Thanks to the good folks at Turner Classic Movies, this amazingly funny comedy -- with its various predictable pratfalls -- was aired for free on their TCM channel.
Lloyd is great, not just going through the motions, but really putting his all into the action sequences and comedic elements.
The peculiar thing about this film is that it contains some overtly sadistic elements, which appear near the end of the movie, not the least of which is when Lloyd puts the bad hombre's head in a vise and screws down the vise grips to make him confess to the whereabouts of the kidnapped Chinese doctor. There's whipping and punching and a funny sequence where the strongman has "knees of glass". Lloyd punches the strong man in the chest and nothing happens, but when he whacks the bad hombre's strongman on the shins, oy ... he jumps and dances around in pain.
It was probably a good idea to cut this movie down from around three hours to the running time, but for sure it works amazingly well in the final edit. All in all, an extremely satisfying motion picture experience, with Lloyd doing such a great job as the Original Nerd.
TCM presented a version of the movie which seems to have been beautifully restored and was very easy and enjoyable to watch.
True, the sound was a bit off sometimes but it was a treasure nonetheless.
It got a seven for my vote, and I can say it was great fun all the way.
Lloyd is great, not just going through the motions, but really putting his all into the action sequences and comedic elements.
The peculiar thing about this film is that it contains some overtly sadistic elements, which appear near the end of the movie, not the least of which is when Lloyd puts the bad hombre's head in a vise and screws down the vise grips to make him confess to the whereabouts of the kidnapped Chinese doctor. There's whipping and punching and a funny sequence where the strongman has "knees of glass". Lloyd punches the strong man in the chest and nothing happens, but when he whacks the bad hombre's strongman on the shins, oy ... he jumps and dances around in pain.
It was probably a good idea to cut this movie down from around three hours to the running time, but for sure it works amazingly well in the final edit. All in all, an extremely satisfying motion picture experience, with Lloyd doing such a great job as the Original Nerd.
TCM presented a version of the movie which seems to have been beautifully restored and was very easy and enjoyable to watch.
True, the sound was a bit off sometimes but it was a treasure nonetheless.
It got a seven for my vote, and I can say it was great fun all the way.