Grandmother's darling
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Grandmother's darling |
| Original title | Grandma's boy |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1922 |
| length | 60 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Fred C. Newmeyer |
| script |
Hal Roach , Sam Taylor , Jean Havez , HM Walker |
| production | Hal Roach |
| music |
Don Hulette (1974), Robert Israel (2002) |
| camera | Walter Lundin |
| cut | Thomas J. Crizer |
| occupation | |
| |
Grandmothers Favorite (Original Title: Grandma's Boy ) is an American tragic comedy from 1922 with Harold Lloyd in the lead role. The film, produced by Hal Roach and directed by Fred C. Newmeyer , is considered to be one of the first films to combine a comedy plot with a serious story and believable characters.
action
“The boy” lives with his grandmother in the tranquil small town of Blossom Bend. Since his birth he has always been anxious and avoids anger as much as possible. He is in love with the pretty girl from the neighborhood, but another, stronger man makes the girl strong advances as well. Even at the evening rendezvous for three, “the boy” cannot really prevail against his love rival. Meanwhile, the loitering tramp "The Rolling Stone" ambushes the local jewelry store and shoots a person. The citizens of Blossom Bend are shocked and now go in search of the criminal, where they burst into the house of the girl's parents. First, the boy's love rival is to be appointed deputy sheriff member. However, he knows the boy's fearfulness and knows that he would fail immediately on a criminal hunt, which would then seriously disappoint the girl. The rival therefore gives the boy his badge for the deputy sheriff out of cool calculation.
In fact, the boy quickly feels overwhelmed by the hunt for criminals and runs to his grandmother. Which tells the boy the story of his grandfather, who during the Civil War fought on the side of the southern states and had a dangerous job. Although he was also frightened, he managed to carry out the task with the help of a magical staff that had been given to him by a mysterious old witch. The grandmother takes out the magic wand that is supposed to help Harold. The next morning, “the boy” with his magic wand joins the other deputies on the hunt for the criminal. Now, surprisingly, he turns out to be braver and smarter than the other men in town. After a long struggle he was able to overcome the physically superior "Rolling Stone" and hand it over to the sheriff. He can also defeat his love rival in the fight for “the girl” after a rough fight.
The boy is finally brave and respected in the village when his grandmother reveals to him that the whole story of the magic wand was fictitious and that it was in fact the handle of her umbrella. The belief in the power of the staff, but above all he himself, have brought about his deeds. Finally, the girl accepts the boy's engagement proposal.
background
It was more by chance that Harold Lloyd's film A Sailor-Made Man had developed from the originally planned short film comedy into a feature-length film a year earlier. A Sailor-Made Man was Lloyd's first feature-length film and a great success, which is why his next film was also to be produced as a feature-length film: Grandma's Boy , the basic plot of which was designed by Lloyd and was originally intended as a serious drama without any real gags. But the audience at the preview demanded another comedy from comedian Lloyd. Therefore, more comedic scenes were designed, which were finally added to the film. This is how the then unusual mixture of melodrama and comedy was born, which was previously practically only present in Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921). Because of the exciting plot, Grandma's Boy is also counted in the genre of thrill comedies , which includes Lloyd's Skyscraper of all things! heard. The shooting took a total of around five months, which was a long time for a movie at the time.
Anna Townsend played the grandmother and was born on January 5, 1845, which means she had actually witnessed the civil war described in the film as a young woman. She also played in the Lloyd films Dr. Jack and Safety Load! before she died in August 1923.
reception
The success of this film with both critics and audiences enabled Lloyd to catch up with Charlie Chaplin as one of the three great silent film comedians (the third in the group is Buster Keaton ). He took in nearly $ 1 million, a large sum at the time. Chaplin, who rarely praised other comedians, wrote of Grandma's Boy : “One of the best-constructed scripts I've ever seen. The boy has a fine understanding of light and sharpness, and the film has really inspired me artistically. "The lexicon of international film wrote after many decades about grandmother's favorite :" Lloyd's first masterpiece in a full-length format impresses with its sympathetic simplicity, it stays in its effect, however, lags behind later more versatile and spectacular works. "
Web links
- Grandma's favorite in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Grandma's Boy at Decent Films
- ^ Quote from Tumblr
- ↑ Grandmother's favorite. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 19, 2017 .