Welcome Danger

source: Welcome Danger

Harold Lloyd's first talkie is a take on the always popular genre of a seemingly buffoonish, and klutzy inspector who solves the big case while acting the fool. First of all, the movie works, basically. Secondly, it fails to heed the unwritten rule of comedy "Keep them wanting more". Every gag is funny the first time, the second time but the third, fourth and fifth... NO!!! Despite this, Lloyd is funny and symphathetic. But I must comment, something was lost when Lloyd went to sound. It's like hearing him talk took away some of his movie star magic, a little star dust faded astern. He also seems to be slumming it, more interested in keeping his fans and his star status than making genuine great comedies. That said, the side kick inspector is good, and the final twenty minutes though a bit draggy is very funny. I laughed a number of times through that sequence. And the final shot and line is what the silent Harold Lloyd comedies were all about. It's a pity we don't get more of that in this movie.

I saw this Harold Lloyd film as a part of their theme "first sound films by silent stars night" this month. I was surprised & though this film is not Lloyds best, it is quite OK. Harold's first sound film has been recently restored by the film preservation society, & they did a fine job restoring it. Like Alfred Hitchcock who started filming a silent during this time & then converted it to a sound film, Lloyd did the same this with this film. The plot is quite unique for a comedy film. A Botany Student (Lloyd) is the son of a former San Francisco police chief who goes to San Francisco and is enlisted in the force because of his being dad's son. Then he helps crack a case to arrest the leader of a drug distribution network. That sounds much too serious for a comedy, but Harold makes it work. He does put his touch of classic romantic comedy into it although the love interest does not dominate this film like it does Lloyds's Girl Shy for example. It just is a part of the puzzle that is there to help move the film along. A lot of the same actors who were in his silent films are along for the first sound film too. All of them do a really good job. Harold changed Directors when he went from silent to sound & you will note upon viewing it that some of the sequences are still the silent ones with sound dubbed in, at times awkwardly. A few of the subtitles to explain the plot when moving from one sequence to another are still there too. There a several of Harold's physical comedy sequences in this though no major chase scene like his previous film SPEEDY. Still, for his first sound film, Lloyds effort appears to be much smoother than most. His voice is actually what you'd expect looking at Harold. It would have been crazy for him to have a booming bass voice, & he doesn't. He does face down sound quickly as he speaks in the films very first sequence. What is most unusual in this conversion is one of the more complicated plots for a comedy film. If you like Lloyds silent works this film will not disappoint you.

Sound technology was new in 1929--brand new--and WELCOME DANGER, originally filmed in silent mode, was re-filmed with sound, the crude sound of the '20s which alternates between being loud one moment and soft the next, forcing a constant hand on the volume if you wish to keep track of the painfully banal dialog. HAROLD LLOYD, improbably cast as the son of a police chief who ruled Chinatown, is sent to San Francisco to wipe out crime among the drug lords. Lloyd is a botany student who isn't quite what the force was expecting. The opening scenes with BARBARA KENT are delightfully played for comic situations, but again it's the script that's the real problem. She seems a natural enough actress and Lloyd delivers his lines in OK style, but it's slow going to watch each scene develop--and most of the comic situations are pretty lame. EDGAR KENNEDY has fun with his role as a desk sergeant who sends Lloyd off on what he thinks is a wild goose chase in Chinatown looking for The Dragon. Some of the sight gags are still fun, left-overs from the silent version, but the film has to be considered an uneasy transition between silent and sound that never quite clicks the way Lloyd's silent comedies did. As Osborne said when doing the intro, some of it is "pretty rough". Summing up: Except for the interesting Chinatown sequence (which goes on much too long), and the slight twist as to the identity of The Dragon, this one is strictly for Harold Lloyd fans who want to see his complete works.

Don't get me wrong, I love Harold Lloyd - both his talkies and silents. However, "Welcome Danger" was a real disappointment. It was Lloyd's first talking picture, started as a silent. When he finished he realized that sound had "arrived" and reshot it as a talking picture. The awkwardness of the picture is no worse than any other early sound film, but the big problem is Harold's persona. As usual, he is the eager beaver trying to make good, but for some reason he makes his character out to be one of the most annoying personalities in film history. He is outright mean to people who really don't deserve it. Lloyd plays Harold Bledsoe, a college student studying botany. His father is chief of police in San Francisco. After his father dies, Harold returns home to help the force with a crime wave in Chinatown. However, he becomes fascinated with fingerprint technology and soon has the department tied in knots with all of his cataloguing and fingerprinting. Soon the police department that welcomed him so heartily would do anything to get him out of their collective hair. It is a shame this isn't on DVD because it is not THAT bad, and it is an important milestone in cinema history since it was Lloyd's very first talking picture. "Feet First" was his second talking effort, and a much better film too. One of the real treats of this film is an unbilled appearance by Edgar Kennedy as a desk sergeant in the San Francisco police department. He spends a long time on screen for him to have no credit whatsoever, but he does a wonderful job of playing the irascible beat cop we see in his later films.

