Get Out and Get Under (1920)

An absolute waste of money

Absolutely brilliant

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Get Out and Get Under (1920) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A young actor (Harold Lloyd) must rush to get to his play but his car starts all sorts of trouble. There's a few nice laughs here, including some nice bits with a young kid and a dog but some of the gags don't work as well. There's some amazing stunts including one where Lloyd jumps out of the car while it continues down the road. Lloyd must then catch back up with it. Another scene has the car going through thousands of people, which looks quite amazing. This was one of Lloyd's first films after a bomb exploded in his hand, nearly killing him and in a few close ups you can still see the scars on his face.

This is hardly Lloyd's best film, but it is fun. Notice a couple of superb deep-field shots, amazing for 1920, but indicative of what b/w film could do. TCM's print is exceptionally good. Also, the Nighthawks provide a wonderful musical accompaniment, based on the popular song of the era, from which (I assume) the movie derives its title -- "Get Out and Get Under." These were the times when "Get a horse!" was still considered an amusing response to the breakdowns that tin lizzies tended to experience. Those flivers tended to shake when running, and the film uses that tendency for a couple of jokes on Lloyd's character and the automobiles of the early 1920s. The chase scenes may be typical, but they are very good. I always marvel at the incredible timing that characterizes them.

Fair Harold Lloyd short which presents several gags he would re-use and improve upon in his later feature films. It opens with a scene at a photographer's studio where Harold discovers that his girl Mildred Davis is about to marry another man - but it all turns out to have been just a dream. He's involved in amateur theatricals and, being late for a performance, rushes out to the venue in his beloved car: amid the vehicle's breaking down on him, he falls foul of an elderly neighbor and a colored child; the race-against-time, then, culminates in the usual pursuit by a horde of policemen. The automobile trouble eventually gets a bit repetitive, but the film nevertheless includes the occasional inspired and hilarious gag - such as when Harold 'disappears' inside the car's engine compartment, an actor accidentally falling off the stage (after being 'killed') promptly going back up to resume his performance i.e. affecting a typically melodramatic 'exit' and, especially, when Lloyd sees a junkie getting high in the street and reasons that, if he injects his vehicle with the same substance, it will be likewise revitalized - which is what happens, as the car goes off on its own soon after 'taking' its fix!

Harold Lloyd's most famous movies really weren't slapstick films, as they weren't nearly violent enough and had way too much plot to be considered "slapstick". The slapstick films originally had the barest of plots and most consisted of people hitting or kicking each other, pie fights and lots of falls and accidents. While some of these are seen in Lloyd's films in the 20s and 30s, he really made films that were a little deeper and generally more enjoyable. This being said, this film is a great example of slapstick and what Lloyd's films were like up until he matured as an actor. It is also very similar to the films done in the 1910-1920s by Keystone and Roach Studios. In fact, Arbuckle, Chaplin and Keaton did many slapstick style films during this time. It's nice to see Lloyd's take on this style of film--especially because despite having a weaker plot, the action and silliness of this film are first-rate and the film deserves a rating of 9. For what it is, it is exceptional.