Speedy

Harold cannot hold a job in New York. He is dismissed constantly, because he thinks of nothing but following the baseball scores. His girlfriend Jane's grandfather runs a horse drawn car line; it is the last horse tram in the city and the franchise is his. A railway company wants the line. By law the franchise lapses if the line is not run every twenty four hours. The company knows it and plans to get rid of the car. Harold has to bring it back, and he has to drive it across the city. Ted Wilde directs. Harold Lloyd plays Harold; Ann Christy and Bert Woodruff are in the cast. The film is silent. The baseball player Babe Ruth appears as himself; the taxi scene is among the film's most cited sections. It was shot largely in the real streets of New York; Coney Island, Yankee Stadium and the centre of the city were recorded directly. For that reason it is counted a document of New York in the twenties. Ted Wilde was nominated for comedy direction at the Academy's first ceremony for this film; the category was dropped in later years. The matter it treats is holding on to the old; the horse tram is shown not as nostalgia but as a livelihood. The last section is a long chase and the stunts were done without doubles. Its limit is structure; the first half proceeds in pieces and the plot starts late. Who it is for: viewers who like silent comedy and Harold Lloyd. Who it is not for: the first half is scattered, the humour belongs to its period, and the story thin.