NUMBER, PLEASE?

(director/writer: Hal Roach/Fred Newmeyer; screenwriter: H.M. Walker; cinematographer: Walter Lundin; editor: ; music: Robert Israel; cast: Harold Lloyd (The Boy), Mildred Davis (The Girl), Roy Brooks (The Rival), Ernest “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison (accomplice); Runtime: 25; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Hal Roach; TCM; 1920-silent)

“A typical Harold Lloyd two-reel comedy.“

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A typical Harold Lloyd two-reel comedy. It was co-directed by Hal Roach, Lloyd’s business partner, and by Lloyd’s Colorado childhood friend and former pro baseball player for the Philadelphia Athletics Fred Newmeyer.

Harold is at a seaside amusement park (shot at Ocean Park in Los Angeles, which was destroyed by fire four years later) and while on a roller coaster spots his girl(Mildred Davis) with his rival Roy (Roy Brooks). Mildred’s dog gets loose and both Harold and Roy help catch the dog. Later the girl’s balloonist uncle gives her a pass for two in his hot-air balloon, but only if she gets her mother’s approval. The girl challenges her rivals, saying the first to get her mother’s consent will accompany her on the balloon. While the rival finds transportation home to mother, Harold tries his luck with the telephone. The third part, the best, has Harold trying to get rid of a stolen purse and the cops are suspicious of his crazy antics.

Funniest bit is Harold while trying to escape from the cops enlists a black child amusement park valet (Ernest “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison), one of the original Our Gang kids, to sit upon his shoulders with an overcoat covering Lloyd.

REVIEWED ON 7/1/2012 GRADE: B