I would agree with most of the other commentators about Welcome Danger, but though an old movie buff I have to admit that I haven't yet seen any Harold Lloyd films in full. So I am really just checking out his full movie persona now. In that regard, a few observations. First of all, at least in talkies, it is hard for me to relate to Lloyd. Here, at least, his Bledsoe character seems brittle, self-absorbed, and because his character is alternately stupid and smart, shy and brash, I could not quite put my finger on how I was supposed to regard him. There's an uncomfortable feeling that he's a "boy-man"however, he's clearly too old for that, and can take perfectly good care of himself when the need arises. There is indeed plenty of humor in how this evolves unwittingly, with Lloyd emerging on the top, but I think someone like Charley Chase did this kind of work a little better. But this applies to talkies only. Maybe in the 20s it all came off better but I still have to see those to "get it." Also, for a comedy movie, this is pretty darn violent. SPOILERS AHEAD: Usually, we don't really equate comedy violence with the real article because it is cartoon-like; the 3 Stooges' mistreatment of each other looks sharply painful but the effect was famously transformed by absurd sound effects and their own behavior. Or the violence is so overblown that the whole experience becomes surreal, as in the 1967 Casino Royale. Here, there is something a little disturbing about the way guys keep getting their noggins clubbed at the height of the Chinatown chase. It goes on and on; I began thinking more about pain than laughing. And in the real climax of the picture things really did get out of hand, with Lloyd's character being whipped within an inch of his life by a barrel-chested black man before bringing him down. Just after this the hero tries to smash the chief villain's head in a mechanical vise! For a transitional talkie, Welcome Danger is painstakingly produced. I got the feeling that Lloyd had plenty of resources and lavished them on this picture. It all looks fairly crude today, but the dubbed dialog, musical track and sound effects weren't easy to do in 1929, so because of Lloyd's creative persistence and control, Welcome Danger doesn't come across as a filmed stage play. Like others, however I wish the film had been more judiciously edited. The sequences extend a lot longer than they should, draining the fun out of a number of gags. I also didn't like the early section where Lloyd and Barbara Kent "meet cute" in Colorado. It was sometimes strained and lame -- Lloyd not recognizing Kent as a female seemed tiresome and idiotic -- perhaps it should have been cut or foreshortened, with the basic gist of it handled through inter-titles. To give Lloyd credit, I suppose the gags seemed fresher than. So much has been stolen and recycled from these early comic pioneers.
Review of Welcome Danger
