Tony Maietta:
Hello, I'm film historian Tony Maietta.

Brad Shreve:
And I'm Brad Shreve, who's just a guy who likes movies.

Tony Maietta:
We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's Golden Age. We go behind the scenes and share our opinions too.

Brad Shreve:
And of course, being the average guy, my opinions are the ones that matter.

Tony Maietta:
As does your self-delusion. Welcome to Going Hollywood.

Tony Maietta:
Brad, before we start talking about our film for today, safety last from 1923, I got a question for you.

Brad Shreve:
Okay.

Tony Maietta:
What the hell is the difference between an expat and an immigrant?

Brad Shreve:
You watched our last video.

Tony Maietta:
I did, I did tell the people.

Brad Shreve:
Okay. I didn't. You said you wanted the lunch and here you go. The point is a huge heated thing to me. To me. And actually, if you look up the original thing, an expat is a person somewhere temporarily. It is somebody that is either on a longtime job assignment or somebody in college or somebody on an artist thing. It really got really popular during the early, like 20s when a lot of artists were going to Paris.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, that is technically in my mind, an expat, an immigrant is someone who moves somewhere permanently and plans to, if not immigrate, integrate themselves into society at least maybe a little bit and become a citizen or long term resident. That is my definition. So Maurice and I are immigrants.

Tony Maietta:
So it has nothing to do with social class. You know what? An expat is not just a snooty immigrant. It's totally, totally different. That's interesting.

Brad Shreve:
Well, an expat is a snooty immigrant. That's the problem since immigrant has gotten to be such a dirty word throughout Europe and the, you know, in the United States, somebody that's from south of borders, an immigrant, they're all expats. You have a lot of people moving to Spain. Some sometimes are 70% non Spaniards.

Tony Maietta:
That's amazing.

Brad Shreve:
And they all call themselves expats and they get angry if you call them an immigrant. And we should probably. Let me just say in the YouTube comments, Spaniards have thanked us for pointing out that we are immigrants. Whereas the people that have gotten really angry and put nasty comments are all people that are so called expats. And they, they prove their point. My point. So anyway, I don't tell anybody. I don't tell anybody what they can call themselves.

Brad Shreve:
That's their business. But we will not call ourselves immigrants for that reason, because we plan to be here forever.

Tony Maietta:
I was gonna say. And that, that leads us to the fact that we're Talking about Brad's YouTube channel on his and Maurice's adventures in Spain now that they live in Spain. So we haven't talked about that for a while. So, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, listener, go to YouTube and watch. They're fascinating episodes. I don't know where you get the time to do that, Brad, and everything else that you do, but they're fascinating to watch and it's a beautiful place we haven't mentioned that in a while.

Brad Shreve:
No. And actually, by the time this comes out, way before this time comes out, we actually even give a tour of our home and you get to see what you can get very cheaply in Spain. A beautiful place, beautiful townhouse. So, yeah, the name of the podcast is Our Chosen Spanish Life, and it's on YouTube and we'll put it in the show notes.

Tony Maietta:
Something else.

Brad Shreve:
Thank you for asking, Tony.

Tony Maietta:
Of course.

Brad Shreve:
That was unexpected.

Tony Maietta:
Something else we haven't mentioned in a long time. And Brad brought me up on the last episode. You know, we still have a Spotify playlist for every song that I can't sing on this podcast and some that I actually sneak in singing. So don't forget about that. We're still populating it. And it's kind of ironic that I'm talking about a Spotify playlist when we're talking about a silent film. But anyway, there you go. That's.

Brad Shreve:
The playlist is made up of songs from movies we talked about that we cannot play on this.

Tony Maietta:
Exactly.

Brad Shreve:
We will get yanked off Spotify if we play it. But they have the same music in a different location every platform.

Tony Maietta:
But anyway, no music from this film because it is indeed a silent film. It's Safety Last, starring the one, the only, the incomparable Mr. Harold Lloyd. It's from Hal Roach Studios in 1923. And, yeah, I wanted to do another silent film. We did one last year, our very first one, My Best Girl, and it went really well. Brad really liked it. So I'm having my fingers crossed about Safety Last because I kind of feel the same way about Safety Last that I felt about My Best Girl.

Tony Maietta:
I adore love. This movie is one of my absolute favorite films. I'm kind of positive about it because I just don't know how anyone could hate this film. It's so much fun. But we should probably find out when we talk to Brad how he feels about that.

Brad Shreve:
So you want to know right now?

Tony Maietta:
Well, I think we should always do that now because, like I said, so I need to pull the plug. I'll pull the plug.

Brad Shreve:
I'm not even going to tease you. Which I love to do sometimes. This was delightful. It was a lot of fun. I don't watch, you know, we did the silent film last year and I don't watch a lot of silent films and I don't know why. Because, folks, I will tell you, they are. A lot of them are open to the public now, so you can find most of these on there. In fact, Looking after, I watched this movie on YouTube, which you can find it easily.

Brad Shreve:
There's like a dozen copies of this film on YouTube. When it ended, I had. My whole page was full of suggested silent films galore. I'm like, I'm going to have to dig into some of these.

Tony Maietta:
So easy to find. And, you know, it's so easy to find and is in the public domain now that. And I never go to Wikipedia ever, ever. But the link is actually in Wikipedia to watch this film. So but please, please, please make sure it has music because as we said last year with. And I think they all have music. But anyway, as. As we said last year, silent films were never silent.

Tony Maietta:
There was always, always, always a musical accompaniment. So don't do that to yourself if you're going to take the time to watch this. I also suggest you watch this with people. Don't watch this alone because this movie begs an audience because you just will fall on the floor laughing. It's such a wonderful, enjoyable, hysterical ride, in my opinion.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. And it's incredibly well done visually. It's just. I know the way they did the special effects, which were extremely well done. Thinking it was real, I was actually scared and just looks crisp and beautiful.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
You know, Harold, it was remastered.

Tony Maietta:
It was remastered. Harold owned the negatives. Like many of these silent film titans, like Mary Pickford, like Charlie Chaplin, Harold owned these and he took very good care of them. And he also, like Mary Pickford, kept them in abeyance for a very long time. And then he. After he died, in particular, they were put out mostly by his. His granddaughter Suzanne. And they are gorgeous, pristine films, this film.

Tony Maietta:
Okay, I guess the first thing we need to say about this film is, is that it? To me, I mean, it has probably the most famous image of the silent film era. So if someone doesn't know what the movie we're talking about is, it's the shot of Harold hanging onto a CL clock handle from the side of a side scraper. And I hear a collective, oh, that movie. That's what this is. Yes, this is indeed Safety Last. And it is a hysterically funny ride. And as I said, I film I absolutely adore. Had you seen this before? I said, let's do Safety Last.

Brad Shreve:
I'm almost certain I had not.

Tony Maietta:
Had you seen parts of the Climb?