Thanks to the good folks at Turner Classic Movies, this amazingly funny comedy -- with its various predictable pratfalls -- was aired for free on their TCM channel. Lloyd is great, not just going through the motions, but really putting his all into the action sequences and comedic elements. The peculiar thing about this film is that it contains some overtly sadistic elements, which appear near the end of the movie, not the least of which is when Lloyd puts the bad hombre's head in a vise and screws down the vise grips to make him confess to the whereabouts of the kidnapped Chinese doctor. There's whipping and punching and a funny sequence where the strongman has "knees of glass". Lloyd punches the strong man in the chest and nothing happens, but when he whacks the bad hombre's strongman on the shins, oy ... he jumps and dances around in pain. It was probably a good idea to cut this movie down from around three hours to the running time, but for sure it works amazingly well in the final edit. All in all, an extremely satisfying motion picture experience, with Lloyd doing such a great job as the Original Nerd. TCM presented a version of the movie which seems to have been beautifully restored and was very easy and enjoyable to watch. True, the sound was a bit off sometimes but it was a treasure nonetheless. It got a seven for my vote, and I can say it was great fun all the way.

Harold Lloyd (as Harold Bledsoe) is a botany student who travels to San Francisco, where he is called upon to help extinguish Chinatown crime; it is hoped Mr. Lloyd will follow in his police chief father's footsteps. Beautiful Barbara Kent is also making the trip; she wants to get her lame brother an operation, from a San Franciscan doctor. Obviously, filmed both as a "silent' and as a "talkie" - sometimes, the dialog adds absolutely nothing to the on screen events; and, other times, talking is the only thing happening. The silent portions with dubbed talking work better if you just ignore the sound; in the strictly talking segments, Lloyd lacks the deftness of his better work. The physical humor looks more painful than funny. A questionable depiction of race grows with the long running time. If you aren't already a Harold Lloyd fan, this film probably won't make you one. ** Welcome Danger (1929) Clyde Bruckman, Malcolm St. Clair ~ Harold Lloyd, Barbara Kent

Just saw the film last night on TCM (the sound version). Very interesting to note the difference in pacing for silent gags and sound. Most of the gags were only funny with the sound off. This is essentially a silent film with sound and dialog clumsily grafted on. Also, I must agree that the lovable boy-next-door character audiences had come to expect shows up as a bully and low-life due, primarily, to his abusive and rough comments. Contrasting, TCM also screened Buster's first sound offering - "free and easy". Clearly MGM and Buster had mastered the uses of sound - and how to pace a sound comedy. This film, unlike Harold's, was meant to be a talkie. (on the other hand, in a number of scenes, Buster appears a little drunk). I look forward to seeing the silent version of this film.

"Welcome Danger" was Harold Lloyd's first sound film, and I must admit while contrary to public opinion I enjoy Lloyd's sound films. And "Welcome Danger" I think might be his best sound picture ("Movie Crazy" is also another contender), and one of Lloyd's best period. Some people complain that when Lloyd starting making "talkies" he abandoned his usual style of humor, sight gags and such, but for some reason I don't care and I'm not bothered by it. I think what most people are missing out on is the fact that movies were entering a "new" era. We were heading into a "new" way of making films. And they wasn't time for anything "old". So when Harold Lloyd starting making pictures I think he knew that he was going to have to keep up with the times and create something "new". A lot of people don't like the witty one-linners Lloyd gives, they feel the character is out of place doing that. What they're problem is they don't realize, this isn't the old character Lloyd was playing. And "Welcome Danger" starts off fast and funny. One-linners, sights gags, puns, it's flying everywhere. I guess my opinion of Lloyd differs some everyone else, but, I wouldn't pass up the chance to see this one. It's very funny. *** 1\2 out of ****

Most of the commentators are getting caught up in showing their "knowledge" of movies. Sure, Lloyd was a contemporary of so and so, and sure, this was his first talkie, and sure, the editing wasn't great. In truth, very few movies had substantially better acting, writing, directing, etc. Movie making was still very primitive. I have watched tons of movies from the 30s that were not better done than this one from the late 20s. This is a great movie if you like slapstick, and it pretty much stinks if you don't. Do you laugh at the physical comedy of the Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, John Ritter, etc? If so, watch this. Do you get upset at the violence of Tom and Jerry? Then don't watch this. I love Lloyd. His movies are not made to be analyzed. If you need to find deep meaning in movies, go somewhere else. Lloyd often ad libbed or deviated from the script. Basically, he did whatever he wanted to do. He remains one of the best of the physical comics ever to be filmed. Much better than Chaplin, Shemp, and Ritter. Always as good as Keaton, Moe, and Lewis. Sometimes as good as Curly. Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.