WHY WORRY?
starring Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston
MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC
December, 1923
Harold Lloyd's latest essay, "Why Worry?" (Pathe), carries the bespectacled comedian back to the style of comedy which introduced him as a star. It is a rollicking farce, filled with absurdly funny bits of business - "gags" you might call them. A radical departure, we might add, from "Dr. Jack" and "Grandma's Boy." But he has the faculty of making anything he touches genuinely novel.
This is the tale - an old one, incidentally, of a hypochondriac who journeys to a South American republic to win back his health, but Lloyd dresses it with new ideas and brightens it with the most uproariously funny incident that has been flashed in a year. He steps right into a wild revolution, not knowing what it's all about. He sees these foreigners bowing right and left - as if to welcome him. So, he bows in a return with great ceremony when a native is shot thru the stomach and doubles over in jack-knife fashion. Just a return of the compliment.
Such clever touches as this mark the entire picture. Highly mirthful, too, is the scene when the comedian and his faithful army of two - one, a huge giant, the other, the girl - defend themselves on the battlement against the approaching bandits. An extraordinary comedy this - one exceptionally original in its "gags" and incident. There's no stopping this Lloyd person. He turns them out good every time. Our advice for the patrons is a paraphrase on the fire warning - "Walk, do not run to the nearest entrance. Do not try and beat your neighbor to his seat."