''Safety Last!'' is a 1923 American silent

romantic-comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film starring

Harold Lloyd Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary '' Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55. One of the most influential film c ...

. It includes one of the most famous images from the

silent-film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...

era: Lloyd clutching the hands of a large clock as he dangles from the outside of a skyscraper above moving traffic. The film was highly successful and critically hailed, and it cemented Lloyd's status as a major figure in early motion pictures. It is still popular at revivals, and it is viewed today as one of the great film comedies. The film's title is a play on the common expression "safety first", which prioritizes safety as a means to avoid accidents, especially in workplaces. Lloyd performed some of the climbing stunts himself, despite having lost a thumb and forefinger four years earlier in a film accident. In 1994, ''Safety Last!'' was selected for preservation in the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is one of many works from 1923 that notably entered the

public domain in the United States Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by intellectual property rights (such as copyright) at all, or if the intellectual property rights to the works have expired. All works first published or released in the United States b ...

in 2019, the first time any works have done so in 20 years.

Plot

The film opens in 1922, with Harold Lloyd (the character has the same name as the actor) behind bars. His mother and his girlfriend, Mildred, are consoling him as a somber official and priest show up. The three of them walk toward what looks like a

noose A noose is a loop at the end of a rope in which the knot tightens under load and can be loosened without untying the knot. The knot can be used to secure a rope to a post, pole, or animal but only where the end is in a position that the loop can ...

. It then becomes obvious they are at a train station and the "noose" is actually a trackside pickup hoop used by train crews to receive orders without stopping, and the bars are merely the ticket barrier. He promises to send for his girlfriend so they can get married once he has "made good" in the big city. Then he is off. He gets a job as a salesclerk at the De Vore Department Store, where he has to pull various stunts to get out of trouble with the picky and arrogantly self-important head floorwalker, Mr. Stubbs. He shares a rented room with his pal "Limpy" Bill, a construction worker. When Harold finishes his shift, he sees an old friend from his hometown who is now a policeman walking the beat. After he leaves, Bill shows up. Bragging to Bill about his supposed influence with the police department, he persuades Bill to knock the policeman backwards over him while the man is using a

callbox A call box or callbox is a (usually metal) box containing a special-purpose direct line telephone or other telecommunications device which has been used by various industries and institutions as a way for employees or clients at a remote loca ...

. When Bill does so, he knocks over the wrong policeman. To escape, he climbs up the

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

of a building. The policeman tries to follow, but cannot get past the first floor; in frustration, he shouts at Bill, "You'll do time for this! The first time I lay eyes on you again, I'll pinch you!" Meanwhile, Harold has been hiding his lack of success by sending his girlfriend expensive presents he cannot really afford. She mistakenly thinks he is successful enough to support a family and, with his mother's encouragement, takes a train to join him. In his embarrassment, he has to pretend to be the general manager, even succeeding in impersonating him to get back at Stubbs. While going to retrieve her purse (which Mildred left in the manager's office), he overhears the real general manager say he would give $1,000 to anyone who could attract people to the store. He remembers Bill's talent and pitches the idea of having a man climb the " 12-story Bolton building", which De Vore's occupies. He gets Bill to agree to do it by offering him $500. The stunt is highly publicized and a large crowd gathers the next day. When a drunkard shows "The Law" (the policeman who was pushed over) a newspaper story about the event, the lawman suspects Bill is going to be the climber. He waits at the starting point despite Harold's frantic efforts to get him to leave. Finally, unable to wait any longer, Bill suggests Harold climb the first story himself and then switch his hat and coat with Bill, who will continue on from there. After Harold starts up, the policeman spots Bill and chases him into the building. Every time Harold tries to switch places with Bill, the policeman appears and chases Bill away. Each time, Bill tells his friend he will meet him on the next floor up. Eventually, Harold reaches the top, despite his troubles with a clock and some hungry pigeons, and kisses his girl. While they walk away, Harold accidentally steps in a tar pit and loses his boots and socks.

