July Chicago Harold Lloyd schedule
Bruce Calvert
FRIDAY, JULY 1
Double Feature!
7:30 · SPEEDY (live accompaniment by Jay Warren)
This silent comedy is the story of "Speedy", a cab driver who tries to
save New York City's last horse-drawn trolley from being run out of
business. The task is in actuality an attempt to impress his girlfriend
who's grandfather runs the trolley business. Featuring a cameo by
baseball legend Babe Ruth. (1928, 86m).
9:30 · THE FRESHMAN (live accompaniment by Jay Warren)
"Harold Lloyd's most famous film (and probably the biggest-grossing
comedy of the silent era) finds him an erstwhile Ivy Leaguer at a
southern university, where he struggles to make the football team and
keep his pipe lit. Gag for gag, Lloyd was the funniest screen comic of
his time. Passionately recommended." -Chicago Reader (1925, 76)
SATURDAY, JULY 2
Double Feature!
2:00 · SPEEDY (live accompaniment by Dennis Scott)
This silent comedy is the story of "Speedy", a cab driver who tries to
save New York City's last horse-drawn trolley from being run out of
business. The task is in actuality an attempt to impress his girlfriend
who's grandfather runs the trolley business. Featuring a cameo by
baseball legend Babe Ruth. (1928, 86m).
4:00 · THE FRESHMAN (live accompaniment by Dennis Scott)
"Harold Lloyd's most famous film (and probably the biggest-grossing
comedy of the silent era) finds him an erstwhile Ivy Leaguer at a
southern university, where he struggles to make the football team and
keep his pipe lit. Gag for gag, Lloyd was the funniest screen comic of
his time. Passionately recommended." -Chicago Reader (1925, 76)
Double Feature!
7:30 · SPEEDY (live accompaniment by Dennis Scott)
This silent comedy is the story of "Speedy", a cab driver who tries to
save New York City's last horse-drawn trolley from being run out of
business. The task is in actuality an attempt to impress his girlfriend
who's grandfather runs the trolley business. Featuring a cameo by
baseball legend Babe Ruth. (1928, 86m).
9:30 · THE FRESHMAN (live accompaniment by Dennis Scott)
"Harold Lloyd's most famous film (and probably the biggest-grossing
comedy of the silent era) finds him an erstwhile Ivy Leaguer at a
southern university, where he struggles to make the football team and
keep his pipe lit. Gag for gag, Lloyd was the funniest screen comic of
his time. Passionately recommended." -Chicago Reader (1925, 76)
SUNDAY & MONDAY, JULY 3 & 4
Double Feature!
2:00 · GIRL SHY (live accompaniment by Dennis Scott)
In 'arguably the greatest chase in film history' (Richard
Schickel), stuttering bumpkin Harold, author of how-to lovemaking guide
The Boob's Diary, desperately tries to reach his girl's wedding to
a bigamist via car, firetruck, trolley, motorcycle, horse wagon, ad
infinitum. (1924, 83m).
4:00 · SAFETY LAST (live accompaniment by Dennis Scott)
Harold's a poor country boy who comes to the city to make good with the
hopes of marrying his hometown sweetheart. He takes a job as a
department store clerk but when his girl decides to visit him, Harold
does his best to convince her that he is the boss. This film includes
the justifiably famous scene where Lloyd hangs from the hands of a
clock high above the city street. "To see it today with an audience
alternately roaring with laughter and gasping is one of the greatest
experience so cinema." - David Shipman (1923, 70m).
Double Feature!
7:00 · GIRL SHY (live accompaniment by Jay Warren)
In 'arguably the greatest chase in film history' (Richard
Schickel), stuttering bumpkin Harold, author of how-to lovemaking guide
The Boob's Diary, desperately tries to reach his girl's wedding to
a bigamist via car, firetruck, trolley, motorcycle, horse wagon, ad
infinitum. (1924, 83m).
