DR. JACK
starring Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis
PHOTOPLAY
March 1923
Harold Lloyd's latest comedy effort, "Dr. Jack," is a feature length farce that does not measure up to his "Grandma's Boy." It is merely mild entertainment. Lloyd plays a small town Coue spreading sunshine and gladness with all the insistence of one of Doug's exceedingly "merrie men." The opus itself centers around Dr. Jack's efforts to win the Sick-Little-Well-Girl from the clutches of an unscrupulous quack physician. There are old Lloyd moments: as the way Dr. Jacks saves the freckled schoolboy from a spanking and the first aid given a poker party. But, altogether, the old ingenuity and speed of a "High and Dizzy" is lacking. Lloyd is trying too hard to be legitimate and refined. The weight of a feature comedy oppresses him.
in the same issue . . .
Harold Lloyd doubtless conceived "Dr. Jack" as a comedy with a mission. Dr. Jack, be it noted, is a young Pollyanna doctor who goes about casting sunbeams everywhere, fall where they may. Most of the farce concerns the effort of Dr. Jack to save the heroine from the clutches of a medical charlatan. Actually, "Dr. Jack" doesn't measure up to Lloyd at his best. The old fast tempo and adroit ingenuity are only apparent now and then. Lloyd is striving too obviously to be legitimate at any cost. Personally, we admired the Lloyd of the old two-reeler much more. Yet, there are many who will like "Dr. Jack." It is clean and wholesome and entertaining. But we have a sneaking thought that our theaters are more in need of good two-reel comedies than they are of feature ones.