WHY WORRY?

(1923)
With Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Johan Aesen, James Mason, Wallace Howe
Directed by Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor
Silent, Black and White
Reviewed by JB

    In contrast to the beautifully plotted and paced SAFETY LAST, Lloyd's followup film WHY WORRY? was a gag-filled comedy based on a single premise - Lloyd's hypochondriac millionaire, and his newfound friend Collosso the Giant, find themselves in the middle of a revolution in a mythical Latin American town.  It stands out as one of the comedian's wildest films if not one of his best constructed.  The cartoon-like gags - the giant "bowling" down a row of soldier with a cannonball, for example - and the loose plot do show that Lloyd was willing to experiment with styles, even on the success of such a classic as SAFETY LAST.  It would have been so easy to do another thrill comedy, with Harold climbing up a building or hanging off a skyscraper.  Instead, Lloyd created an expanded two-reeler and gave it is own particular flavor by adding the character of the Giant, nicely played by real-life 9-foot-tall Johan Aesen.

    This was Lloyd's first film with his new leading lady Jobyna Ralston, a tiny and adorable slip of a woman who would go on to do several films with Lloyd.  Like Lloyd himself, her best characteristic is that she is instantly likable. 3 - JB

Harold Lloyd     The Age of Comedy