FILMS AT THE GRANGE  
lloyd   Harold Lloyd

 

Three classic silent film comedies will be shown with live piano accompaniment at the Wilton Grange, Wilton, CT on February 17, 2005. Children and adults will enjoy a short feature and two 12-minute comedies from the golden age of silent cinema. Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last" known to many from the iconic shot of the actor suspended many floors above city traffic hanging on by the hands of a clock, is the feature. Two Charley Chase films, "His Wooden Wedding" and "Limousine Love" will be screened as well.

Noted silent film accompanist and film historian John Mucci of Wilton will play a live score.  Refreshments will be served at 7:30 pm, and the films will begin at 8 pm, with an intermission. Admission is free

The Wilton Cannon Grange Hall, at 25 Cannon Road has ample parking available at the Cannondale Railroad Station. Click here for directions.


ABOUT THE FILMS:

SAFETY LAST (1923)

Harold Lloyd was one of the world's most well-known and well-beloved comedians in the silent era, having made over 250 films.  With Chaplin and Keaton, his persona of the bespectacled, gentle soul who can be ingenious and schlemeil-like, was easily identifiable and soon became iconic.  The film Safety Last is his best-known work, and the still of him suspended many floors above busy city traffic, hanging from a clock by its minute-hand has become a symbol of the silent film era in general.

But that moment from the film is a brief one: the rest of the film is equally a masterpiece of comic development, and can still keep an audience enthralled as much as it did in 1925.

Lloyd not only did his own stunts, but also worked under the handicap of having part of his right hand blown off from a misfired pyrotechnic device early in his film career. He wore a prosthetic glove that is almost undetectable, but it nonetheless must have been very difficult difficult to perform some of the stunts that you see on screen. Other than some clever camera angles, there wasn't much trick photography used in those days. 

The plot leading up to his daredevil antics is fairly pat but sprayed throughout with inventive sight gags. Harold plays your simple, hapless, small-town 'everyman' who goes to the BIG city to seek fame and fortune, leaving his true love (played by Mildred Davis, his real-life wife) at home until he's makes it.

Fresh off the bus, he eventually manages to scrape up a job as a clerk in a department store, a job that takes him nowhere fast. To save face, he keeps sending expensive trinkets back home that indicate otherwise. Convinced that he has indeed made it, she heads off to the BIG city to join him, much to his chagrin. Desperate to earn quick cash before she discovers the truth, he takes his boss up on an offer and works up a publicity ruse to drum up sales for the store.

The rest is classic Lloyd. Wearing his trademark straw hat and horn-rimmed glasses, the meek mouse suddenly turns into Mighty Mouse as our boy, through a series of mishaps, literally moves up in the world, scaling heights even he never dreamed of!

All's well, of course, that ends well, as we've been saying for centuries. Sure, we know how things ended back in the good ol' days, but isn't it great to know that when Harold got the girl, he STAYED with the girl? In real life, Harold and Mildred remained sweethearts for over 45 years.
 


charly chase
Charley Chase
 

LIMOUSINE LOVE (1928)

Charley Chase was never as big a star  as Harold Lloyd, but he carved out for himself a character that lasted well into the sound era, working as a second-banana with Laurel and Hardy, among others. (You can see him to advantage in "Sons of the Desert" playing his trademarked loudmouth buffoon).

In this film, once thought lost, now only partially restored,  he plays a groom on the way to the altar, all decked out in his tuxedo, on his way to the church to get married.

A woman, trying to dry her dress, drenched by an arrant vehicle and a puddle, dries off in the back of Chase's car, unbeknownst to Charley. That's where the fun begins for us, at least. The sequence where all the groom's friends ride on the car trying to help Charley avoid a clash with his bride to be is a screen classic.

For aficionados, be prepared for some real heartbreak as a significant amount of footage seems to deteriorate right before your eyes. Rescued barely in time, it is a painful reminder of how fragile our film heritage is.



HIS WOODEN WEDDING (1925)

Again, in this film, Charley is about to get married, and his best man wants two things: Charley's bride and the heirloom diamond that Charley has given her as an engagement present. So he writes Charley an anonymous note that his bride has a wooden leg. 

 

 

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