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Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, Hal Roach, Pathé, 1923. Harold Lloyd, a department-store clerk, has written home that he is the manager; his girl (Mildred Davis) visits, so to draw a crowd he arranges a climb he cannot make. The clock face was a set on the roof of 908 South Broadway, with a camera tower shooting down so the street stayed in frame. Bill Strother, the human fly Lloyd had watched, did the long shots and plays the pal who was supposed to climb. Lloyd, missing a thumb and finger from a 1919 prop-bomb accident, wore a glove. National Film Registry, 1994.
In two programmes
The camera is a witness standing on the next roof. The clock face was a set on a downtown building, with the street kept in frame by a tower shooting down, and it works because Lloyd is not a daredevil. He is a clerk. Every floor adds a problem.
The clock. Twelve floors of new problems, a mattress platform three stories down, and a clerk who climbs because a job requires it. Watch the face after each floor. Lloyd is not brave. He is late.
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