Speedy

Title: Speedy
Director: Ted Wilde
Cast: Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy, Bert Woodruff
Year: 1928
MPAA: Rated G
Date of Review: June 7, 2007

Speedy is my first experience with Harold Lloyd, and to sum it all up, I liked it. I liked it a lot. I’ve been a fan of silent films for a long time - I’ve always found them very poetic, and many of them captured imagery that has never been recreated. Even today’s children recognize a character like Charlie Chaplin, because he has become an icon of that era. Speedy can’t really be compared to anything I have seen by Chaplin, because their genre is really the only thing they have in common. Chaplin’s films were often very socially conscious, often melancholy comedy/dramas, whereas Speedy - both the film and character it takes its name from - is very light-hearted entertainment.

Chaplin’s signature character was always the Tramp - that mustached man with a top hat, cane, and shoes several sizes too big. He was homeless, constantly looking for work and for friendship, and this was often the basis of the plots to his films. But, while Harold "Speedy" Swift is also unemployed, this does not ever factor in as a huge problem, reflecting Speedy’s own care-free attitude towards the issue - as he says at more than one point in the film, "I can always get another job tomorrow."

This care-free attitude is the thing that both frustrates and draws his family closer to him - his family consisting of his father, Pop, and his girlfriend, Jane. They know that "Speedy" is a smart, capable young man, and they also know how fickle and occasionally careless he can be. He just can’t keep a job. But this time, he claims his job at the soda bar will stick...he even says that he’ll "be running the place soon." But of course, the job doesn’t stick, and instead of looking for a new one he decides to take Jane out for a day of fun at theme parks, food stands, and anything else he could afford.

The main problem comes a little later, when it is revealed that Speedy’s father - who owns and runs the last horse-drawn carriage in the city - may be the target of a violent attack to try and push his carriage out of business and replace it with an electric tram. Speedy is determined to stop these hooligans from hurting his father, and hopefully save his father’s business from a hostile takeover. Therein lies the plot of the film - it’s simple, it’s quick, and it’s mostly there to support the many set-piece based visual gags in the film.

The film’s lack of depth is not a negative comment, though...not by a long shot. It’s simplicity really makes it all that much funnier, because it doesn’t have any needless emotional weight or melodrama to bog everything down. That is not to say that Chaplin’s films were melodramatic, but they were comedies of an entirely different kind, and Chaplin and Lloyd had very different, distinct styles. Chaplin’s "The Tramp" was a loveable oaf who people connected with because of his stories of lost love and longing romance. Lloyd’s character of "Speedy" is more like that guy you know who just can’t seem to keep a job, he lives in a reality all his own, and you can’t help but love his charm and enthusiasm. And these differences between The Tramp and Speedy mirror the differences between their respective films.

But the fact that Speedy has a simpler plot structure than other comedies of the silent era does not mean that it is any less important. Looking at the time it was made and released - 1928 - America was just about to enter into the worst depression it had ever seen, and maybe films like Speedy could be seen as a pre-emptive move to lighten the moods and hearts of those affected by such an economic crisis. Of course neither Lloyd or director Ted Wilde could have ever known about such a crisis, but surely it was entertainers like these that helped get the country through one if its darkest times.

Speedy really is a great movie. It’s fun, it’s quick, it’s supremely entertaining, and anybody can watch it - silent film fan or not - and enjoy it. I’m sure the films of Harold Lloyd would be great to put on for kids to watch and enjoy, because they tend to love that kind of goofy physical humor. Plus, if you’re a baseball fan, you have to check this movie out for quite a lengthy appearance by Babe Ruth.

8 / 10