SPEEDY
starring Harold Lloyd
PICTURE PLAY MAGAZINE
July, 1928
Harold Lloyd's pictures are infrequent enough to be events of the first order to fans the world over. The breathless legions, then, can be assured that "Speedy" is there. It lives up to its title all right, fairly bristling with surprises in the way of gags, and it has captured the spirit of New York in terms of rollicking comedy as few pictures ever have. The panorama of the city, presented as an introduction, is a triumph of photography, both realistic and imaginative, and, because of its beauty, it is strangely thrilling. The story is unusual, too, though almost any story might do if it were punctuated with laughs. But Lloyd is too intelligent to depend on laughs alone. He never has.
He is in love with a girl whose father holds a franchise which a railroad wants to get. In order to retain his rights, the old man has to drive his horse car once every twenty-four hours. Speedy takes a hand in protecting Pop Dillon's rights and precipitates a magnificently funny street melee in which hooligans in the pay of the railroad battle with the tradesmen served by the car line. There is so much more to the picture than this, however, that it is hardly fair to mention it ahead of countless other sequences equally good. Speedy as a soda jerker, for example; and as a taxi driver with "Babe" Ruth as a passenger, bound for the stadium; and as a skylarking visitor to Coney Island. Each of these is a gem of comedy in itself, and separately would put any picture over. Mr. Lloyd's performance is crisp, expert, sympathetic, and he looks uncommonly youthful. Bert Woodruff is fine as Pop Dillon, and Ann Christie is his daughter.
SPEEDY
Starring Harold Lloyd and Ann Christy
HARRISON'S REPORTS
April 14, 1928
It is hard to choose between "Speedy" and "The
Freshman" as to which is the better. But one can settle
the argument by deciding that "Speedy" is as funny as
"The Freshman."
"Speedy" is not as high-class a comedy as was "The Freshman," but it is just what its title indicates - speedy. Its action is dizzily fast from the beginning to the end. And there are thrills almost in every foot of the action. These thrills are caused chiefly by Mr. Lloyd's running a dilapidated car at top speed through the crowded thoroughfares of a big city, supposedly New York. This happens twice - when he is a taxicab driver and when he makes an effort to save his sweetheart's father's (sic) horse car which had been stolen by some thugs, who were paid by a railroad magnate to steal it; the magnate wanted to electrify that road but was unable to do so because the heroine's father (sic) would not sell him his franchise; and the only way whereby the railroad man could annul his franchise was to cause the interruption of the service for twenty-four hours.
The love affair between Harold Lloyd and Ann Christy is charming.
The picture was directed by Ted Wilde from a story that was the result of the collaboration of many writers.
(SAG note: It is the heroine's "grandfather," not
"father.")
For more information, see "Speedy" as our "Feature of the Month"