Skyscrapers, of all things!
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Skyscrapers, of all things! (The Luftikus) |
| Original title | Safety load! |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1923 |
| length | 73 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Fred C. Newmeyer Sam Taylor |
| script |
Hal Roach Sam Taylor Tim Whelan |
| production | Hal Roach |
| camera | Walter Lundin |
| cut | Thomas J. Crizer |
| occupation | |
| |
Skyscrapers, of all things! (Original title: Safety Last! ) Is an American silent film - comedy by Hal Roach in 1923 is particularly famous a scene that went down in film history: actor Harold Lloyd hanging fidgeting at the hands of a giant clock on the facade of a skyscraper , well above road traffic. Today safety load applies ! as a classic comedy and Lloyd's most famous film.
action
In order to finally get rich and be able to marry “the girl”, “the boy” moves from his small village Great Bend to the big city. But even after a few months he has no luck. He writes to the girl that he is a successful businessman and sends her an expensive pendant and then the matching necklace as "proof" - for which he has to pay all of his salary. In truth, he only works as a salesman behind the counter in a large department store and has to deal with hysterical buyers and a snobbish superior.
When his girlfriend visits him, he plays with great difficulty that he is the successful managing director of the company and that everyone is listening to his command. The girl believes him, but it is clear to the boy that he cannot keep up the illusion for long. Nevertheless, he promises her tomorrow's marriage. He happened to hear in the manager's office that he was offering a $ 1,000 bonus for anyone who had an idea how the department store could attract new customers.
The boy persuades his friend Bill, an experienced climber, to climb the roof of the twelve-story skyscraper in an announced demonstration. Thus the department store should become famous in the city and Harold should finally manage the career advancement. However, Bill gets into trouble with a grim patrolman with whom he and Harold once messed about and who is now waiting for him at the planned starting point of the climb.
All distraction maneuvers for the police officer fail, so that the boy is now supposed to climb the first two floors himself to hand over his jacket and hat to Bill so that he can climb on for him. However, while Bill is chased up floor by floor of the building by a police officer, the boy has to keep climbing, always in the hope that he will be relieved immediately. Numerous unexpected obstacles such as hungry pigeons, a falling tennis net and a vicious dog create dangerous scenes and some near-falls, but all of them are mastered. This is also where the most famous scene of the film can be found, in which “the boy” gets out of whack and can just hold onto the hand of a large clock that is attached to the facade. Eventually he climbs all the way to the top, and in the end he gets the girl who is waiting for him upstairs in the wedding dress.
background
Harold Lloyd got the idea for the film when he happened to see Bill Strother (1896–1957) climbing the twelve-story Brockman Building in Los Angeles one day . A large crowd watched the spectacle spellbound, while Lloyd was more determined by fear for Strother, hid behind the street corner and only peeked out occasionally. Because the crowds were so fascinated by skyscraper climbing, he had the idea to make a film out of it that should inspire the audience in a similar way. When Strother finally got upstairs, Lloyd introduced himself to him and gave him the role of Bill in the film. Lloyd had previously filmed a number of thrill comedies in which his hero was sometimes exposed to dizzying heights.
The film was shot without direct special effects and is therefore at the same time a testimony to daring film production, as it was shot at this height without any security. However, on the roofs, which were equipped with cameras, there was an artificial facade of several actual buildings of different heights, so that Lloyd actually climbed at the height seen in the film, but with the roof "only" a few meters below him. Nevertheless, this artificial facade had to be as close as possible to the entire abyss (and thus to the real house facade) so that the cameras could still realistically capture the further street in the background. So there was still the risk that if he fell, he could fall not just a few meters, but from the entire building. Harold Lloyd did much of his climbing himself, although he had only eight fingers since an accident in 1919. In some scenes, however, a stuntman was also used for him.
The original title Safety Last alludes to danger by simply reversing the phrase Safety First (German: " Safety first "). At the time the film was shot, New York City had a “sprouting” skyscraper culture - but it is also symbolically charged in the film: “Hardly anyone has staged the skyscraper more congenially than the prototypical American symbol of success than Harold Lloyd. The ascent of his hero is here an actual conquest of the summit, and time plays the all-important factor, clearly staged: time is money . "
Mildred Davis played for the last time together with Harold Lloyd, whom she married shortly afterwards and then retired into private life.
