent comic Harold Lloyd is still a hair-raiser. The bespectacled Mr. Lloyd plays an earnest young chap who goes to the city to make his fortune, although $15 a week from a department store is the best he can muster. After a string of ingenious visual gags, the movie climaxes with a wild sequence in which Harold, trying to win a prize by drumming up publicity for the store, arranges for an agile friend to climb up the side of the building.
Natch, the friend can’t do it, so Harold ascends, inch by white-knuckle inch. The stunt is still one of the great coups in movies (this was before rear-projection or digitally erased safety ropes, remember), and Lloyd beautifully wrings every possible complication out of it. That was Lloyd’s approach: a simple character, and endless complications. –Robert Horton
Updated February 5, 2024