HOT WATER (directors: Sam Taylor/Fred Newmeyer; screenwriter: story by Sam Taylor. Tom Gray, Tim Whelan and John Grey; cinematographer: Walter Lundin; editor: Allen McNeil; cast: Harold Lloyd (Hubby), Jobyna Ralston (Wife), Josephine Crowell (Her Mother), Charles Stevenson (Her Big Brother), Mickey McBan (Her Little Brother); Runtime: 60; MPAA Rating: NR; Harold Lloyd; New Line Home; 1924-silent)
“There are a few brilliant slapstick sequences in this episodic film.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Sam Taylor and Fred Newmeyerco-direct this amusing Harold Lloyd silent. It’s written by Taylor, Tom Gray, Tim Whelan and John Grey. It tells of the travails of the newlywed Harold Lloyd, an avowed bachelor who meets his wife (Jobyna Ralston) when he bangs into her while running in the street to be on time as the best man at a wedding the bridegroom is tardy to.

There are a few brilliant slapstick sequences in this episodic film, such as when hubby is grocery shopping for his wife and wins a live turkey in a raffle and must take a trolley home with his hands full; the hubby returns home to find he’s visited by his oafish adult brother-in-law (Charles Stevenson), his bratty little kid brother-in-law (Mickey McBan) and his mother-in-law (Josephine Crowell), whom he notes has ‘the heart of a traffic cop;’ and then Harold goes for a ride in his new car with his family and tries to get around a traffic jam. There’s the climax sequence, which I didn’t find that funny, where a drunken Harold is guilt-ridden that he may have mistakenly killed his mother-in-law with too much chloroform he gave her to keep her from lecturing him on the evils of drink. The newlywed hubby is relieved to find his mother-in-law sleepwalking, and that she finally leaves when she thinks Harold’s house is haunted.

The gentle comedy, with Lloyd’s great comic timing, pleased theater audiences upon release and turned into a big profit film.

REVIEWED ON 4/25/2014 GRADE: B

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

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