Brad Shreve:
Yes, I have seen the little clips, but it has been a long time.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And when I was searching for it, a lot of the clips were popping up and I avoided them like the plague. But, yeah, you can even find the Clips, if that's all you want to see. But watch the movie.

Tony Maietta:
But watch the whole movie. Because the buildup is beautiful. The build up, that's what makes it so funny, is the. They build up to it so beautifully that it makes absolutely lot. It's all logical. It's not like this guy's going and climbing the side of a building. It's all logic. But we'll get to that.

Tony Maietta:
And I want to say about safe. Go ahead.

Brad Shreve:
I want to say one more thing about being on YouTube. There are so many on YouTube, some of them are remastered, and I suggest those because they look so clean and crisp, but because it's in the public domain, there are people that did a crime that should be sent away to a tropical island to stay the rest of their lives. And those are the ones that colorize these damn films.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, no, no, no, no.

Brad Shreve:
So infuriating.

Tony Maietta:
It's so gorgeous in black and white. It's just gorgeous. Gorgeous in black and white. It really is. And try to find the one with the Carl Davis score. Carl Davis is the one who was. Was the estate hired him to score these films. So many of Harold Lloyd's films are scored by.

Tony Maietta:
Carl Davis is a wonderful musician. And the score for Safety Last is glorious. What I want to say about Safety Last also is that it's what's called a thrill picture. And if anybody out there knows Harold Lloyd, they know him as doing these types of thrill picture, thrill pictures. Even though he. He did about five, he didn't. Everybody thinks that's all he did. It wasn't all he did, but he was just such a genius at it.

Tony Maietta:
And they are so memorable that people think, oh, Harold Lloyd's the one who does all those throw pictures. No, he did five. Five or six. I think it was five. But this one is certainly the most famous. This one is the apex because the man in the film, the man literally climbs up the side of a building and it is so frightening and hysterical. And that's the thing about these thrill films is you're screaming with laughter and then you're screaming because people in the audience, when they showed this in the theaters in the twenties, people were fainting. People were screaming because it's so real, because of how they shot it.

Tony Maietta:
Do you believe that, though, that what people were screaming? Yeah, I do, yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Because I know the, the Great Train Robbery, they say when the gun was pointed at the audience, people fainted too.

Tony Maietta:
Well, that was like 1900. I mean, that was.

Brad Shreve:
No, but I, you know, I think of War of The worlds and the radio show and all the, the stories behind that and the whole world panicking, which is a bunch of bullshit, I'll put it. And so when I hear these stories, I question them, but I trust the film historian because I kept seeing that.

Tony Maietta:
Well, the great, the Great train robbery was 1903. So, I mean, you're talking about the beginning of films, but it was because of the way they shot it. You know, this is. I mean, there were process shots happening in the 20s, but this is so real. People were like, how is he doing that? So when he. When one fate befalls him after another, after another, after another, it's just. You just get so caught up in it. Yeah, I think people really, really did.

Tony Maietta:
They really know. There were. There were nurses on hand, sometimes people fainted. People certainly screamed. And when you're with an audience, you're good, you're more into it. I saw this maybe 10 years ago, 15 years ago at UCLA with a. With the LA Philharmonic. It was a beautiful thing.

Tony Maietta:
And people were screaming and people were laughing and crying because it's just so. It's so well done. You just buy it. You just suspend that disbelief and go with them on it.

Brad Shreve:
You know why people shouldn't have been afraid in this film? Because Cecil B. DeMille was too busy making the Ten Commandments. That and Cecil B. DeMille is the movies where everybody died.

Tony Maietta:
Yes. Well, yes. Let's not get into Cecil B. DeMille, please. I can't go down a Cecil B. DeMille rabbit hole right now. I want to stay with harold in the 20s. And safety.

Brad Shreve:
Laughs. Okay, you got it.

Tony Maietta:
One other thing I love about safety last is that it is a visual metaphor for the 1920s. I mean, not only does it capture the sights of the 1920s and you being a LA aficionado, history aficionado, you have to love that. You have to love to see Los angeles in the 20s and how different it was than it is now. When you see those little tiny palm trees before they've grown and you realize now they're, you know, hundreds of feet tall and in this movie they look like bushes, they're so tiny, but they had just been planted.

Brad Shreve:
Loving the history of la. This was like totally an homage to la and. Oh, it is. What I really loved was the intersections which had no con, no control. I don't know how more people didn't die with all the cars going everywhere, willy nilly around trolley cars. And it was just crazy.

Tony Maietta:
Well, that's the thing. It's like this film captures the energy of the 20s that we always hear about it, the sights, I talked about it in My Best Girl, those crazy department stores where everybody is literally at each other's throats. So much energy. And it depicts the. As I said, it's like a metaphor of the 20s, but it's also a literal depiction of the 20s because it takes place in the 20s. But the climb, his climb up the side of the building is like a metaphor for the ambition of the twenties, people climbing their way up to success. And it's presented literally in this film as a man who climbs up the side of a building to. Well, we'll get to that.

Tony Maietta:
We'll get to why he's doing it. But before we get into the movie, I do want to talk about a little bit about Harold Lloyd. I'm not going to go too much into it like I did last year with Mary Pickford when I went off on that whole Mary Pickford tangent. I'm not going to do that. But it is important, I feel, to get a background on the man himself. If that's all right with you. I promise I won't make it too long.

Brad Shreve:
I want to hear it.

Tony Maietta:
So Harold Lloyd is often referred to as the air quotes third genius of silent comedy. In fact, there's a wonderful documentary called the Third Genius. And by third, he was. There was Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. They were the three big ones. However, at the time, Lloyd was actually the most financially successful of all of them. And that could be because from the time they started making features in 23 up till sound 29, he made 11 features and Charlie Chaplin made three. So that could also be a reason why he was the most financially successful of them all.

Tony Maietta:
But he was. His films were huge. His films were making millions of dollars back when a lot of films were making, you know, hundreds of thousands, if you can believe it. Lloyd is also called the father of romantic comedy because that's what his films are. In essence, they're romantic comedies. He was really the first romantic comedic leading man. That is a Jack Lemmon, that is a Tom Hanks. Do you get that from watching this film, Brad?

Brad Shreve:
Very much. I really like. Of the three big ones, Harold Lloyd's my favorite.

Tony Maietta:
My favorite too.

Brad Shreve:
I totally get that from watching this.

Tony Maietta:
Yes. I think, I mean, we'll get into

Brad Shreve:
why he's my favorite a little bit, but I totally get he was the leading man in a rom com.

Tony Maietta:
Obviously I get the genius of Keaton and I get the genius of Chaplin. I'm not saying that but for me personally, I find him. He's so appealing. First of all, he's so. He's so handsome. He was a very, very handsome man, you know, and he really did begin that whole romantic comedy genre. And the reason is, is because at this time when these, when films were starting all these, every comic at the time was pretty much mimicking Chaplin and what they were. Because Chaplin was so huge in the teens.

