• One of Harold Lloyd’s best talkies—smart of him to tap Leo McCarey to shoot it (director of the very successful “talkie” comedies the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup three years before)
  • Remade as The Kid from Brooklyn starring Danny Kaye in 1946- haven’t caught that yet
  • Can’t spot him myself but apparently Anthony Quinn’s debut. Wow- talk about a long haul before he breaks in in the 1950’s
  • Lloyd is always funny, so good at playing his persona- the wimp, the weakling—here nicknamed “the Tiger”- haha. He accidentally knocks out a boxing champ here and that’s our premise
  • Lloyd, as talented as he is, is no Chaplin—and his hiccup gag is a painful reminder of that- Chaplin could do a drunk with hiccups like nobody’s business
  • Adolphe Menjou is great in support as the fight promoter— “Honest” Gabby Sloan- and plays him just like the Honest John character in Pinocchio
  • Lionel Stander is perfect as well as a thug and trainer- that voice—named “Spider”
Adolphe Menjou is great in support as the fight promoter— “Honest” Gabby Sloan- and plays him just like the Honest John character in Pinocchio
Lionel Stander is perfect as well as a thug and trainer- that voice—named “Spider”
  • Impressive writing in the dialogue- “you don’t know what it is like to lose your reputation” (boxer talking about getting beat up by a weakling to a dame) and she says “12 years ago I went on a hay ride…”  — I also like the “I’m not quitting. I’m just not starting” line
I won’t soon forget the opening substituting the Lion with a cow- haha
  • Keaton and Chaplin (Lloyd always the third banana—and rightly so) tackled the boxing genre—a decade before for Keaton in 1926’s Battling Butler and Chaplin 5 years prior in 1931’s City Lights
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 1936