SPEEDY
starring Harold Lloyd
PICTURE PLAY MAGAZINE
July, 1928
Harold Lloyd's pictures are infrequent enough to be events of the first order to fans the world over. The breathless legions, then, can be assured that "Speedy" is there. It lives up to its title all right, fairly bristling with surprises in the way of gags, and it has captured the spirit of New York in terms of rollicking comedy as few pictures ever have. The panorama of the city, presented as an introduction, is a triumph of photography, both realistic and imaginative, and, because of its beauty, it is strangely thrilling. The story is unusual, too, though almost any story might do if it were punctuated with laughs. But Lloyd is too intelligent to depend on laughs alone. He never has.
He is in love with a girl whose father holds a franchise which
a railroad wants to get. In order to retain his rights, the old
man has to drive his horse car once every twenty-four hours.
Speedy takes a hand in protecting Pop Dillon's rights and precipitates
a magnificently funny street melee in which hooligans in the pay
of the railroad battle with the tradesmen served by the car line.
There is so much more to the picture than this, however, that
it is hardly fair to mention it ahead of countless other sequences
equally good. Speedy as a soda jerker, for example; and as a
taxi driver with "Babe" Ruth as a passenger, bound for
the stadium; and as a skylarking visitor to Coney Island. Each
of these is a gem of comedy in itself, and separately would put
any picture over. Mr. Lloyd's performance is crisp, expert, sympathetic,
and he looks uncommonly youthful. Bert Woodruff is fine as Pop
Dillon, and Ann Christie is his daughter.