Cast

as The Boy * Mildred Davis as The Girl * Bill Strother as The Pal, "Limpy" Bill *

Noah Young Noah Young, Jr. (February 2, 1887 – April 18, 1958) was a champion weightlifter and actor. Biography Young was born in Cañon City, Colorado. His father, Noah Young, was a foreman of the Glenrock coal mine who later became a coal mine i ...

as The Law * Westcott Clarke as Mr. Stubbs, The Floorwalker *

Earl Mohan Earl Mohan (November 12, 1889 – October 15, 1928) was an American film actor of the silent era who was born in Pueblo, Colorado, and died in Los Angeles, California. He appeared in about 60 films between 1915 and 1927, usually in short fi ...

as The Drunk ''(uncredited)'' *

Mickey Daniels Richard Daniels Jr. (October 11, 1914 – August 20, 1970) known professionally as Mickey Daniels, was an American actor. Signed by Hal Roach in 1921, he was, along with Joe Cobb, Jackie Condon, Jackie Davis, Mary Kornman, and Ernie Morrison, ...

as The Kid ''(uncredited)'' * Anna Townsend as The Grandma ''(uncredited)''

Production

Lloyd hanging from a giant clock on the corner of a building was seen as an iconic image for him, though it was achieved through a certain degree of improvisation. Lloyd performed most of his own stuntwork, but a circus performer was used when The Boy hangs by a rope, and a stunt double – sometimes Bill Strother, who played "Limpy" Bill and was a

steeplejack A steeplejack is a craftsman who scales buildings, chimneys, and church steeples to carry out repairs or maintenance. Steeplejacks erect ladders on church spires, industrial chimneys, cooling towers, bell towers, clock towers, or any other hi ...

who inspired the sequence when Lloyd saw him climbing – was used in long shots. The giant clock scene was filmed on the roof of Western Costume Company. A number of different buildings from 1st Street to 9th Street in downtown

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, all of different heights, were used, with sets built on their roofs to match the facade of the main building, the International Bank Building at Temple and Spring Streets. In this way, the illusion of Lloyd climbing higher and higher up the side of one building was created (although the streetscapes seen beyond the sets are noticeably different at different stages of the climb). Stuntman

Harvey Parry Harvey Parry (April 23, 1900 - September 18, 1985) was an American stuntman and actor whose career spanned the silent era and the disaster movie genre of the 1970s. Born on April 23, 1900 in San Francisco, California, Parry had been an Associatio ...

also appeared in the climactic sequence, a fact he revealed only after Lloyd's death. He discussed at length how the stunts were achieved in the 1980

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

series '' Hollywood''.

Reception and legacy

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' gave ''Safety Last!'' a very positive review. A contemporary review in '' Photoplay'' predicted the film's future: "This new Harold Lloyd farce will become a classic of its kind, or we will miss our guess. For it is the bespectacled comedian's best effort to date." "This is easily one of the big comedies of the year. It is seven-reels in length—but it speeds by with the rapidity of a corking two-reeler," the reviewer concluded. The

added ''Safety Last!'' to its

in 1994. The American Film Institute nominated the film for both their

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

and 2007 lists of ''AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies''. It was also nominated for '' AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs''. It placed #97 on '' AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills''.

Home video

The film was released in multiple versions on home video, both on VHS and DVD. It was released via the Criterion Collection on DVD & Blu-ray on June 18, 2013."Safety Last"
'' Criterion Collection'', June 18, 2013

References

External links

* *

Ed Park Ed Park (born 1970 in Buffalo, New York) is an American journalist and novelist. He was the executive editor of Penguin Press. Career Park was a founding editor of the magazine '' The Believer'' in 2003, and has been an editor at the Poetry Found ...

br>''Safety Last!: High-Flying Harold''
an essay at the Criterion Collection * Daniel Eagan. ''Safety Last'', i
America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry
A&C Black, 2010 , pages 86–88 * * Roger Ebertbr>review
rogerebert.com

filmsite.org * * * * * * {{Sam Taylor 1923 romantic comedy films 1923 films 1920s thriller films American silent feature films American romantic comedy films American thriller films American black-and-white films Articles containing video clips Films set in department stores Hal Roach Studios Films directed by Fred C. Newmeyer Films directed by Sam Taylor Films with screenplays by Sam Taylor (director) Films with screenplays by H. M. Walker Films with screenplays by Jean Havez United States National Film Registry films Surviving American silent films 1920s American films Silent romantic comedy films Silent thriller films Silent American comedy films