490 - Harold Lloyd in Now or Never, United States, 1921. Dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Hal Roach.

Saturday, May 5, 2018

490 - Harold Lloyd in Now or Never, United States, 1921.  Dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Hal Roach.

Silent films and trains.

This is the birth of the movies.

In the berth of the movies.

But first, the set up.

The Lonesome Little Child, Dolly, sits at home.  Her father travels with work.  Her mother lives the good life.  The Lonesome Little Child sits and listens to stories told by her maid, The Girl.

Mary Pickford played the neglected rich girl, named Gwendolyn, four years earlier in Maurice Tourneur's The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917).

Shirley Temple played the neglected rich girl, named Barbara Barry, fifteen years later in Irving Cumming's Poor Little Rich Girl (1936).

This lonesome little child is played by Anna Mae Bilson.  She also played Mary Jane in Hal Roach's Rascals in 1922, one of the early Our Gang or Little Rascals shorts, featuring Jackie Condon and Mickey Daniels.  The Little Rascals ran so long that Mickey Daniels, appearing here as a boy, would continue playing in them as an adult.  You may remember him as the goofy boyfriend of the schoolteacher, who himself becomes the truant officer, such as in Fish Hooky (1933) and chases the kids in the amusement park.

Here, in Now or Never, The Girl tells The Lonesome Little Girl about her boyfriend, who is coming home to help her celebrate her birthday.  She is turning eighteen.

Dolly begs to go.  Her parents are gone anyway.

Meanwhile, Harold Lloyd, The Boy, races his roadster down the road, and crashes through a barn.  He comes out the other side full of hay and carrying a duck.  A classic movie moment.

He pays the farmer for the damage, but the farmer is not the farmer.  The farmer is a vagrant who has taken his money and run.  The real farmer now shoots at The Boy with his shotgun.

The Boy races his roadster down the road, looking for the vagabond.  He finds him.  On the train.  The Boy jumps the train to confront the hobo.  But he winds up under the train.  Holding on for dear life.

The Girl and Dolly end up on the train.  The Girl's Boss ends up on the train.

The Boy ends up trying to take care of Dolly while The Girl goes in search of her Boss.

And madcap mayhem ensues.

All aboard.