GRANDMA'S BOY
Starring Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis
PHOTOPLAY
July 1922
This picture is to Harold Lloyd what "The Kid" was to Chaplin -- his first five reeler, his first real approach to a seriously dramatci subject and also the high water mark of his career.
In "Grandma's Boy," Lloyd appears as a mild young man, who is actually afraid of his own shadow. So pronounced does his cowardice become, that his little old grandmother decides to adopt drastic means to inject a little pep into his system. She tells him how his grandfather (also played by the energetic Harold, with side whiskers and square spectacles) outwitted the entire Unionn army during the Civil War. She even gives the boy the charm which had inspired his grandfather to do the trick. Armed with this, he goes out and tears up the community, capturing a dangerous criminal and beating out his formidable rival for the love of a sweet young blonde. (Yes, it is Mildred Davis.)
Words are inadequate to describe the various virtues of "Grandma's Boy." It is genuinely marvelous.
GRANDMA'S BOY
Starring Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis
MOTION PICTURE
August, 1922
Summer months are not propitious for the release of productions which are considered anything of an event. Perhaps that is why "Grandma's Boy," the fist five-reel Harold Lloyd comedy, will not be released generally until the early fall. It is true that it has been shown in a few large cities, but these were only preview performances.
In the past the comedies of Harold Lloyd have won their reputation
because they have kept the audience at a high tension throughout.
There have always been thrills and laughs following fast upon
one another. There have been no interims in the action. Naturally,
such a state of affairs could not exist in "Grandma's Boy,"
which runs a little over an hour. It would be practically impossible
to keep any audience on edge for that length of time. Emotions
are very transitory.
Therefore, "Grandma's Boy" is not so amusing as the
Lloydian comedies which have gone before. There are episodes as
funny and even funnier than any which have been screened before
there are laughs galore and thrills aplenty. But, there
are interims interims which have previously been conspicuous
by their absence.
The theme deals with a youth, Harold by name, who is a frightful coward. He is terrorized a good part of the time and mortified because of his fear the rest of the time. His grandmother realizes his despair and tells him a story of his grandfather who overcame a similar cowardice during the Civil War. Harold takes the charm which his grandmother explains cured his grandfather of his fear and goes forth to conquer the multiple things which terrorized him in the past. Thanks to the charm or fortuitous circumstances he inevitably becomes the hero of the town.
Above everything else in the picture, we remember the episode
in which Harold mistakes a camphor ball for a candy. Often Harold
Lloyd's comedies have been compensation for the mediocre feature
production on the same program. For this reason, if not because
we think they adapt themselves better as short subjects, we hope
that Mr. Lloyd will not continue making long subjects.