"Girl Shy" *** 1\2 (out of ****)
Don't be "shy" about enjoying a Harold Lloyd comedy!
"When I adopted the glasses, it more or less, put me in a different category" says Harold Lloyd "because I became a human being. He was a kid you would meet next door or across the street." The believable quality of his character mixed with the "boy next door" physical appearance would add to the romance aspects of plots, according to Lloyd. That theory was put to the test in "Girl Shy" (1924).
By 1924 Harold Lloyd had appeared in approximately 200 two-reelers. He had created two characters; Willie Work and Lonesome Luke, which by Lloyd's own admission, owed certain characteristics to Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp" character. In 1917 Lloyd changed his screen appearance to create a character that became known as "glasses". It was the character he would play for the rest of his movie career, which ended with 1947's Preston Sturges comedy, "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock", a kind of sequel to Lloyd's "The Freshman" (1925).
The glasses character was defined as having an all-American boy appeal. He was a go getter. He went to great heights (even climbing atop of buildings) to get the girl of his dreams and make a name for himself. He was associated with "thrill comedies". The most popular of these is "Safety Last" (1923), which features the iconic image of Lloyd climbing up the side of a building, holding onto the hands of a clock. Because his movies did not air on television, the public forgot the name Harold Lloyd and he was given the nickname "The Third Genius", coming behind Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in terms of popularity of silent screen comedians.
"Girl Shy" tries to be something different than the two-reelers and thrill comedies Lloyd had appeared in. Those comedies were about the jokes. Terrific gags assembled together at the sacrifice of an involving plot with character development. Lloyd wanted to create a comedy with a bit more heart. It was something he had attempted in "Grandma's Boy" (1922) and again here. For me, the result is nearly an equal success compared to "Grandma's Boy" with "Girl Shy" nicely fitting into the cannon of Lloyd comedies, as a continuation of the glasses character.
Lloyd plays Harold Meadows, a boy from a small town, who works at his uncle's tailor shop. He is deathly afraid of women and finds himself unable to speak to them, which has caused him to develop a stuttering problem. However, Harold has been diligently writing a novel, The Secret of Making Love, a tell-all book based on his own love affairs. It is meant to serve as a "how to" for young men to learn the art of picking up women and the various "types" they will encounter.
This scenario allows for commentary on two issues. One, the role of the authority figures and advice columns (a la Dear Abby). Who are these people? What makes them authorities? Why should we trust their opinions on love, marriage and dating? Secondly, and more relatable in today's social media world, our perception of ourselves. The world sees us one way and we try to create another persona of ourselves to reflect the person we wish we were. Harold can't speak to women without stuttering yet he is writing a book about his numerous (non-existent) love affairs.
It allows the movie to get some laughs as we see chapters from Harold's book. One concentrates on his approach to picking up a vamp. It plays as a spoof of Theda Bara movies with Harold showing complete indifference to the woman. The more she throws herself at him, the less interested he seems. At one point she pulls out a dagger, threatening to kill herself if Harold leaves. Without missing a beat, Harold takes the dagger from her hand and offers her a sword.
The message behind "Girl Shy" is the sentimental, romantic cliche, the best way to pick-up women is by being yourself. Harold's book, from what we can gather, provides various techniques to use on different women but none of them, we assume, involves just being yourself. Of course, in pure movie fashion, it is when he is being himself that he meets the girl of his dreams, Mary Buckingham (Jobyna Ralston, who appeared in several Lloyd comedies).
Mary comes from a wealthy family and is being pursued by Ronald DeVore (Carlton Griffin, "the kind of a man that men forget"), who has already proposed marriage several times. This leads to another cliche in romantic comedies, where the woman is given two suitors, one wealthy and one poor. Giving us that age old question, should we marry for love or money? You can guess the answer Hollywood has given us movie after movie.
Despite wanting to add more warmth to its story with romantic scenes, "Girl Shy" still has plenty of good visual gags and a great "meet cute" sequence when Harold and Mary meet on a train. No pets are allowed and Mary doesn't want to part with her dog. Harold, already attracted to Mary, goes to creative lengths to help Mary hide her dog from the train's ticket taker.
However, the impulse to stray away from the "thrill comedy" may have been too strong for Lloyd as the movie ends with a near 20 minute chase sequence with Harold desperately trying to reach Mary. Some believe it is not only one of Lloyd's best chases but one of the all-time great comedy chase sequences. I cannot make such as statement as Buster Keaton created a couple of doozies in "Sherlock, Jr." (1924) and "Seven Chances" (1925).
The chase sequence feels a little out of place for me and inconsistent with the tone the movie had established. Yes, there are laughs, but because of this chase and the amount of time devoted to it, I feel we don't get a satisfactory conclusion to some of the sub-plots. The "villain" of the story doesn't properly get his comeuppance. A female character, introduced late in the movie, doesn't have a satisfactory end to her story either.
Co-directing credit is given to Fred C. Newmeyer, who had directed a number of Lloyd's two-reelers and a couple for feature length comedies, including "The Freshman" (1925). He also directed another forgotten comedian, Larry Semon in "The Perfect Clown" (1925). And, Sam Taylor, who was also associated with many Lloyd comedies. Taylor though would direct some serious movies such as "Tempest" (1928) with John Barrymore and "Coquette" (1929) with Mary Pickford, giving an Oscar winning performance.
"Girl Shy" is an effective character driven comedy with a heart. Lloyd and Ralston make a believable couple displaying great chemistry. Watching a comedy like "Girl Shy" shows you how instrumental Harold Lloyd was to the development of the romantic comedy as we know it. You can see "Girl Shy"'s fingerprints on a lot of today's so-called comedies.
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