Tony Maietta:
I mean, he was just, you know, he exploded. And what that meant was that they were called what's called grotesques. Air quotes. And what that means is heavy makeup or big thick eyebrows, big mustaches. I mean, think of Charlie Chaplin's tramp. Same thing. They weren't people that you would see on the street in your daily life. And Harold Lloyd started out that way with a couple characters until he realized, he thought to himself, and they were pretty successful too.

Tony Maietta:
He didn't like it. He knew they could only go so far. And he did not want to be a pale version of Chaplin. He wanted to be an original character. And that is how he came up with what he called the glass character, which is the boy in the glasses. That's all. And that's all it is. And he looks like someone you would see on the street, right? He's just like this cute, adorable, young go getter out there that you could run into on the street sometime.

Tony Maietta:
He's not one of these crazy, you know, out of left field characters that so many of these comics were doing. And that's one of the reasons why he's often referred to as the father of romantic comedy.

Brad Shreve:
And that was exactly what I was gonna say when I said he was my favorite of the three. I love the other two very much. Charlie Chaplin, I really enjoy, but he's almost, for lack of a better word, he's almost like a clown. He's a character. And Harold Lloyd, I feel like I'm watching me like somebody I know. I love action and adventure story where it's an everyday person that's thrown into something. And that's why I kind of feel with Harold Lloyd, obviously exaggerated, but yes,

Tony Maietta:
an ordinary person in extraordinary situation. Yes, that. I mean, and this is a perfect example of this movie is a perfect example of that. He's just trying to do his best. And he has constantly is thwarted every turn by crazy, crazy things happening. Another reason why Lloyd is different than Chaplin and Keaton is that unlike Chaplin and Keaton, he did not learn his craft in vaudeville and the music halls. He began his career wanting to be a very serious Actor. And during one of his first jobs as an extra, he talked, started talking with another extra whose name was Hal Roach.

Tony Maietta:
And these two struck up a friendship. Now, if anybody doesn't know who Hal Roach is, Hal Roach is one of the biggest producers in the silent exception and early 30s era. Laurel and Hardy. He's the person who said, laurel, meet Hardy, Hardy meet Laurel. He put them together. He did the Our Gang comedy. So Hal Roach is a major player in early cinema. And what happened was, was that he felt that Harold had, was a brilliant actor who just happened to have this extraordinary gift for physical comedy.

Tony Maietta:
But he also worked, worked very hard at it. And you can see that this man is working in this movie. I mean, he does not have one moment of relaxation in this film. And so what happened was, was that Harold, Hal Roach had an insurance settlement from an accident he had, and he had all this money and he decided to open his own studio. And the first person he hired to be in his employ was Harold Lloyd. And that's when they started working together and developing these characters. And eventually they developed. And the genesis of the Glass character is disputed, but eventually, the important thing is eventually somebody said, put these glasses on and just be yourself.

Tony Maietta:
The best version of Harold Lloyd you can be. And that's how this character was born. And this character is very much like as you said, Brad, an everyday person. In all the films, every single one of these films, the character's name is always Harold.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, I caught that.

Tony Maietta:
This is the only film in which the character's name is actually Harold Lloyd. But in every other film his name is Harold. Because basically this is a version of Harold Lloyd. The, this is who he was. He was very, he was the go getter. He was ambitious, he was optimistic. He, he took life on. That's Harold Lloyd and that's the character he created.

Brad Shreve:
And going back to what you said about this doesn't stop. You know, I think of the Jason Bourne movies and I love Matt Damon, if nothing else, just to look at him. But I can't watch the Jason Bourne films because it's too much for me. It has nothing to do with the quality of the film. It's just too much. It doesn't stop. And I have to step. I had to walk out of the theater one time.

Brad Shreve:
This is the same thing. But I think because it's a comedy I enjoy because it, it. There is not a dull moment in this film.

Tony Maietta:
No, there's not. It never stops. And it's because it's a silent comedy because, you know Harold redid the climb later in sound in a movie called Feet First. And it is not nearly as funny with sound effects. You don't want to hear the gasps and the screams. And the. One of the reasons it's so funny and the climb works so well is because it's silent, because we're not hearing the terror that this character is really feeling. And another extraordinary thing about Harold Lloyd, and I'm interested to know if you knew this Harold Lloyd, the father of the thrill comedy, always doing these climbs, always doing these incredible physical stunts.

Tony Maietta:
Do you know he did it with really only one working hand?

Brad Shreve:
Yes, I did hear that. I did hear that. I didn't know it until after the movie. And I read that most people don't catch that he's wearing that glove.

Tony Maietta:
That's right. That's right. Because in 1919, he was holding a prop bomb in his hand for publicity photos. And he didn't realize it's still had a charge. And he went to put it down and the bomb exploded and he lost. I mean, he was very near death for a couple days. Wow. I didn't think he was ever gonna.

Tony Maietta:
He was gonna live, let alone work again. He lost his right index finger and his thumb, and they were gone. So he's like, oh, I can't. I don't have a career now. How can I possibly. Once he was recovering and Hal Roach happened to be really good friends with a man named Sam Goldwyn, who we talked about earlier last season, one of the moguls, Sam Goldwyn. And before Sam Goldwyn was a movie mogul. He just happened to be a glove salesman.

Tony Maietta:
And so Harold, a very successful glove salesman. And so Sam Goldwyn recommended a glove manufacturer who fashioned a very special glove for Harold Lloyd made out of lamb's skin with a fake forefinger and thumb. And the forefinger was attached to the middle finger so it would move when he moved the rest of his hand. So this is what he wore in the remainder of his films after 1919. So when he's climbing the side of this building, you have to realize not only is he doing a lot of this himself, he's doing it really with the use of only one hand, one and a half hands. Which is always astounding to me when I realize that.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, that is pretty amazing when you consider the stunts, the nun stunt after stunt after stunt. I was quite surprised when I saw that.

Tony Maietta:
I mean, the control this man had over his body. He was quite an athlete, like they all were. Like Chaplin was. Like Keaton was, you had to be. To do these stunts, to do any of these physical bits they did in the silent comedies, you had to have. You had to be an athlete. You just did. But I find it amazing, is that he didn't start out that way.

Tony Maietta:
He didn't. He wasn't trained like Chaplin and Keaton from childhood on to do these things. He learned it as he went, and he became right up there with them in the pantheon. It's fascinating. So. So that's what I like to say about Harold Lloyd. And we can talk a little bit more about him at the end. I do want to start talking about this movie, though, because there's a lot to talk about in this movie.

Tony Maietta:
And I'm. I'm excited to get your. Your take on it and what your thoughts were since you had never seen it before.