Later influences and parodies
The film has been the subject of homages in numerous works to this day, especially because of its clockwise scene. Jackie Chan , who named Harold Lloyd as one of his role models, fell from a clock tower in The Superfighter (1983). In Back to the Future you can see Dr. Emmett Brown ( Christopher Lloyd , not related to Harold Lloyd) hanging on the hand of a town hall clock as part of the action. In Back to the Future you can see a photo of the clock hand scene in Dr. Brown's office. Martin Scorsese did a similar thing in Hugo Cabret (2011): First of all, the main characters in the cinema look at skyscrapers, of all things ! before the main character Hugo later on the run from his pursuers like Lloyd hangs on the hand of the clock. In The Olsen Gang Rises on the Roof , all three main characters hang on the hands of the clock tower of Copenhagen City Hall.
The language of images
Lloyd plays the role of the "country boy" who wants to make his fortune in the big city; takes a close look at himself. The incorrigible optimism of the film character also resembles that of the successful man Lloyd in real life.
The picture of Harold hanging on a clock hand as he threatens to fall into a street canyon is considered an icon of cinematography. For fear of exposure, Harold has surpassed himself. Because the building of lies that he built to impress Mildred has been shaken more and more. Harold Lloyd's films are always about the proving of his film character, the rather wiry and less bulky young man with the large, round horn-rimmed glasses, who first has to show what he's made of. He does this in the later course of the plot with cleverness and charm; thus refutes the impression that emerged at the beginning of the film that he was naive and clumsy. His unconditional pursuit of recognition and prosperity make this young man a petty-bourgeois hero who wants to make the “ American dream ” come true, and thus a figure of identity for these circles. He is not afraid of humiliation or pain, just as little dizziness and boasting. This reveals the moral inconsistency of this film hero.
In “Safety Last!” Harold stands with both feet in a world of superficial consumption and ascension fantasies, in contrast to the film characters of his great competitors Chaplin and Keaton. The beautiful appearance is more important for his figure than the dreary being and it is closely related to the constraints of reality.
Behind the gags and the film spectacle, the social imbalance of the “little man” is visible as a reality of the “ Roaring Twenties ”: It ranges from the fear of unemployment to the petty reprimands by the superiors and becomes in the scene in which the boy is must protect against a hyena-like crowd of female consumers - who rip his clothes off - taken to extremes. The consumer temple department store is developing into a place with the danger of a predator's enclosure, the return of love a factor of personal prestige and social advancement a question of a head for heights and the art of climbing. Climbing the skyscraper at the end of the film with the possible endings of ascent and summit storm or crash and death stands for the humorous struggle for social survival.
Safety Last is unique in film art ! but not because of its plot . Rather, the masterful mastery of the cinematic means, the timing and the imaginative imagery of the film team and Lloyds fascinate . The previously exercised criticism that Lloyd's gags are mechanical is refuted and accusations of a lack of intellectuality and exclusive squinting at the audience's favor are misplaced. Alongside, and by no means behind, Chaplin and Keaton, Lloyd is the “Third Genius” of American silent film.
Reviews
The film was a huge hit when it was released, grossing $ 1.5 million. The New York Times praised the film around April 1923, saying it was full of tension and laughter. The film is so exciting that it could even make men dizzy for a long time, and so funny that where two weeks there was only crying, there is now roaring laughter. In fact, some people were so shocked by the film that the cinema operators sometimes nurses for the performances of Safety Last! busy.
Safety load! is the most famous work by Harold Lloyd today. Even today, most of the reviews are positive, the film has a rating of 96% for Rotten Tomatoes . The film service found it was "Lloyd's best" high-rise comedy "with the famous clockwise scene; a classic of silent film humor. ” Roger Ebert said of the skyscraper climb:“ It looks real. That is the main thing. It really seems to be Harold Lloyd who is actually climbing the building like before a real crash that would be fatal. "He had never seen Lloyd before and would not love him with the intensity like Keaton or Chaplin . But he "shared the joy of his triumph up there". Ebert concluded: "I can understand why Lloyd was more successful than Chaplin and Keaton in the 1920s: not because he was funnier or more poignant, but because he was a normal person and the characters of Chaplin and Keaton looked like they were from another planet."
Awards
- 1994: Entry into the National Film Registry
- 2001: Place 97 of the best 100 American "suspense films " of all time at the American Film Institute
- Further nominations for the 100 best US films and 100 best US comedies of all time
Web link
- Skyscrapers, of all things! in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b YouTube: Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (Ep.1 4/4)
- ↑ IMDb Trivia
- ↑ Archive StummFilmMusikTage Erlangen ( Memento from February 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Film genres: Comedy , section “Skyscrapers of all places!”, Heinz B. Heller, Matthias Steinle, Reclam-Verlag, 2012
- ^ New York Times, April 3, 1923
- ↑ "Safety Last!" at Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ Two thousand and one
- ^ Safety Last , Roger Ebert