9:00 · SAFETY LAST (live accompaniment by Jay Warren)
Harold's a poor country boy who comes to the city to make good with the
hopes of marrying his hometown sweetheart. He takes a job as a
department store clerk but when his girl decides to visit him, Harold
does his best to convince her that he is the boss. This film includes
the justifiably famous scene where Lloyd hangs from the hands of a
clock high above the city street. "To see it today with an audience
alternately roaring with laughter and gasping is one of the greatest
experience so cinema." - David Shipman (1923, 70m).
TUESDAY, JULY 5
Double Feature!
5:00 · THE CAT'S PAW (a sound motion picture)
Harold Lloyd's most bizarre comedy is a blend of 30s idealism and
proto-fascism, as naïve Chinese missionary's son Ezekiel Cobb is
persuaded by a political machine to run for mayor of a graft-ridden
town. (100m, 1934, a sound motion picture).
7:00 · MOVIE CRAZY(a sound motion picture)
Mistakenly recruited for a Hollywood talent search, Harold finds
himself at a formal party wearing a surprise-filled magician's coat.
Perhaps Lloyd's best talkie. (1932, 95m).
9:00 · THE CAT'S PAW (a sound motion picture)
Harold Lloyd's most bizarre comedy is a blend of 30s idealism and
proto-fascism, as naïve Chinese missionary's son Ezekiel Cobb is
persuaded by a political machine to run for mayor of a graft-ridden
town. (100m, 1934, a sound motion picture).
WEDNESDAY, JULY 6
Double Feature!
5:40 · WHY WORRY? (recorded musical score)
"Rich hypochondriac Harold's health cruise includes a blithe
saunter into a Latin American revolution. This is Harold Lloyd's most
gag-laden work, and with his greatest foil - an eight-and-a-half foot
tall giant. "An absurdist film, a serene exercise in primitive
surrealism and perhaps the most consistently lunatic feature Lloyd ever
made'." - Film Form (1923, 60m)
7:00 · THE KID BROTHER (live accompaniment by Mark Noller)
Harold Lloyd's most unsung masterpiece, as mild-mannered but
resourceful Harold assembly-lines the domestic chores for his
rough-neck brothers, tenderly romances the girl from a visiting
medicine show, and at last wins his father's respect after a
hair-raising battle aboard a derelict ship. (1927, 82m).
9:00 · WHY WORRY? (recorded musical score)
"Rich hypochondriac Harold's health cruise includes a blithe
saunter into a Latin American revolution. This is Harold Lloyd's most
gag-laden work, and with his greatest foil - an eight-and-a-half foot
tall giant. "An absurdist film, a serene exercise in primitive
surrealism and perhaps the most consistently lunatic feature Lloyd ever
made'." - Film Form (1923, 60m)
THURSDAY, JULY 7
Double Feature!
7:00 · WELCOME DANGER (live accompaniment by Mark Noller)
New 35mm Restoration! The Unseen Harold Lloyd Silent Feature!
Mild-mannered botanist Harold Bledsoe goes fingerprint happy to help
quell the San Francisco gang wars and track down Chinatown dope kingpin
The Dragon. Completed as a silent, but scrapped when sound loomed,
Welcome Danger was largely reshot and turned into a weird part-talkie
hybrid. While the original silent version is lost, the camera negative
of a silent, intertitled version of the talkie - made for
"unwired" theaters - did survive. This version has now been
restored by UCLA in a glowing print that looks like it was made
yesterday." -Film Forum (1929, 111m)
9:15 · DR. JACK (recorded musical score)
Country doc 'Jack' Jackson goes on a house call to a sick doll,
then releases 'Sick-Little-Well-Girl' Mildred Davis from the
clutches of quack Ludvic von Saulsbourg - by scaring the living
daylights out of her. (1922, 45m).
Matt Sterling
theater organist! Finally some silent film screenings in Chicago like
they were meant to be seen. What a week that will be.
Matt
Rob
films that New York got to see earlier in the spring. But I'll take
it!
Rob