Brad Shreve:
Like I said, I. It was. You know, I never knew what to expect. I knew it was going to be a comedy. I. Even though I'd seen the pictures before, I didn't think about the fact that it was also going to be thrilling. I knew it would. I didn't know it would be as much.

Brad Shreve:
And you talked about his. His athletic prowess that he had to have. And actually, watching this film, I kept thinking of the actors and I was thinking it was exhausting in general. I don't mean this in a bad way, but, you know, in silent film, they had to be exaggerated.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And all of them were so exaggerated. And not in a way I've seen it where it's distracting and it wasn't distracting in this film. It added to the humor. But I kept watching all of them. I'm like, my God, that must have been tiring to do that.

Tony Maietta:
Exhausting. But he was, you know, he was young, too, but still, the energy required.

Brad Shreve:
Exactly. Every character. I just really enjoyed the ones you're supposed to hate. I hated the lovely woman that turned out to be his wife. She was gorgeous.

Tony Maietta:
Mildred.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, Mildred. It was just plain fun. It was a fun film. It was. I knew it was gonna be short because most silent films are. I was surprised, actually, as long as 70 minutes. But it was a good 70 minutes. It flew by.

Tony Maietta:
It flies by. It flies by. So before we get into the film, let's talk about. Since you mentioned Mildred, let's just briefly touch on this cast. I'll list them, and maybe we can talk a little bit. You can talk a little bit about what this movie is about. So we have Mr. Harold Lloyd.

Tony Maietta:
As Harold Lloyd, as I said, that's his character's name. Harold Lloyd. It was always Harold. It wasn't Lloyd, but it was Harold Lloyd, also referred to as the boy. We had Mildred Davis as the girl who's Harold's girlfriend and also his girlfriend in real life. And this was actually the last film she made. After this they got married and then she retired from films. So this is her last film with Harold.

Tony Maietta:
We have Bill Strother as Bill. Air quotes, Limpy Bill, who's his pal, who is the human Spider, the fly, the. Whatever you want to call it.

Brad Shreve:
The first Spider Man.

Tony Maietta:
Yes, exactly. The guy who was actually adept at climbing the sides of buildings. He didn't in real life. And there's a story behind how he ends up in this film. And then everybody else is just pretty much your standard archetype. Comic characters. We have Noah Young as Policeman Westcott Clark as Mr. Stubbs, the floor walker, who's a very, very funny, funny character.

Brad Shreve:
I loved him.

Tony Maietta:
I think one of the title cards said he's muscle bound from constantly patting himself on the back or something like that. So it's great. And what I. The one I do want to point out though is the actor named Earl Mohan, who plays the drunk who kind of is in the climb scene. He was the actor that many people cite to as the inspiration for the glasses character because he was in a film where he wore glasses with Harold. And when Harold wasn't playing this glass character, he was playing Lonesome Luke, another character he did and he was kind of the inspiration. But anyway, so this film was directed by Fred Neumeyer and Sam Taylor, who also directed our film last year, My Best Girl. It was written by H.M.

Tony Maietta:
walker and Harold Lloyd with a story by Hal Roach, Sam Taylor and Lloyd. And as I said, it's from 1923. So, Brad, do you want to tell the people a little bit of the plot of Safety Last?

Brad Shreve:
Absolutely. And first of all, I'm going to talk about the beginning because I. I was shocked.

Tony Maietta:
Did that surprise you?

Brad Shreve:
It surprised me. And for those that don't know, it opens up with Harold Lloyd behind bars. And was it his grandmother? They had very short roles. I don't exactly, but two women.

Tony Maietta:
It was. It was Mildred's mother, his future mother in law.

Brad Shreve:
And Mildred.

Tony Maietta:
Correct.

Brad Shreve:
So they were crying and bawling and so Harold's behind bars and you see a noose behind him. I'm thinking this is really coming out grim. And I thought, I don't remember them doing a lot of flashbacks back then. This must be a flashback. And we're gonna watch how he Wound up on death row. And it kind of creeped me out. And of course, then they step out and he's at a train station and the rope was there so the conductor can just grab a note when they drove by. So it's really well done.

Brad Shreve:
That impressed me.

Tony Maietta:
So fun. He frequently started his movies with that kind of a switch, with that kind of gotcha, you know, like a double. Like his double switch.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah.

Tony Maietta:
It's very funny. Very funny opening.

Brad Shreve:
It certainly got me. What this film is pretty much about is Harold is lying to his girlfriend from beginning to end. His fiance, what he does, he wants to go the big city to make it big. And he and his loved one decide that once that happens, they'll get married. Once he gets there and can settle and has a good career, well, you know, that doesn't happen. Time passes and he is still working as a clerk in a department store. And he writes the rail almost every day. He only writes her on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Tony Maietta:
That's all.

Brad Shreve:
That's all. And she loves every letter she gets from him. And so anyway, he goes to the big city and there's some really funny moments showing him as a clerk. And then she decides she's going to come to town because she's seen how big he's gotten because he's. He's basically pawning off stuff to buy her jewelry. And she doesn't know this.

Tony Maietta:
He can't. He. He's building himself up to her like he's this big success and so. But he's not. He's just working as a clerk. And he keeps sending her these expensive gifts that, you know, he foregoes dinner, he forgoes meals in order to send her necklaces and trinkets. So she thinks he's a big success.

Brad Shreve:
Yes.

Tony Maietta:
So the mother says, you better get your ass to the city. Keep an eye on this guy, because if he's this big a success, he ain't going to last single very long.

Brad Shreve:
Exactly.

Tony Maietta:
So she really goes to the city to. To. To snap him and to nab him into getting married. Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Yep. So. And actually, one thing that I thought was really well done, to show that he has given up all his money, he is buying her this lavalier, which I've never heard a lavalier called anything but a microphone. But it's. It's basically like a necklace kind of thing. Yeah. And he wants to buy a chain for it. And the chain is $15.50, which must have been an outrageous price back then.

Brad Shreve:
And he is Having to pay for this. And he looks at the diner across the street and they have a full meal for, what is it, 50 cents?

Tony Maietta:
Something like that.

Brad Shreve:
And as he's given over the money to the pawns or to the seller, you're seeing each entree or each item on the plate vanish and vanish. And then the plate is empty because he gives them all his money. And you see him holding his stomach and he walks away. So I thought that was really well done as well.

Tony Maietta:
What did he do? Anyway, he walks out of the store and he tightens his belt, lifts up his shoulders and walks on. And that's Harold Lloyd. It's like, okay, well, we're going to go. Here we go. You know what I mean? It's. It's great. It's great.

Brad Shreve:
I'm going to go hungry because I love her. Anyway, she shows up and he has to pretend that he is a bigger success than he is. And so he's trying to do that while making sure he didn't get caught by his manager or the store general manager. And comedy ensues as he gets into a lot of madcap adventures ending with him having to climb up the side of the building to basically get money so they can get married.

