SAFETY LAST

with Harold Lloyd
by Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor 
70’, USA, 1923

Harold, an exuberant young man from the provinces, signs up for a climbing contest to earn some money. The mountain he must climb is rather strange. It is not made of earth and rocks, but rather of bricks: it’s a skyscraper. Harold’s plan is to climb only the lower floors and leave the rest to an acrobat, with whom he will split the 00 prize. But a series of exhilarating circumstances will force him to climb the entire “mountain” by himself. One of the best-known films featuring Harold Clayton Lloyd and the character who made him famous in the 1920s: the young, glasses-wearing ambitious youth who is always in search of success. The scene in which Harold hangs from the hands of the clock is amongst the most famous in the history of silent film.
 

Harold Clayton Lloyd An American actor, director and film producer, he is one of the most important protagonists of Hollywood’s silent film era. Born in 1893, starting in the 1920s he played the role of Harold, an ambitious young man with large glasses who will stop at nothing to attain success. With this personage he rivalled such greats of silent film as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon and became one the most highly paid actors of the period.