Safety Last!
As with most people, this is my first Harold Lloyd; and as with most I find myself comparing "the third genius" to Chaplin and Keaton. He's not as brilliantly inspired as the other two, but he's not as overly sentimental as Chaplin and proves to be as good/brave a stuntman as Keaton. Despite their brief running times, silent comedies tend to try my patience, because they're more a collection of set-pieces than a A-Z story. This one starts that way, especially when setting up the character of the cop. However, once The Girl arrives in the big city everything spins out from one secure comic premise. By the time Lloyd is passing off his manager's office as his own I was smiling at the ingenuity. When we get to the bird attack during his climb, I was laughing out loud. The climb remains a great comic stunt sequence. Everyone knows about the clock, but there's a new peril on every floor.
RATING: ***1/2