Tony Maietta:
Right. What happens is, is that she comes and visit him at the store. And I love all the things he does to distract her so she doesn't realize he's just a clerk. It's so many brilliant little bits they go through. But the boss needs publicity, and he says, and the first person to bring me a good idea of publicity gets $1,000. And Harold's like, oh, this is my making. This is my making. What can I do? Well, he remembers seeing a friend of his, this human spider, climbing up the side of a building to get away from a cop earlier.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, his friend. It's his best friend and also his roommate, I think, at the boarding house.

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
And he works construction. And if you remember those old pictures of the guy sitting on the beams, there is a flash of his friend up there with another guy doing that. Yeah. So that's why he's such a good climber up the side of buildings.

Tony Maietta:
So he has the idea that his. This will be a great publicity stunt to have his friend climb up the side of the department store and all these people will gather. Well, his friend gets in trouble with the policeman, with this policeman, so he can't begin the climb. He's. He yells back to Harold, you go ahead and start. I'll meet you on the second or third floor. And then I'll take over. Well, the guy never really gets there.

Tony Maietta:
What. What happens with the guy?

Brad Shreve:
Well, what happened is the Herald pulled a stunt on his friend by having him pushed over a police officer. And it was all supposed to be in fun, but it went wrong. And so the police officer was chasing his friend, and that's why his friend kept having to go floor to floor. So he's like, come up to the third floor and we'll switch. You climb in the window, and I'll put on your hat and your coat, and nobody will know the difference. Well, because the police officer kept chasing him in the building. He'd go up to the next floor and say, one more. You can make it.

Brad Shreve:
You want to make it. And then the cop would come in. The guy would run again, and once he lost the cop, he would go to the next floor and say, one more, one more. And each time you see, like, Harold looks like, oh, my God. And he keeps looking down at the ground, and you see this terror in his face. And so that just keeps happening over and over as. As the cop keeps chasing his friend, his friend gets away and he goes up to the next story. So of course, we're seeing Harold climb up the side of that building.

Tony Maietta:
So. Yeah. So long story short, Harold is the one who has. Who has to do the climb all the way up the side of the building. And that's basically it. That's the centerpiece of Safety Last is the climb. And I have a little bit of background about the climb and how it all came about. But the most important thing to remember is this is the twenties.

Tony Maietta:
This is the era of these kinds of things. The stunts, you know, you had your flagpole sitters, you had your wing walk ears, the aerial stunts, and these kind of human spiders who would actually make money by climbing up the sides of buildings. And they would attract a crowd and they would get money for this. Well, Harold witnessed this happening one afternoon in downtown Los Angeles. And it was Bill Strother, the guy who plays Limpy Bill in this movie. And he said it was. He was mesmerized by this. He said it was.

Tony Maietta:
He was mesmerized. He was frightened, he was nervous, he was exhilarated. He was all these things because it really was amazing to see this person climb up the side of the building, not know if they're going to fall to their death. So, you know, again, this is the era. And he said he would start to walk away, but then he had to turn around and look to make sure the guy and then he would run away again to get so nervous. And then he turned around and look. So when the guy made it to the top safely, that's when he went back to the building and he went up to the roof where Limpy Bill now was and, and said, you got to come to my studio. We got to do this.

Tony Maietta:
So that's how the idea, the genesis of this kind of the centerpiece of the climb came about. And I want to ask you. I know, go ahead.

Brad Shreve:
I want to say one thing about Limpy Bill that really is very cool to me, that I learned is his greatest feat. He did this when the Woolworth Building in New York City was the tallest building in the world.

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
He climbed up 57 stories to the top of that building. That is insane.

Tony Maietta:
It is nuts.

Brad Shreve:
They didn't have all the safety features that we do today.

Tony Maietta:
No, it's insane.

Brad Shreve:
They just did it.

Tony Maietta:
No, it's, it's, it's amazing. And what I wanted, what I wanted to ask you was knowing what a fan you are of Los Angeles, history and topography of Los Angeles. And I think what people don't. People, for some reason, even though we have the Hollywood Hills and we have the Valley and, you know, the Basin and all that stuff, I think people have an idea of Los Angeles as being flat still. And it was never downtown. LA in particular was not flat. It was very, very hilly back in the 20s and 30s. In fact, there's a street called Hill street, which is kind of the genesis of all this big hills.

Tony Maietta:
And there was a tunnel that went through Hill street called the Hill Street Tunnel. And on top of that hill, on top of the hill on Hill street was a mansion called the Bradbury Mansion. And this is where many, believe it or not, many silent production companies were. This is where Harold Lloyd and Hal Roach were. And this is how this whole thing started. Do you know anything about the genesis of how this, how the climb was shot and the perspective and anything like that?

Brad Shreve:
I do, I do. You know, I'm such a LA history buff, I've got to say that there was an area called Bunker Hill, which was a very wealthy district that overlooked LA and Angel's Flight, if you're familiar with it. The tram that goes from downtown up a hill that went up to Bunker Hill. And unfortunately, all those people, when the roads came in, the trolley cars actually came in, they moved to Beverly Hills, into Pasadena. Today that whole land is flat, flat. It was flattened, just flattened it. They flattened it to put in buildings. And LA really doesn't have many tall buildings.

Brad Shreve:
But that's pretty amazing because I was actually loving it. I was seeing Old LA and it. You could tell it was Los Angeles.

Tony Maietta:
It's fascinating. It's fascinating to see how the city was. They just. Yeah. Angel's Flight, of course, is still here. But there was another one of those funiculars. Is that right? Funicular. Funicular.

Tony Maietta:
The thing that goes up the side of the hill. Because it's a big hill and people don't want to walk up it. That you basically sit on it. In Pittsburgh, we call them the incline.

Brad Shreve:
Yes.

Tony Maietta:
And you go up the side of the hill. So they basically flattened it. But, yeah, at this time, Hill street was a hill. And at the top of the hill was called Court Hill. And there was a railing on the top of Court Hill. And what happened was. And this is how it all happened. People realized that if you did not.

Tony Maietta:
If you were filming something and you were shooting it, but you didn't get, say, the balustrade of Court Hill, if you didn't have a perspective on where the ground was. And you just shot somebody without the ground in the frame. And it looked like somebody was up in the middle of the air. Up in the air, in the middle of the. You know, in the middle of the sky, whatever. And people are like, oh, this is fascinating. So Harold actually first utilized it in a film called Look Out Below and which he and his co star at the time, her name was B.B. daniels.

Tony Maietta:
They are perched on this dangling girder and it looks like they are high above downtown Los Angeles. But in reality, they're only about 7, 8ft above ground because they're at Court Hill and the ground is like just seven feet below. But the way it's shot through the perspective, it creates the illusion that they're up in the air. And that is how all of these thrill pictures of his were filmed. It's all about perspective. And that's how this special effect was achieved. Wasn't a process shot. No cgi, it was literally shot the way it was.

