Grandma's Boy (1922)

Like Harold Lloyd's first feature film (A Sailor-Made Man), Grandma's Boy was not intended as a feature but rather as a short film. However as the making went on, the short would grow in length until it was actually a feature. The movie would be directed by Fred Newmeyer, who had directed A Sailor-Made Man and would continue to be one of Harold's main directors for most of his silent film career.

Though he never received writing credit on a movie, Harold Lloyd had much to do with the stories of most of his films. This was no exception in fact the idea came from Harold Lloyd himself. Originally this movie had much less laughs in it than most Harold Lloyd films had up to this time. Producer Hal Roach was not happy about this and asked Harold to add more jokes and he did. Harold would say that this was the best of his films and remained very proud of it.

Harold (played by Harold Lloyd) is a shy guy and finds it hard to stand up for himself. He loves his girlfriend (played by Mildred Davis (who would later marry Harold Lloyd)), but has never asked her to marry him, out of fear. Things get worse for Harold when a dangerous tramp (played by Dick Sutherland) is on the loose and the sheriff starts deputizing citizens to take care of this tramp. Harold becomes deputized but gets scared and hides in his room. However Harold's kindly grandmother (played by Anna Townsend) knows that all her grandson needs is self confidence. Therefore she tells Harold a story of how his grandfather (also played by Harold Lloyd) overcame his lack of self confidence and Harold is now ready to capture the tramp.

This is a fantastic movie. I agree with Harold completely when he said this would also work as a drama. However the movie is still really funny. Nearly every joke works great. Despite these jokes being added later, it never feels like that was the case. They are not only funny, but fit into and complement the storyline perfectly. They feel like they were always planned to be there, because they just come off so naturally. On the drama side this film works great too. Harold is such a naturally sympathetic character. We are on his side from the beginning. Not only do we feel sorry for him, but we also truly believe in him and think he will make it out perfectly. Adding to this is a great sense of visual filmmaking (heavily thanks to cinematographer Walter Lundin). While there were quite a few studios making only comedies at this time, none had such a great understanding of how to use the cinematic medium to its full effect as much as the Hal Roach studios. The comedies from this studio are simply some of the most beautiful looking comedies of the 1920's and 30's.      

The movie was a huge success with both audiences and critics. One especially great complement came from Charlie Chaplin who loved the movie.  Exhibitors had been hesitant to pay more for this feature than they had for Harold's shorts, the Hal Roach studio put the film in a third run movie house, where it got huge success and exhibitors had no problem paying more for a Harold Lloyd feature from then on.

A year after this film a silent Our Gang short called The Big Show would come out of the Hal Roach studios. In this short the Our Gang kids would put on their own movie show, which included very faithful and elaborate recreations of a few scenes from Grandma's Boy.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/410796/Grandma-s-Boy/articles.html 

Meet The Baron (1933)

Like how today movies get made based off TV Shows, back in the 1930's there were movies based off of radio shows. Meet the Baron was based off a comedy radio show about the fictional Baron Munchausen. Jack Pearl, the radio actor for the character was hired here to play the Baron (or at least someone who is believed to be the Baron) for the screen.

This film would be directed by Walter Lang. Walter Lang is a director who is mostly associated with musical films like State Fair, The King and I (the 1956 live action version)and There is No Business Like Show Business. One of the writers for this film was Herman Mankiewicz, who is known by film fans today for co-writing Citizen Kane (he was also the father of All About Eve director Joseph Mankiewicz and grandfather of TCM host Ben Mankiewicz). One interesting thing in here is that there is a mule named Rosebud in this. I am not saying this film would have inspired any of Citizen Kane, but it is still an interesting tidbit. On top of this the film has a great cast including Jimmy Durante, Edna May Oliver and Zasu Pitts. Even some great actors appeared in very small roles such as Lionel Belmore and Leo White.

However what this film is most watched today for is that it includes a group soon to be known as The Three Stooges. At this time they were known as Ted Healy and his Stooges. Ted Healy was originally the boss and leader of the group, yet after some personal problems between them they would separate and the group would become The Three Stooges. Meet the Baron was the first feature film to feature Curly (although he had appeared in some shorts with this team before). Earlier Shemp would appear in these films with Moe, Larry and Ted. However Shemp was not happy with Ted and left the group. Shemp was replaced by his and Moe's younger brother, Curly. However when in 1946 Curly would have a stroke, he would be replaced again by Shemp, who would once again become part of the team. In this film Curly was credited as Jerry Howard, as his real name was Jerome Howard. This is one of the very few times he would be credited as such.

Curly wasn't the only star to have Meet The Baron as a feature film debut. This was the film debut (not just feature) of  Lynn Bari, who would star in quite a few B-movies including Return of the Cisco Kid and Hotel For Women.

The story begins with the real Baron (played by Henry Koller)and his two assistants (played by Jack Pearl and Jimmy Durante) traveling through the jungle. The Baron discovers they are low on supplies and leaves his assistants out to die. At this time some explorers find the two assistants and mistake one for the Baron (Jack Pearl)and take him and his friend to the U.SA.. The phony Baron must keep up the facade and not be found out, which only gets more difficult when he is a guest at an all female college and the real baron shows up.

This film is very entertaining, it has a good sense of humor, a great cast and even a great musical number (a rather risqué one too reminding you that this is in fact a pre-code movie). Most of all though this film is just good corny, silly fun.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons by Michael Fleming