Directed: Ted Wilde

Year: 1928

Nominated: Best Director – Ted Wilde

Plot in 25 Words: A happy-go-lucky guy endures a series of unsuitable jobs with hilarious consequences before saving his girl’s family business driving a streetcar around New York.

In My Opinion: My favourite silent film so far by far. Absolutely brilliant. The brief synopsis I’d read beforehand didn’t really cover the actual plot so Speedy ended up a very different film to what I’d expected.

I was expecting a fairly dramatic film based around a battle for territory on the streets of New York. What i got was a very funny comedy focusing on the complete ineptitude of the title character ‘Speedy’ before he finally comes good and saves the day.

His first job was in an ice-cream bar which he was actually pretty at, til he angered his boss. It took a fair amount of talent on the part of Harold Lloyd (playing Speedy) to play the soda-jerk. Flipping bottles, spinning glasses and even tossing scoops of ice cream over his shoulder to make sundaes. It was fairly impressive and he could have shown Tom Cruise a few moves!

He was less well suited to driving a cab, getting into one comedic scrape after another. A few situations that 80+ years later seem almost cliched, but a few unique situations that I haven’t seen before. In either case, I laughed. A lot.

A brief guest performance came in the guise of Babe Ruth. I’d never actually seen a picture of the sporting star but knew he appeared in the film and was quite intrigued. Hmm. He wasn’t what I was expecting. Despite appearing in the film as a still active baseball player, he did NOT look the part. I felt a bit let down to be honest!

The career page in the newspaper exhausted he takes his girl to Coney Island for the day. I am envious and fairly disappointed I won’t get to visit the Coney Island theme park. It looked amazing and more than highlighted the era’s blatant disregard for health and safety. Which made it look even more awesome! Twenty people sit (not tied down) on a giant spinning Frisbee and the last to be flung off wins – where can I get one?!

The film ends with a couple of great fights between Speedy’s geriatric veterans and a street-gang. Too funny to be horribly violent, too serious to be slapstick, they work really well but show that the art of the stuntman had yet to take hold in Hollywood. There are more than a few cringe worthy moments of men taking a blow and holding the pose several seconds before any punch is thrown. If it were a drama it would look ridiculous but the silliness of such moments actually work with the theme of the film.

Star Performer: Ann Christy as Speedy’s put upon girlfriend, Jane Dillon. She takes all of Speedy’s failures and sheer bad luck with just a smile and a roll of her eyes. She plays the straight man to his comedic routines very well.

Overall: Loved it! I will more than likely watch the film again and will definitely encourage my boyfriend to give it a watch! A very simple comedy, but it works. Brilliant!