Tony Maietta:
You just. It was all an illusion, which I think is so brilliant.

Brad Shreve:
And you asked me if I knew how they did in this film. It was so simple because I'm like, how did they do this? Because it looked like he was climbing. You could tell it wasn't cgi. It didn't even exist. But you could tell there was no kind of filming tricks that, you know, they did with the. With special effects, whatever they had at the time. And I'm like, how did they do this? And it Was more simple than a girder. They were just on the roof of buildings, and they kept going up taller and taller buildings and just had this platform.

Brad Shreve:
They kept moving the wall, whatever he was that was climbing, and kept moving it up. And it was so simple. But you watch it and you think, for sure, he is far above the streets of Los Angeles.

Tony Maietta:
It's astounding. The simplicity of it is so astounding when you really think about it. So they built a set on top of a building, and they shot it. So you didn't see the roof of the building the set was on. So when he's climbing up the side of the building, it looks like he's on this big skyscraper because all you see is the skyscrapers behind him. You see the large buildings. So it truly feeds the illusion that he's climbing up a building. It is so genius.

Tony Maietta:
And, you know, he guarded that secret because it was still dangerous. He was still climbing about, you know, 17, 18ft. He could have fallen, hit the mattress and bounced off and fallen off the side. In fact, he did that with a dummy. Did that. And he said, boys, we better check this out again, because the bump, the dummy went flying off the side of the building and onto the street. So it was still dangerous, especially if you had the use of, you know, one and a half hands. But it was a lot easier than climbing up the side of a building.

Tony Maietta:
Yes, basically. You know, it gave the illusion that he was. And they used. I wonder if you notice this. They use three different locations, the tops of three different buildings. And the background does change. Did you notice that?

Brad Shreve:
I did notice the background change. And I also noticed the building changed because as he went up, they all had different kind of carving into the windows and that kind of thing.

Tony Maietta:
Right, but that a lot of buildings are.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, but that's rather than.

Tony Maietta:
As you go up, they change.

Brad Shreve:
But I said they kept moving the set, but actually, that's not real. They actually kept. They kept putting new sets in, which it's great for that time. You would think they would save money and just kept moving the exact same building. I mean, who would have known? But you could tell. They definitely did not do that.

Tony Maietta:
No. And for the long shots, the building with the clock on it is at 9th and Broadway. And they actually went and put that clock on that building. So it matched in the shots. So there were three different locations. Yes, and exactly. They would just take a different facade, put it on top of the next building. And so it looked like he was going higher and higher and higher and the background doesn't change, but honestly, who cares? You don't really even think of it.

Tony Maietta:
You don't think of it until someone points it out. Like that building. Where'd that building come from? It wasn't there. You just think, oh, he's at a different height, he's at a different level, so it looks different up there. That's my take on it. That's my take on it.

Brad Shreve:
You know, you're right. Now that you. I didn't catch that, but now that you mention it, I did notice the different buildings in the background.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, it's just, it's.

Brad Shreve:
But didn't click. I mean, I did, but I didn't.

Tony Maietta:
So the long shots of the building when. When the camera's on the ground and they're shooting up and you see Limpy Bill climbing up and you see the clock, that is the International bank building in downtown la. And they put that clock on a fake clock so it would match when they were filming up close. And Harold has the very famous scene of, you know, grabbing onto the clock handle and falling down. What I love about this, I love the climb. I mean, the things that he. The things that he encounters on this climb. It's not just a straight climb, folks, okay? He encounters pigeons who.

Tony Maietta:
He can't. It won't get off them. A net falls on him. He has to deal with the clock. He has a mouse that climbs up his pant leg.

Brad Shreve:
Yes, I love the mouse.

Tony Maietta:
He has a dog that attacks him. He. He goes out on a flagpole and he's hanging there and the flagpole snaps. He thinks somebody's shooting him. It is one thing after the other. But what is so genius about this is that it is all set up so logically that it.

Brad Shreve:
You.

Tony Maietta:
Not for one, at least me, this filmgoer, not for one moment do I go, oh, that's too much. Because they set it up so beautifully.

Brad Shreve:
The guy pointing the gun at him was, I think, one of the most clever things I'd seen. Because if somebody said, well, we want a guy that looks like he's going to shoot him, I would have thought, God, how are we going to do that? And this was a guy in a photography studio who was posing with a gun. And so when the shade came open, the guy's pointing the gun right at Harold Lloyd. And I'm like, that was really clever. I don't know if I would have thought of that.

Tony Maietta:
I know, it's. It's amazing, right? All the. All the.

Brad Shreve:
And of course he's terrified.

Tony Maietta:
The Things he encounters. And then when the. And then that guy with the. The guy who leans out the window and starts yelling at him. And then the mouse gets in Harold's pant leg and he shakes it out and it falls on the guy's toupee. Pulls the toupee. There is always a payoff. There's always one or more payoffs.

Tony Maietta:
And then he finally gets. And then his girlfriend, Mildred, has been horrified. She runs. She comes to the building and she realizes that's Harold climbing the building. And she runs up to the roof, and he finally makes it to the top. And you think he's home free, he's clear. But there's one of those weather things that circles around him and around him and around wind speed. Wind, yes.

Tony Maietta:
And it's got balls on it. And he doesn't see it because he's crouched down. And there's a couple times where he gets up and you think he's gonna hit. Crouches down again. And then he gets up and he crouches down again. It's the rule of threes. So you know in the third time it's gonna hit him. And the third time he gets up, he.

Tony Maietta:
It hits him and he starts staggering around. And you're like, oh, no, this guy went through all this and he's going to fall off the side of the building, but his foot gets caught up in a rope. And as he falls, he swings back and forth and back and forth until he finally swings up onto the roof into the arms of Mildred, who's waiting there for him. And he's safe. He's on safe ground. Except that's not it. He's so happy to see Mildred, and he's so happy the thing's over. You think they're going to walk off into the sunset and happily ever after, and they're not paying any attention to where he's walking and he walks into tar.

Tony Maietta:
And as he's walking, one shoe comes off, then the other shoe comes off, and the sock comes off. And the sock. I mean, they were constantly topping each other with stuff like this. And it's just a perfect, perfect film, in my opinion.

Brad Shreve:
There's no scene where he's just climbing up the building. Yeah, none. Even if there's not an obstacle that is in his way, he is still struggling, his feet hanging down or what? Like I said, there's never a dull moment in it.

Tony Maietta:
There's never a dull moment. There's never a dull moment. You know, the iconic scene of him out on the clock hand and the Clock. It's just, it's so logical. I think that's what I love about it. It makes so much. Just like the special effects make so much sense when you think about it. Oh, that makes perfect sense.

Tony Maietta:
They filmed it that way. The climb, everything that happens to him is so logical and is grounded in reality. This could really happen. It's kind of like, I hate to say it, but it's a Lucy moment here. It's kind of like Lucy. Lucy was best when it was logical, when it made sense.

