Harold Lloyd and Criterion

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
Message
Author
User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#51 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Dec 17, 2013 2:31 pm

Girl Shy, Why Worry -- and some shorts (like my favorite, Ask Father). That's what I'd like.

User avatar
captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#52 Post by captveg » Tue Dec 17, 2013 3:27 pm

Girl Shy is my favorite of his films so I'm hoping for that one next, but The Milky Way would be nice as well.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#53 Post by swo17 » Tue Dec 17, 2013 3:39 pm

captveg wrote:Girl Shy
And we have a quorum.

User avatar
Shrew
The Untamed One
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:22 am

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#54 Post by Shrew » Tue Dec 17, 2013 7:05 pm

Another vote for Girl Shy, but I do wonder how and when they'll handle the sound films, which despite being pretty good aren't nearly as well-known. Certainly far less than Chaplin's.

User avatar
Jeff
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
Location: Denver, CO

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#55 Post by Jeff » Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:16 pm

Shrew wrote:Another vote for Girl Shy, but I do wonder how and when they'll handle the sound films, which despite being pretty good aren't nearly as well-known. Certainly far less than Chaplin's.
My money's on a "Harold Lloyd in the Sound Era" Eclipse set.

User avatar
sir_luke
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2013 9:55 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#56 Post by sir_luke » Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:48 pm

Jeff wrote: My money's on a "Harold Lloyd in the Sound Era" Eclipse set.

You don't think they'd do a mainline boxset? It seems that, even though the films are not individually as popular, together they'd be more than Eclipse material.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#57 Post by knives » Tue Dec 17, 2013 9:57 pm

Jeff wrote:
Shrew wrote:Another vote for Girl Shy, but I do wonder how and when they'll handle the sound films, which despite being pretty good aren't nearly as well-known. Certainly far less than Chaplin's.
My money's on a "Harold Lloyd in the Sound Era" Eclipse set.
That would be terrible. His sound stuff is his best stuff.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#58 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Dec 17, 2013 10:06 pm

knives wrote:That would be terrible. His sound stuff is his best stuff.
Really? Not based on the stuff I've seen.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#59 Post by knives » Tue Dec 17, 2013 10:15 pm

I admit it is entirely a personal flourish, but with exception (Never Weaken) I find even his best silent work seems to proceed sound film in many respects. The sound films themselves, to me, tend to be better directed with Lloyd's performances just being delightful in a way that knows the medium as it was at the time. Then again I'm one of those loons that adores The Sins of Harold Diddlebock.

User avatar
Jeff
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
Location: Denver, CO

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#60 Post by Jeff » Tue Dec 17, 2013 10:21 pm

knives wrote:
Jeff wrote:My money's on a "Harold Lloyd in the Sound Era" Eclipse set.
That would be terrible. His sound stuff is his best stuff.
They don't have much name recognition though, do they? The McCarey and Sturges films might do okay on their own, but I can't imagine the others being very marketable. Besides that, they're probably going to blow their supplement wad on the next mainline release (which I expect to be a box of the second-tier silent features).

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#61 Post by knives » Tue Dec 17, 2013 10:30 pm

The Milky Way still seems fairly popular though that is McCarey. Anyways it seems he has enough surviving shorts for this not to be much a worry.

User avatar
Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#62 Post by Matt » Tue Dec 17, 2013 11:04 pm

I would still expect dual-format/mainline, not Eclipse, releases for all Lloyd films. I can't imagine Suzanne Lloyd licensing these films to Criterion only to have them wind up in a featureless SD collection again.

User avatar
Moe Dickstein
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:19 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#63 Post by Moe Dickstein » Tue Dec 17, 2013 11:10 pm

Exactly. Eclipse I think is mostly dead for the rare cases where the elements are truly awful, with the advent of DF releases

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#64 Post by Michael Kerpan » Wed Dec 18, 2013 12:51 am

> I find even his best silent work seems to proceed sound film in many respects.

Not sure I understand this....

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#65 Post by knives » Wed Dec 18, 2013 1:02 am

I'm sure I talked about this elsewhere on the forum, but the construction of his jokes many times seem based in a connection to a sound that the characters can hear even if we can not. Also the intertitles are usually very funny especially in dialogue jokes.

User avatar
Shrew
The Untamed One
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:22 am

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#66 Post by Shrew » Wed Dec 18, 2013 1:41 am

I think we've got to be getting at least one more stand alone release before boxes come up. At least the films that have existing commentaries from the New Line set (Speedy and The Kid Brother) will probably get their own releases. In fact Speedy anchors the the 3rd volume of that set, with the first two volumes showcasing Safety Last and The Freshman, so there's a good chance it may come out next.

