Speedy (1927-28)

 

Harold Lloyd plays the title character in Speedy, a baseball fan who seems unable to hold a job for very long. He’s in love with Jane (played by Ann Christy), the granddaughter of Pop Dillon (Bert Woodruff), who runs the last horse-drawn trolley car in New York City. A rich railroad magnate keeps trying to buy Pop out, but the old man keeps turning down the offers. That’s the basic premise for the plot, but much of the film is just an excuse to provide Lloyd with opportunities to engage in the kind of physical comedy for which he is justly famous. After losing a job as a soda jerk because he failed to deliver a bouquet to the boss’ wife successfully, quite a lengthy and intriguing sequence, he takes Jane to Coney Island for some entertainment. In terms of cinematography, the establishing shots of New York at the film’s beginning are rivaled only by the images from Coney Island. The montage of various rides and the shots of the lights of Coney Island at night are visually quite stunning, as is the running gag of how many ways that Speedy’s suit keeps getting ruined while they are there: condiments, dog pawprints, water, even paint. Lloyd’s characters are almost always the center of attention, but they seem unaware of how or why. That happens throughout Speedy, such as when a live crab in his pocket—don’t ask—swipes a lady’s slip from her purse or when the back of his jacket is striped with paint from when he backs up to a wet fence. He and Jane are quite successful during their day, winning lots of prizes, including a baby crib, and acquiring a pet dog in the process. Speedy pays a friend to take them back to the city in a moving van, and he takes advantage of the opportunity to set up the furniture in the van to look like a living room. It’s a touching, delicate, sweet moment. Speedy next gets a job as a cab driver for the Only One Cab Company (note the verbal pun there), but he proves to be a disaster there as well. The highlight of this job is when Babe Ruth, his idol, needs a ride to the stadium. Speedy talks to Ruth instead of watching the traffic, making for quite a harrowing ride. The film includes footage of a Ruth home run, and the baseball great seems to be quite a natural actor. Lloyd’s Speedy, though, doesn’t seem to have a natural ability for any tasks, and watching him trying to get fare-paying customers makes for some silly moments. All of the film’s set pieces—his various jobs, the day at Coney Island, the encounter with Ruth—are diversions from the central plot, though. Pop has to drive his cab at least once every 24 hours to keep his contract with the city, certainly a strange requirement. Speedy volunteers to help Pop out, but another series of odd events, including the theft by the railroad guy’s henchmen of the car and horse, provides a rollicking race through the streets of New York involving, among other gags, a policeman dummy and a broken tire and the dog from Coney Island. Choreographing the action in a Harold Lloyd film would have been a daunting task for any director, making the film’s lone Oscar nomination for its directing quite understandable. Lloyd himself never won a competitive Oscar despite the critical and popular success of his films.

Oscar Nomination: Best Director of a Comedy Picture (Ted Wilde)