New DVDs capture brilliance of silent-film star Harold Lloyd

Of all the gods of American cinema, Harold Lloyd may be the most underappreciated by today's audiences — though with the recent release of a definitive DVD collection, that may finally change.

At the height of Lloyd's popularity, in the waning years of Hollywood's silent era, the famously bespectacled actor was as much a box-office draw as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Indeed, the unassuming kid from Nebraska is reputed to have been the most highly paid actor of his time (not that Mary Pickford or Gloria Swanson had to take in wash to make ends meet).

Had he lived to see the DVD release of "The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection," Lloyd probably could have climbed up the sides of the same buildings he scaled in "Safety Last!" 82 years ago, and yet few in downtown Los Angeles would remember his name. But Lloyd's wasn't the story of a once-famous actor who slipped into despair and poverty after the introduction of talkies.

Lloyd became a fabulously wealthy man, who remained vital and active until his death in 1971 at age 77. He lived in splendor at the lush 20-acre Beverly Hills estate called Green Acres that he built in 1930, surrounded by his leading lady in life and on the screen, Mildred Davis, and their family.

If Lloyd felt overshadowed by Chaplin and Keaton, he only had his own keen business sense to blame.

"When Harold asked [producer] Hal Roach if he could buy his movies, he really didn't know what he could do with them," Suzanne Lloyd, the actor's granddaughter and executive producer of the new seven-disc boxed set, said recently in an interview. "Harold probably did himself a disservice, financially, but that's how strongly he felt about owning his own work."

Back in the '20s, comedies weren't re-released into theaters, TV was a long way away, and there weren't any film festivals.

Today, the ancillary market for entertainment products is controlled by those who hold the licenses. In 1923, however, ownership rights were allowed to lapse, mostly because the paperwork involved was considered not worth the hassle.

But Lloyd retained most of his rights — which ultimately resulted in a massive fortune, even by Hollywood standards.

"In 1923, Roach already was preoccupied with the 'Our Gang' comedies, anyway," Suzanne Lloyd added, during a lunchtime conversation in a noisy Italian restaurant favored by movie folk. "Harold's last feature for Roach was 'Why Worry?,' although he did appear as himself in 'Dogs of War,' one of the first of the 'Our Gang' pictures. The movies were sharing the same set, which wasn't unusual in those days."

A regular guy

As manager of the comedian's estate and family manager, Suzanne Lloyd found her participation in this and other restoration projects to be both a labor of love and personal destiny. It also fulfills one of the goals set by her beloved grandfather, who long ago decided not to exploit his own good fortune by handing over his "babies" to people who couldn't possibly have the same emotional attachment to them as he had.

Between 1913 and 1929, Lloyd appeared in 200 shorts, two-reelers and features. He had met Roach in San Diego, where both men were working as extras on "Rory 'o The Bogs," and, together, they would attempt to launch series based on the characters Willie Work and the Chaplin-inspired Lonesome Luke.

In 1917, Lloyd invented his archetypal Glasses Character, who frequently shared the first name of his mentor. Unlike most of the actors in his orbit, Lloyd didn't come from vaudeville, where the humor was broad and no one spared the makeup, trademark props or outlandish costumes.

"The everyday man character, who walked about and found himself in hairy situations, was very appealing to the audiences of his day," explained Charlie Lustman, proprietor of Los Angeles' Silent Movie Theater, which showed Lloyd's "Grandma's Boy" (1922) over Thanksgiving. "He performed most of his own stunts, like climbing up the side of the building and hanging from the clock, in 'Safety Last!' Buster Keaton might find himself hanging from a pole, but he didn't scale buildings."

Typically, Lloyd's characters held ordinary jobs — sales clerk, cab driver, soda jerk — and could only dream of holding positions of prominence that would appeal to the girls next door they found so attractive.

As the DVDs make exceedingly clear, Lloyd's genius was in the setting up and paying off of sight gags, which relied on precise timing, physical dexterity and the fluidity of a dancer (see below for some highlights).

The end of an era

After the release of "The Jazz Singer" in 1927, audiences lost patience with silent films and their more subtle experiences. While Lloyd never lost his passion for film, he eventually turned his attention to other pursuits, including 35mm and stereoscopic photography, civic and charitable work, especially for the burn units at Shriners Hospitals.

When television arrived, with its insatiable appetite for entertainment products, Hollywood studios opened their vaults to fill the void.

"Harold owned the films, and didn't want to put them on television, which he hated," said his granddaughter, who grew up at Green Acres. "He couldn't stand watching his movies on television because they'd cut to a commercial in the middle of a gag, completely ruining it. There was no way to recapture the impact of the gag, which he'd taken so much time setting up."

Suzanne Lloyd worked with restorers at UCLA and the Packard Humanities Institute, whose talents are on full display in the DVDs and prints made for theatrical distribution by Sony. Unfortunately, enough copies of unrestored public-domain titles remain in distribution to confuse the less-astute consumer.

"Some of our films are in the public domain as well, but they've been restored and re-scored, and they're really beautiful," Suzanne Lloyd said. "I cleaned them up, put new party dresses on them and [now can] take them to the dance."

Gary Dretzka is a contributor to The Seattle Times based in Los Angeles: gdretzka@aol.com