Harold Lloyd’s Glasses character was a real go-getter. The middle-class boy next door could accomplish anything  he put his mind to. And it made him immensely popular with the rah-rah-rah mentality of the Roaring Twenties. 1923’s Safety Last! might be his best, and funniest, showing off skills in pantomime and daredevil theatrics. The first half of the film finds Lloyd working behind the counter in a chaotic department store—it’s a cyclone of women fighting for bolts of fabric and Lloyd’s attention. The second half of the movie finds Lloyd clinging to the outside of that store, inadvertently free climbing it as a stunt to drum up business. Everything imaginable gets in his way: Clocks, windows, robes, poles, ladders, pigeons… It’s a riot.

Safety Last! (1923)
Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Story by Hal Roach, Sam Taylor, Tim Whelan
Produced by Hal Roach
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother, Noah Young, Westcott Clarke
Pathé, Not rated, Running time 74 minutes, Opened April 1, 1923

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The above blurb first appeared in Boulder Weekly Vol. 27, No. 44, “Home Viewing: Silent Clowns.”