Though by that logic, Girl Shy may end up boxed, given that it doesn't get a lot of attention in that set. Maybe I overrate its prestige given that its always been a personal favorite of mine and most other Lloyd fans I've met. You'd figure it'd be a first-tier title on the strength of the rush-to-the-wedding sequence alone.

For the sound releases, I wouldn't go as far as knives but there's a lot to be said for them. They suffer from the slack pacing that seems to hurt a lot of pre-screwball sound comedies, and various costars and subplots swallow up far more time than they would in a silent film. But Lloyd himself works far better in sound than say, Keaton. Still I don't think any of them (save maybe The Milky Way) have the cache to be their own releases.

FlickeringWindow
Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2013 12:27 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#67 Post by FlickeringWindow » Wed Dec 18, 2013 10:45 am

They can pair the 6 "shorter" features into three double-features: A Sailor-Made Man, Grandma's Boy, Dr. Jack, Why Worry, Hot Water, and For Heaven's Sake. There's also six talkies they could probably split into two triple features (One with Welcome Danger, Feet First, and Movie Crazy; the other with The Cat's Paw, The Milky Way, and Professor Beware [from Universal]). Perhaps the two talkie volumes could also contain one of each of Lloyd's compilation films. This would at least make sure each volume is worth it since Welcome Danger and Feet First are fairly awful (Movie Crazy is fantastic, though).

User avatar
FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#68 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Dec 19, 2013 12:57 pm


Jerricson098
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2014 8:01 am

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#69 Post by Jerricson098 » Sun Jan 26, 2014 8:14 am

I wonder if they're going to release "Movie Crazy" - Harold Lloyd's most successful talkie. Saw it the other day and I was laughing throughout the feature

User avatar
captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#70 Post by captveg » Wed Jan 29, 2014 4:35 am

Just watched Movie Crazy myself for the first time (had yet to get around to it though I've owned it in the New Line box set for years now).

It's a Lloyd Estate film, so Criterion should be releasing it eventually.

User avatar
Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#71 Post by Minkin » Tue Aug 14, 2018 8:32 am

Sorry, I don't have any news or scoops!

But I've caught this TCM tribute to LLoyd several times - and it makes for a great + short primer to Lloyd and silent comedy. Plus it helped a few friends actually get interested in watching a Lloyd film!

That and the video always makes me really anxious for the next announcement - bring on the Talkies set!

User avatar
Roger Ryan
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#72 Post by Roger Ryan » Wed Aug 15, 2018 8:14 am

captveg wrote:
Wed Jan 29, 2014 4:35 am
Just watched Movie Crazy myself for the first time (had yet to get around to it though I've owned it in the New Line box set for years now).

It's a Lloyd Estate film, so Criterion should be releasing it eventually.
Note sure if this has been noted before, but TCM's copy of Movie Crazy which aired last Wednesday was preceded by the Criterion logo and was in true HD. It was sourced from a UCLA restoration which appeared to use a somewhat worn 35mm print with a handful of shots which I suspect came from a secondary 16mm print.

I can't share any enthusiasm for this title which I found lethargic and with too few new ideas. Gags are telegraphed twenty-to-thirty seconds ahead of time and poor direction and/or editing kill the few bits that could have succeeded. A party sequence late in the film where Lloyd mistakenly puts on a magician's coat prepped for a magic act manages to get enough momentum going to be amusing, but way too much time is spent on Lloyd's contrived romance with Constance Cummings, subjecting the viewer to numerous scenes which have no energy whatsoever.

I'm sorry to say that the magnificent Girl Shy, which aired last Tuesday night, was just the old SD version (no Criterion logo at the beginning), so it looks like Movie Crazy may have been prepped for release first.

User avatar
Close The Door, Raymond
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 11:33 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#73 Post by Close The Door, Raymond » Sun Mar 15, 2020 10:03 pm

So far, there has been 4 titles released.

SAFETY LAST! - #662 - June 2013
THE FRESHMAN #703 - March 2014
SPEEDY - #788 - December 2015
THE KID BROTHER #964- March 2019

Feature-length possibilities
"Silents"
A SAILOR-MADE MAN
GRANDMA'S BOY
DR. JACK
WHY WORRY?
GIRL SHY
HOT WATER
FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE
"Talkies"
WELCOME DANGER
FEET FIRST
MOVIE CRAZY
THE CAT'S-PAW
THE MILKY WAY
PROFESSOR BEWARE
THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK

ianungstad
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:20 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#74 Post by ianungstad » Sun Mar 15, 2020 10:20 pm

I think the Lloyd estate a few years ago stated that Criterion would put the "talkies" in a boxset but that hasn't happened. (yet)

User avatar
schellenbergk
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2018 12:03 pm

Re: Harold Lloyd and Criterion

#75 Post by schellenbergk » Mon Mar 16, 2020 1:45 pm

I'm hoping for a nice edition of "Why Worry?" - the best of the not yet released silents IMO

Post Reply