Brad Shreve:
I think Tony sits at home to say, how am I going to get a Lucy moment in this episode?

Tony Maietta:
How am I going to wedge a Lucy moment into this, this silent film from 1923? But it makes sense. And when it doesn't work is when it makes no sense. It's not logical. And that's what these comics did. Did you notice? And if you go back to see it again, folks, just some behind the scenes stuff. So they had to. They put in special grips, you know, because the building has basically what Harold's climbing up are those blocks in the cement blocks on the side of a building, like buildings in the 20s had. They had those blocks that you would climb up and that's what these human spiders would climb up.

Tony Maietta:
And they built. Obviously they built in special grips for Harold who again, one and a half hands to grab onto so he had something to hold on to while he was climbing. And they also. He also had special shoes which had little, like little things on the toes so he could grip in as he was climbing. Because, you know, as I said, yeah, he wasn't climbing up a real skyscraper, but he could still have fallen and he could still have gotten hurt from 18ft. So it's kind of interesting when you see the mechanics behind that.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, it is there it is pretty amazing. They did such a good job.

Tony Maietta:
So, Brad, why don't you tell us a little bit about the stats on this movie. But before you do that, I think maybe you might have something you want to say to the people.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, you know, they may have heard this once or twice and they're going to hear it again. If you're this far into the show, you at least like the show. Hopefully you love the show. So please go to Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to the show and rate and review so that others can see that others like the show and maybe they'll click on it and listen in as well.

Tony Maietta:
Absolutely.

Brad Shreve:
That is how Tony and I get paid.

Tony Maietta:
That is how we get paid. Not literally, but in your affection in your affection.

Brad Shreve:
Someday, if you keep doing that, we may have a major sponsorship with better help.

Tony Maietta:
We gotta climb the side of a building in order to do that. And I'm not in my late 20s like Mr. Lloyd was. So. Anyway, yes, people, thank you for doing that. We're gonna read some reviews pretty soon. We're. We're putting them together.

Tony Maietta:
So stay tuned for an episode where we're gonna read some of the lovely things you said. And, of course, your suggestions were always. We have a couple films coming up which were listener suggestions. So. So just. I want to talk a little bit about the legacy of this film as we're wrapping up, obviously.

Brad Shreve:
Hold on.

Tony Maietta:
You.

Brad Shreve:
You told me to do the stats.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, God. You didn't do the stats. That's right. You're right.

Brad Shreve:
So the first thing I got to say about this film is the amount of money it made, which is absolutely astounding. It was made for $121,000, which sounds like a huge amount to me back in 1923. But given, first of all, they had so many extras, even if they gave him a nickel a piece, the cost of fortune, and then the sets and everything else. So it's $121,000. But, you know, I kind of think it was money well spent because in 1923, they made $1.5 million, more than 10 times what they made it for.

Tony Maietta:
Isn't that amazing? Isn't that incredible? Well, I told you he was. He was the most popular silent comic in the 20s. He was. That's incredible.

Brad Shreve:
And the thing. The thing is, this film was number four at the box office that year. And when you think that they made $1.5 million, number one was the Ten Commandments, which grossed $4 million. But you know what? I bet that film cost an absolute fortune to make.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Same thing with the next one, which was a covered wagon, and the next one, which is the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Which. Or Notre Dame. Whichever you prefer. So given that all big, I think they were probably made for a lot. They're. Oh, yeah, they're epic films, but I Almost certain. Certain that they probably did not make as much money as this little femme.

Tony Maietta:
That's amazing. I mean, I can't even imagine, adjusted for inflation. It's got to be. It's. It's huge. His films routinely made in the millions, which was unusual. Buster Keaton's did not. That's why I was saying earlier about Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd and how Lloyd was the most financially successful of these big three because his films routinely made in the millions.

Tony Maietta:
You know, his most successful film, the Freshman did double that. What, what Safety Last did. So, I mean, his films routinely made in the millions. He was a huge, huge star. And no surprise, after these films, a very, very rich man. A very rich man. Do you know anything about Green Acres, his estate? Not the TV show. I know you love Green Acres, his estate in Beverly Hills.

Brad Shreve:
No, I know that's where he died, but no, I didn't know.

Tony Maietta:
So he started. So he built. I mean he was making so much money and he had a huge percentage of this. I guess I want to say he left eventually. He left Hal Roach and created his own production company. And he had this deal with Paramount where he, his percentages were ridiculous. He didn't get 100%, but he got damn close to 100% of the profits for these films. So he was a very, very wealthy man.

Tony Maietta:
And he also invested, as they all did, in real estate. You know, if Mary Pickford owned one half of Beverly Hills, he owned the other. And he had, he built this incredible estate called Green Acres. It had. It took him three years to build it from 26 to 29, 44 rooms, 26 bathrooms, 12 fountains, 12 gardens and a nine hole golf course on this estate. And when Harold Lloyd. And it's beautiful, it's like an Italian villa. When Harold Lloyd died in 1971, they sold off some of the land and they subdivided the land into 15 home plots.

Tony Maietta:
15. And the mansion is still there, you know, the original Green Acres with some land around it, still rare. So there's a, there's, I think it's called Green Acres Drive off of Benedict Canyon. So if you ever come back to la. So Green Acres Drive is actually the original estate of Harold Lloyd that had all of these things on it. And now it's just Green Acres Drive. And. But the estate itself is still there.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah. Insanely wealthy.

Brad Shreve:
I can't believe I didn't know that because my last novel I wrote, a lot of it took place in Beverly Hills. And so I drove all over. I did a lot of research on mansions and that sort of thing. So that really surprises me that I didn't know that. I do have a question for the film historian because this is something I was curious about.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, gon test me.

Brad Shreve:
His last film was in 1947 and he died.

Tony Maietta:
Very sad.

Brad Shreve:
25 years later.

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
And I want to know why that was. And I was wondering if it was the success of his studio that made

Tony Maietta:
that happen, that he could live after from 47 to 71 that he didn't work in.

Brad Shreve:
I thought maybe he's too busy. Obviously he had a lot of money and I don't know.

Tony Maietta:
No, there's a story. There's a. Definitely. So, yes, his last film is very sad. His last film was called the Sin of Harold Dittelbach, which is basically the story of what happened to the character from the Freshman, his most famous film, 20 years later. And it was actually directed by Preston Sturges, who is an icon of of 40s comedies. And he was a huge fan of Harold Lloyd. But it was a disaster.

Tony Maietta:
The two men did not get along. The film was released, chopped Up. It was a huge, huge bomb. And what happened was. So if I go back a little bit. So, you know, after Safety Last, Harold Lloyd went on to make so many more iconic films of the silent era. He made a film called Girl Shy, in which. Which has one of the very first.

