Variety Magazine: Harold Lloyd Clocks In Again, 100 Years Later


Harold Lloyd Clocks In Again, 100 Years Later: Academy Museum Celebrates ‘Safety Last’ Centennial With Live-Orchestra Screening

Suzanne Lloyd talks about why her grandfather’s legacy of comedy and thrills is enduring, and what will make Sunday’s Academy screening especially sentimental

The classic Harold Lloyd comedy “Safety Last” is turning 100 years old this year. But with its heavy dollops of action and a superstar’s real-life derring-do, it doesn’t seem a day over 10, even if it does date back to the silent era. The film screens this Sunday as the climax of the Academy Museum’s “Silent Sundays” series, with a live score from a 24-piece orchestra helping heighten the suspense in the ultimate fear-of-heights movie.

Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, will be on hand for the anniversary screening. As the keeper of her granddad’s flame for decades, she has perspective on how “Safety Last” resonates with contemporary audiences, especially an extended final act that has the ‘20s star climbing a skyscraper in downtown L.A. and finally hanging from a wayward clockface, in one of the most iconographic images in all of movie history.

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NYT: A Man Hanging From a Clock

It is one of the most enduring images from the silent film era, and arguably the movie stunt that led to the cliffhanging, skyscraper-loving action hero of today: the actor Harold Lloyd dangling from the hands of a clock on the side of an office building.

The film, “Safety Last!,” released in April 1923, was in many ways Lloyd’s zenith as a major Hollywood star. He is said to have come up with the idea of dangling from the side of a building after seeing a man scale one in Los Angeles.

But Lloyd wanted the stunt to be even more outrageous on film. Enter the clock.

“Harold was such a realist, and every scenario in his movies had to be a real event or a real situation for a person to be in,” his granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, 71, said during a recent video interview from her Los Angeles home. “The clock was another tool on the side of the building to perpetuate the stunt. He thought, ‘I can really play off of that.’”

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Baz Luhrmann To Receive Harold Lloyd Award

Elvis filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has been tapped to receive the Advanced Imaging Society’s Harold Lloyd Award at the 2023 Lumiere Awards, which are taking place at The Beverly Hills Hotel on February 10.

Named after the iconic 20th century movie star who over the course of his career starred in almost 200 comedies — both before and after the transition from silent films to talkies — the Harold Lloyd Lumiere Award is a recognition of distinguished achievement in filmmaking. It’s presented annually, in partnership with the Harold Lloyd family, to directors who have marshaled technology to empower their storytelling.

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Clark Wilson Accompanies Three Classic Silent Shorts

Legendary theatre organist Clark Wilson accompanies three classic silent shorts: Harold Lloyd’s High and Dizzy, Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant, and Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr.

Program
High and Dizzy: A tipsy doctor encounters his patient sleepwalking on a building ledge, high above the street.
The Immigrant: Charlie is an immigrant who endures a challenging voyage and gets into trouble as soon as he arrives in America.
15-Minute Intermission
Sherlock Jr.: A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend’s father’s pocket watch.

About
Featuring the historic Barr-Fox pipe organ, used by everyone from Bernard Herrmann to John Williams, Clark Wilson will masterfully put it through its paces. This historic instrument lived on the Newman Scoring Stage at Fox from 1928 to 1997 and can be heard on countless films, including The Sound of Music, Patton, Home Alone, and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Since Nathan restored the organ, it has re-entered the world of contemporary film music and can be heard in scores for The Grinch (2018), The House With a Clock in Its Walls (2018), The Addams Family (2019), Carnival Row (2019), and Uncle Frank (2020).

Performances Times
Friday, October 21, 2022 | 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Saturday, October 22, 2022 | 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

PROOF OF VACCINATION IS REQUIRED AT THE DOOR. Masks or face coverings are encouraged but are not required for this event.
Seating is limited and tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. In addition to onsite parking there is additional parking available on Topham Street. Please do not park on Yolanda Ave or North on side streets.

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