Er im Wilden Westen (Short 1920)

Er im Wilden Westen: Directed by Hal Roach. With Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Noah Young, J. Ray Avery. Blase eastern boy is shipped off to a ranch in the ‘wild west ‘ by his father.

“Anyone who wants to know why Harold Lloyd was so popular during the 1920s should take a look at this film: itu0026#39;s one of the most satisfying short comedies he ever made. An Eastern Westerner is consistently clever and amusing, well-paced and packed with gags from the opening scene to the final fade-out. Whatu0026#39;s more, Harold himself is charming, displaying just the right blend of self-assurance, exuberance and humility. I must confess I find Harold a little hard to take in some of his early comedies — sometimes heu0026#39;s so aggressive he borders on obnoxiousness — but here heu0026#39;s an appealing figure throughout, ever more sympathetic as the story rolls along.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAn Eastern Westerner offers exactly what the title promises, a displaced dude forced to deal with life in the wild u0026amp; woolly West. Thereu0026#39;s a girl (of course) and a bully (ditto), and it all culminates in a chase. Harold follows in the footsteps of Douglas Fairbanks, who played a boyish character in a similar situation in a 1917 feature appropriately titled Wild and Woolly. But although Harold is a fish out of water in this instance heu0026#39;s no bonehead, and itu0026#39;s refreshing to see that, like Doug before him, he quickly adapts to the difficulties he faces, uses his brains, and manages to come out on top. At the same time, he has a sense of humor and isnu0026#39;t arrogant. When his attempts to impress leading lady Mildred Davis backfire and she laughs at him, Harold is big enough to join in and laugh at himself, and we like him for it. This likability wasnu0026#39;t always present in Lloydu0026#39;s earlier films, where gags were all-important and his behavior was sometimes callous. In An Eastern Westerner Harold has graduated from clown to hero.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBeyond its value as a laugh-provoker this movie should also be of interest to fans of early Westerns, for the filmmakers evidently took care with production details to a degree that is surprising in a two-reel comedy. This really looks like a Western! The town of Piute Pass (where, weu0026#39;re told, u0026quot;itu0026#39;s considered bad form to shoot the same man twice in the same dayu0026quot;) is as dusty and rough-looking as the town of Hellu0026#39;s Hinges, and the bully of Piute Pass could appear in a William S. Hart epic without having to change costume. Sequences in the saloon involving fighting, card-playing and dancing could be excerpted and passed off as clips from serious Westerns of the era. While these production details are gratifying, this engaging comedy is already well worth seeing as a fine example of what made Harold Lloyd a top star.”