Ask Father (1919)

Returning now to the early silent escapades of Harold Lloyd. By 1919, Lloyd was an established and popular star of the era, and still working with friend and producer Hal Roach. Two years since his last Lonesome Luke role, the character that made him a star, he was still working consistently, with the length of his films becoming longer as his creative talents, as well as the public’s desire for more, continued to grow. In Ask Father, Lloyd draws laughs from something as old fashioned as silent comedy itself – asking a would-be bride’s father for permission to marry.

A young man (Harold Lloyd) wants to ask a man (Wallace Howe) for his daughter’s hand in marriage. However, this man is a very important businessman, with a two-week waiting list for an appointment. Anyone without one is literally thrown back out. The young man must find a way into the office to ask his question without getting himself killed in the process.

The last time we looked at a Harold Lloyd film, Among Those Present, I mentioned that it was notable partly from the vaguely Chaplin-esque barbed satire of the upper classes. With Ask Father, there isn’t really any of that, resting on the more simple principle of a guy going to great pains to meet with his beloved’s father. There’s nothing really in the way of subplot, either. It’s a pretty straightforward shot.

Lloyd fully launches himself into the repeated pratfalls of the film. A repeated gag of him being launched back into the hallway develops something of a relationship with the office switchboard operator, played by the wonderful Bebe Daniels. Since she doesn’t want to see him hurt, she constantly throws down her cushion for him to land on. There is also a glimpse into the stunt work typical of the time. At one point, when Lloyd finds himself unceremoniously ejected from the building for the umpteenth time, he gets back in by simply climbing the wall. There are no visible safety precautions taken, either. He just looks up, grabs onto the brickwork and very quickly makes his way up and back inside. It’s rather impressive.

Alongside the dogged determination of Lloyd to complete his task, what’s also great are the measures the boss man takes not to be disturbed. Not only does he have a small army of office workers to keep people away from his office, he has built contraptions into his office should anyone get that far. There is a conveyor belt built into the floor, so all his assistant need do is open the door and the intruder will be ejected very quickly. This leads to a very funny moment when Lloyd tries to ask his question whilst keeping pace on the running belt, desperately trying to stay ahead of the hulking office worker waiting at the end. And that’s not all, since the boss man also has a trapdoor in front of his desk, giving unwanted visitors a more direct exit from the building. I swear this guy must have been the original model for Mr. Burns in The Simpsons. He even has his own much put-upon personal assistant, played by Harry ‘Snub’ Pollard, an Australian comedian who was not far away from having his own successful career at this point.

What is interesting to note from the film is a slight mean streak on show, which is something that actually does crop up in quite a lot of silent pictures. There’s a shorter office worker that I felt kind of bad for, since he does seem to get it a little more than the others. Further to this, as Lloyd becomes more frustrated in his attempts to see the boss man, he resorts to more crazy tactics to get past the many office workers in his way, including just punching them out, stealing two guns and blasting away at them, and dressing in full knight’s armour and beating them with a club. In fairness, they started it, but it’s a hell of a progression. Also, the ending of the film shows Lloyd to be a somewhat fickle character.

Still, Ask Father is very funny, with the conveyor belt bit and his brief time dressed as a knight offering moments of genuine laughter. Even though the film has no credited director, it’s got a great quick pace, lots of energy and is a nice showcase for Lloyd, Daniels and Harry Pollard. It’s really got a lot to offer in a pretty brisk 13 minutes.

Oh, and apologies for the use of a screenshot at the top there. Couldn't find either an individual cover or poster for the film itself.

Among Those Present (1921)

Another first for the journey: the world of silent comedy. It should be understood that "silent comedy" itself really refers more to a particular style of performance within film, rather than to the technicalities of a lack of sound on film at the time. The big stars of the genre came from a world of vaudeville and so were more attuned to a theatrical style. This style was then adapted for film in the world of silent comedy, developed by producer-directors Hal Roach and Mack Sennett. Harold Lloyd is one of the three best-known and most enduring stars of the silent comedy era, next to Keaton and Chaplin.

Mrs. O’Brien wants to be part of high society, and is hosting a foxhunt as a way of getting in, even though her husband and daughter have no interest in such matters. Mrs. O'Brien wants to invite Lord Abernathy to the hunt. When Abernathy is unavailable, an ambitious young coat-checker is convinced to impersonate him.

To a certain degree, Among Those Present is a pretty good example of the kind quasi-satirical swings that silent comedies were rather known for. With the audience mostly made up of the lower classes (the upper classes still regarded film as a lower form of entertainment, unlike opera or ballet), these films tended to ridicule and satirise the upper classes, with the working class hero always getting one over on the bourgeoisie. This was a big reason that Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp character became so beloved by audiences. Harold Lloyd, by this point in his career actually outselling Chaplin, follows this method here in a story by Hal Roach. Even the title cards echo the kind of sarcastic drollery intended to mock the well-off. That there is a subplot involving a society assistant to Mrs. O’Brien who seeks to steal her fortune by marrying her daughter just goes further to paint the upper echelons as greedy, back-stabbing and dishonest. Naturally, this would go down very well.

Lloyd plays The Boy, a hotel worker with ambitions of affluence who likes to wear the clothes of wealthy hotel patrons. It’s when the society assistant, played by William Gillespie, spots him and his ability to mimic Lord Abernathy that he convinces The Boy to “play a joke” on Mrs. O’Brien. He brings him to the pre-hunt party, where he has to regale the guests with tales of hunting, since Abernathy is a renowned hunter. The stories The Boy tells are very funny, particularly because they get more ostentatious as they go on, since he seems to be getting drunker as he goes on. One particular story sees both him and a bear follow a rabbit into a felled tree hollow, resulting in a fight inside the confined space. The following day’s hunt sees most of the humour derive from the fact that The Boy loses his horse and his trousers, only some of which remains as funny today as it was then.

In amongst all of this, The Boy, having overheard the assistant’s dastardly plans, feels the need to protect Mrs. O’Brien’s daughter, whom he has fallen in love with. The Girl, as she is known, is played by Mildred Davies, whom Lloyd would marry two years later.

Among Those Present is a simple enough film, but still holds some actual laughs and enjoyment to it. It doesn’t quite rest with Lloyd’s better-known classics, and seems more akin to the style of Chaplin, but it’s still worth the watch.