Cinema
Safety Last!
Synopsis
Harold leaves his small town of Great Bend, his mother and his fiancée Mildred for the big city, where he promises to make his fortune. He writes to her that he is succeeding, when he is a salesman in the fabrics department of a department store and shares a room with his friend Bill, a construction worker and climber. Mildred arrives unannounced, believing him prosperous. The manager promises a thousand dollars to whoever draws a crowd, and Harold proposes having Bill climb the twelve-storey façade. When the day comes, a policeman who has recognised Bill prevents him from climbing.
Context
The idea came from Bill Strother, a professional climber whom Harold Lloyd had seen climbing a Los Angeles building before a crowd, and whom he hired to play the friend. The shots were taken on three buildings of different heights, with false façades built on the roofs, mattresses one to three storeys below and the real street in perspective: a dummy dropped as a test bounced off the mattresses and went over the edge. Lloyd performed all this with a hand mutilated in 1919 by the explosion of a prop bomb, a glove hiding the missing thumb and index finger.
Who it is for
A silent comedy with intertitles, running sixty-seven to seventy-four minutes depending on the prints and restorations.
Prizes and reception
In the twenties, Lloyd's films earned more than those of Chaplin and Keaton; a restored print was rereleased in cinemas in France in April 2026.
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