FEET FIRST
US, 1930, 90 minutes, Black and white.
Harold Lloyd, Barbara Kent.
Directed by Clyde Bruckman.
Feet First is a sound film for silent comedian Harold Lloyd. It was not well received because it showed how Lloyd was a successful silent star rather than a man for sound films. In fact, the plot of Feet First is very similar to his classic Safety Last, including the climax where he dangles over the New York streets. In Safety Last, this was a classic scene with Lloyd and a clock. Feet First lacks the clock!
Lloyd came across more forcefully in silent films. His voice, and the dialogue he is given in this film, especially the insults when he is dangling over the city, do not make such a good impression. He was not to have a successful career in sound films.
The film is directed and co-written by Clyde Bruckman, a prolific writer of films for several decades starting in the early 1920s. He directed a number of films between 1925 and 1935. His second film he co-directed with Buster Keaton and was the classic Keaton film, The General. His final film for direction in 1935 was a collaboration with W.C. Fields on The Man on the Flying Trapeze.
1.Harold Lloyd as a silent film star? This film as an attempt to break into sound films?
2.The use of the silent techniques, mime, gags? The fixed tripod photography? Situations, angles? Cutting? The climax above the New York streets?
3.The Harold Lloyd persona, his appearance, glasses? The little man and his hopes, his deceit?
4.The plot from the films of the 20s and 30s, the corny touch, contrived?
5.Harold as ambitious, his working in the shoe department, his personality course, the results, motivations? The encounter with Barbara? The convention, the jokes? Lady Pilsbury? Charlie and the walk? The Tanners? His selling the shoes, his being flattered? Mrs Tanner and the disaster? Barbara and the party? The ship? His pretending to be a leather tycoon? His endeavours to pass himself off as the tycoon? The ship, trying to get off? Stowaway and hiding? The breakfast sequence and the dog? The joke with the sailor? The papers and being stuck? The coat for dinner? The further encounters with Mrs Tanner, Barbara and the differences, the difficulties? The port? The building routine? Harold Horne, as a type, humour, quick, the joke about the spoons, the shovel ending?
6.Barbara as the conventional heroine, attracted to Harold, the deceits, the happy ending?
7.Mr Tanner and the shoes, the capitalist background, Mrs Tanner and her buying?
8.The drinking, the party? The sailor stooge?
9.The build-up to the climax, the true identity, the fear, the balance, the timing – and the finale?