Tony Maietta:
The boy races to the church to stop the wedding of his girlfriend, which, if you know anything about a little movie called the Graduate, happens in the Graduate. So Mike Nichols can thank Harold Lloyd for that, was an inspiration for that. He did one called Grandma's Boy, the Kid Brother. As I said, the Freshman, which was the second most successful comedy of the silent era. The Gold rush from Chaplin was first. And then his last silent film was my favorite film of his called Speedy, which is a one which is filmed in New York. So what I love about Speedy, it's a fun movie. But you get the same kind of taste of New York in the 20s as you do of LA in the 20s, in safety of last.

Tony Maietta:
That's a lot of fun. So after Speedy, what happened? Sound came in, talkies came in. And he wasn't afraid of talkies at all. He had a very, very pleasant baritone voice. In fact, he was so gung ho about it, he'd already finished one film called welcome Danger, which was silent. And he realized, oh, we got to remake this thing. So he totally remade a new. He made a brand new same film, but they made it in sound.

Tony Maietta:
And for a long time, the silent version of welcome Danger was thought to be lost. But then it was discovered and I saw it. And I've also seen the sound version of welcome Danger. And even though it is like a lot of early talkies, it is not a good film. It was not. It's just not. Early talkies are very hard, very hard to watch. But it was a huge hit because people all wanted to hear.

Tony Maietta:
All wanted to hear what Harold Lloyd sounded Like, just like with Mary Pickford, usually their first talkies were big hits. Financially, it was the second ones. And that's what happened to Harold. His films after welcome Danger, less and less money at the box office. But it wasn't because he was a victim of the talkies. And it was more along the lines that he was a victim of the depression because his character was suddenly out of sync with the times. You know, he's not the. In the 20s, it was perfect.

Tony Maietta:
He was ambitious, he was a go getter, he was optimistic. Well, suddenly we're living through a depression. And that character was very much out of step with what was going on. So he kind of, he made three, four, five movies and he was just. His career was just limping along, but he had so much money, you know, it didn't really matter to him. So when he made after the, after the Disaster of the Sin of Harold Dittelbach, he realized, you know what? I'm done. I'm done. He spent the rest of his life with his hobbies, with his family.

Tony Maietta:
He was a very, very notable 3D photographer. He took photos of Marilyn Monroe and he just, he just lived the rest of his life with his family and enjoying his life. And then he died in 1971. So he had. His life was not nearly as tragic as so many other silent stars. Like, we talked about Mary Pickford, you know, sitting up in her bedroom, drinking herself basically into a coma. And then death wasn't. He was a very active guy.

Tony Maietta:
He was active with the Shriners, he was active with Kiwanis. He had his hobbies, he did charities. He just didn't make movies anymore. He produced some. He just didn't make them anymore. And.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, and I want to add something that I think is beautiful about his life and that is, you know, this is back when divorce was. No, you didn't divorce. It just wasn't allowed. Except Hollywood, you know, people kept divorcing, divorcing. People kind of accepted in Hollywood. He and Mildred were together for 47 years.

Tony Maietta:
Amazing. Three kids. Three kids. And he also raised his granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, who was really the custodian of the. His incredible art. She, she makes sure these films were preserved. She makes sure these films are seen correctly and that they're seen. And she works very hard and tirelessly to get Harold's name out there and make people realize.

Tony Maietta:
There were three. There was Chaplin, there was Keaton, and there was Lloyd.

Brad Shreve:
So getting back to his big time era, I want to talk about how this movie was received, not just financially, but the critics and such. I'm gonna get a little dark here for a second, because part of the money that came in from this movie, there was a man that was hired to climb a building and to promote this film. And unfortunately, he fell to his death. But. But sadly, that made the movie more popular. He was climbing a hotel. He was paid $50 with safety last on the back of his jacket. He was climbing a hotel in New York City, and he fell to his death.

Brad Shreve:
Ten stories. And it got so much public awareness. They think it was part of the success, at least in New York City. So I had to get a little dark because I found that fascinating because that era, you know, dark, Coda, it wasn't a very. Yeah, but this movie. New York Times just thought this was an incredible film. They gave it very positive reviews. Photoplay predicted it would become a classic.

Brad Shreve:
I think maybe they were right.

Tony Maietta:
I think they were right.

Brad Shreve:
Audiences, he said, were fainting. Theater manager in Portland, Oregon, said that the audience were tearing the arms off the chairs and also laughing so loud the organist couldn't hear himself play. So people loved it. In addition, you know, we sometimes hear about movies that are huge blockbusters and. But they're really not great films. No, people love this film. And with time passing, it was inducted into the US National Film Registry in 1994. It Rotten Tomatoes.

Brad Shreve:
The critics scores come to an average of 97%. So critics obviously liked it. And the audience. We got a smart group of people because the audience score averages 93%.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, I mean. I mean, there's no arguing with that. I mean, you know, and I really feel like this film, as I said, he had films that were even more successful, that went on financially. The Freshman, which is 1925, which is the film I said was the character that than was in his last film, started this whole craze for football films. And I know people have seen scenes from silent films that are football college films. Basically. Buster Keaton did a film called College because of the Freshman. But I really think history has shown that even though some of these films are wonderful and I love them, I love Speedy.

Tony Maietta:
I love Girl Shy, Safety Last. If you ever want to show somebody a silent film and people really get them to understand the artistry and the brilliance of these people, show them this movie. There's nothing like it. There is nothing. Nothing else can touch it. It is. It's truly his crowning achievement in film. He had a lot of wonderful films, folks, and I urge people, especially that they're available on YouTube, to go watch them, because I guarantee you, you will have a blast watching them with other people.

Tony Maietta:
And just start with Safety Last, because you're going to start with the best, and this truly is the best.

Brad Shreve:
I do want to add one more thing, because this is Roger Ebert, and I think he's absolutely right. This gets into us talking about the Big Three. Roger Ebert wrote, lloyd is a real man climbing a building. Keaton is an instrument of cosmic fate and Chaplin is a visitor from the universe in his own mind. And that I agree with. And I think that is why Lloyd was so popular and made so much money. Because you could connect with this man.

Tony Maietta:
Yes, he's a man of the people. He's a man of the people. Chaplin was an artist unto his own. And the intellectuals love Keaton. I do too. But the intellectuals love Keaton. But Harold Lloyd was the man, the common man himself in extraordinary situations. And I think that's what gives this film its energy and its true drive.

Tony Maietta:
And it just. It's fun. It's just a fun movie. So. Well, that was Safety Last, folks. We did another silent film. Thanks, Brad. I appreciate that.

Tony Maietta:
That's all we got to say, I think. And unless there's something else for you to say. I only have one more thing to say, but, you know, I don't want to say it. So let's not say goodbye. Let's just say au revoir.

Brad Shreve:
No, let's say goodbye.

Tony Maietta:
Bye, everybody.