Film: Safety Last!
Director: Hal Roach
Country: USA
Released: April 1923
Runtime: 73 minutes
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Pathé
Influenced: William Wyler, George Miller, Jackie Chan, Quentin Tarantino
Deservedly mentioned in the same breath as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Laurel & Hardy, Harold Lloyd is one of the stars of early comedy on film, and this film is his masterpiece. Safety Last! has some genuinely funny sight gags (The "Kick Me" gag is a good one), as well as some that are a bit obvious and painful, and an early recurring comedic theme in the film is lots of things getting switched in error, such as babies for suitcases, cats for fur scarves and even sympathetic policemen for less friendly ones.
The latter mix-up leads to an incredible stunt of a man scaling a building chased by police, which in turns leads to an even greater stunt that makes this film rightly famous. Safety Last! has such an impressive, dramatic finale – not to mention nerve-wracking for those with a fear of heights like me – that its not only managed to wow audiences at the time and in future, but it would also go on to revolutionise the use of stunts in cinema.
While watching the movie's iconic building scene, I couldn't help asking, how did they film it? Such is the technical mastery that it looks like Harold Lloyd is actually climbing it. Yes, it's amazing what you can put your mind to when you take things one step (or floor) at a time, but even more incredible is the true (and hair-raising) story of how it was actually filmed...
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