Synopsis
Hickory men are tall and strong, except for short and thin Harold (Lloyd), who is dwarfed by his father, County Sheriff Jim (James), and older brothers, Leo (Willis) and Olin (Francis). While Jim and his older sons cut and move timber, Harold does the family laundry. Jim’s shirt blows away and Harold chases after it. He follows the shirt into the front yard of his nemesis, Hank Hooper (Ralph Yearsly), the son of the next door neighbors. Hank thinks the shirt belongs to him and pursues Harold for it. Hank and Harold are fighting in the Hickory front yard until Jim and Sam Hooper (Frank Lanning), Hank’s father, separate them. Sam Hooper shares his son’s enmity toward the Hickory clan.
Sheriff Jim and his older sons go to a town meeting. Jim orders Harold to stay home and wash the dishes. At the meeting, the townsmen give Jim their money intended for the construction of a new dam. Sam Hooper hints that the Sheriff is not to be trusted with the money, but nobody pays any attention to him.
While his father and brothers are at the meeting, Harold puts on his father’s vest and admires himself wearing the sheriff’s badge. A medicine wagon, manned by Mary Powers (Ralston), the daughter of the deceased medicine man, her father’s partner Flash Farrell (Eddie Boland), and handyman Sandoni (Constantine Romanoff), arrives at the door. Flash, assuming he is the sheriff, talks Harold into signing a permit for their show.
The next day, Mary, discontented with her participation in the medicine show and pensively walking through the woods, is pursued by Sandoni who wishes to kiss her. Running away, she runs into Harold who picks up a small branch to defend her. The branch has a snake attached to it, and Sandoni, frightened, retreats. Harold is surprised that he has chased off the much larger man until he realizes that a snake is wrapped around the stick. Mary thanks Harold, and they are immediately attracted to one another. As Mary walks back to the show wagon, Harold climbs higher and higher up a tree in order to wave goodbye as long as possible.
That night, Sheriff Jim, discovering that Harold has given the medicine show a permit, orders his son to shut down the performance. At the medicine show, Mary is dancing for the crowd. Flash tricks Harold and ties him to the wagon. The sheriff arrives and angrily interrupts the performance. In the confusion, Harold is freed but a lantern is upended and sets fire to the medicine wagon. It burns to the ground. A sudden thunderstorm puts out the remaining fire.
Harold takes Mary, now stranded, to his home. His brothers, sitting around in their nightshirts, have to hide when Mary enters the house. Mrs. Hooper sees Mary in the Hickory home, and demands that she come to the Hooper home where another woman is present. Mary goes with her.
The town is celebrating the funding of the dam. To the consternation of Hank, Mary goes with Harold. While everybody is at the celebration, Flash and Sandoni break into the Hickory home and steal the money. Sheriff Hickory discovers the empty strong box. The townsmen are concerned, and Sam Hooper accuses the Sheriff of theft. The Sheriff tells his sons to find Flash and Sandoni who he accuses of stealing the money. The older brothers go looking for the robbers, but Harold is not allowed to go with them.
The townsmen are agitated and accuse Mary of complicity in the theft. Harold tries to stop them from taking hold of her. Hank Hooper hits Harold with a club, throws the unconscious Harold into a rowboat, and pushes it off down the river. The townsmen are threatening violence against the Sheriff when his older sons return without Flash and Sandoni.
The unconscious Harold floats to a derelict ship. As he regains consciousness, Harold sees the Sandoni's monkey on the deck railing. He climbs aboard. In a cabin, Flash and Sandoni are counting the money. Flash tries to hold out on Sandoni, they fight, and Flash is killed. Harold, attempting to stay hidden, gather ups the money. Sandoni sees him and chases Harold around the deck and through the ship. As he throws Harold to the floor, Sandoni loses his balance and falls into a pool of water. Unable to swim, Sandoni struggles in the water. Harold jumps in after him, and they sink. Bubbles rise. Finally, Harold surfaces dragging the unconscious Sandoni. Harold races home with Sandoni and the money.
The sheriff’s friends in town have turned against him, and Sam Hooper is leading the angry crowd. Harold arrives as the men are marching his father to a horrible fate. He gives them the money. His relieved father salutes Harold as a true Hickory. Mary embraces him. As a wrap up, Harold takes on Hank, bests him, and walks off with Mary, arm-in-arm.
Discussion
The Kid Brother, with its complex, serious plot and rural setting, is one of Harold Lloyd's more unusual films. His character Harold Hickory is a good example of his innocent, girl-shy persona. The climactic rush-to-the-rescue sequence that concludes the film provides opportunities to demonstrate Lloyd’s mastery of physical comedy and athletic skill.
The Kid Brother is a male version of the Cinderella story. Harold, the drudge of his family, lacks the size and strength of his father and brothers and is ordered about by all of them. The contrast of Lloyd’s height and wiry build to the outsized dimensions Walter James, Leo Willis and Olin Francis is stressed throughout the film. In a farm setting where physical strength is highly beneficial, Lloyd’s slight build seems particularly unfavorable. His family mistakes Harold’s youth, innocence and small size as evidence of ineptitude. Of course, given the opportunity Harold proves himself to be capable, resolute, and courageous. In the funny and sweet love story, Harold and Mary fall in love instantly. This was Jobyna Ralston’s final film with Lloyd. Ralston, a talented comic actress, matched perfectly with Lloyd and brought a good deal of warmth and sweetness to their six films together.
The film contains many gags, especially during his comic bouts with adversarial neighbor Hank Hooper. A funny scene involves Harold bringing Mary home after the medicine wagon burns up. His discomfited brothers, sitting around in their night shirts, have to hide to protect their modesty. Harold steers Mary toward them, and they have to scuttle from place to place, attempting to keep out of her sight. Harold’s chasing off Sandoni with a snake dangling on a stick is a weak gag.
The villains of The Kid Brother, unlike those of other Lloyd films, are not meant to be funny. Sam Hooper is an angry and resentful man, intent on seeing Jim Hickory ruined, even executed. Flash Farrell is a liar, con man and thief. Sandoni assaults Mary and murders Flash. The battle between Harold and Sandoni has many comic aspects but is a fight to the death for Harold who is thrown about by his much larger and stronger opponent. After Harold and Sandoni disappear into the pool, the audience is kept in suspense as bubbles ominously rise from the murky depths. Finally, the tension is broken, and Harold surfaces dragging the defeated Sandoni.
However, although it adds urgency to Harold's fight with Sandoni, the near-lynching of Sheriff Jim is nonetheless an incongruously grim element that is immediately dropped once the real thieves are exposed. Harold and Mary are happy, and the audience just has to try to forget that a barbaric and completely unjust execution nearly took place. For a coda, Harold’s defeat of his comic adversary, Hank Hooper, rounds off the story perfectly.
Constantine Romanoff, whose birth name was Friedrich Meyer, migrated from Germany around 1905. After a few years as a professional wrestler, he settled in Los Angeles and went into the movies. From 1921 until 1951, he appeared in numerous films, mostly in uncredited roles, in which his large size and threatening visage made him a useful convict, pirate, thug or villainous henchman. He makes a formidable opponent for Lloyd in The Kid Brother. Romanoff has a comic role as a reformed gangster in Lloyd’s For Heaven’s Sake (1926) and small, uncredited parts in several of his talkies.
Further Reading