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Why Worry? (1923)

Why Worry?

1923

  • Pathé Exchange
  • Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
  • Story by Sam Taylor; Titles by H.M. Walker
  • Starring Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, John Aasen, Wallace Howe, Jim Mason

Synopsis

Wealthy hypochondriac Harold Van Pelham (Lloyd), continually checking his heart and taking pills, travels with his nurse (Ralston) and valet, Mr. Pipps (Howe), to Paradiso, a tropical island, for his health. The island is anything but a paradise. Renegade James H. Blake (Mason) has organized the riff-raff of the island into a revolutionary army attacking the soldiers of the legal government. Harold is so consumed with his supposed illnesses that he doesn’t realize a revolution is occurring until he gets thrown into jail. Also in the cell is gigantic Colosso (Aasen), who is suffering from a toothache. Colosso removes the bars, and they escape. Harold pulls out the tooth (with great difficulty), and he and Colosso attack the revolutionaries. Between attacks, Harold checks his heart and swallows his pills.

Harold's nurse and Mr. Pipps have been hiding; Harold finds his nurse disguised as a boy. Blake also finds her, and Harold is so enraged when Blake lays hold of her, he attacks and beats him senseless. Harold eludes the revolutionaries and in a series of lightning maneuvers attacks and beats up The Mighty Herculeo (Leo White), the revolution's second in command. Harold deposits Herculeo with Blake in a pile of debris, permanently out of action. Harold, Colosso, and the nurse trick an approaching revolutionary army into thinking that a large government army is attacking them. To cure Harold’s constant pill-taking, the nurse tells Colosso that Harold is sick and must take his pills frequently, and in the midst of the action Colosso periodically forces a pill down Harold's throat. After a few doses, Harold declares that he is finished taking pills. The revolutionaries eventually run away, and the revolution is ended.

One year later, Harold has become a high-powered businessman, the valet works for his business, and Harold and his nurse have a newborn son. Racing home to see his child, Harold stops to tell Colosso, a traffic cop at a busy corner, and they sprint to Harold’s home.

Discussion

Why Worry? centers on hypochondriac Harold amid the chaos of a revolution. Surrounded by threatening revolutionaries, Harold digresses to monitor his heart and take his pills. The friendly giant adds another comic element. The plot builds slowly as Harold meets and befriends Colosso, realizes a revolution is occurring, and takes on the revolutionaries. A series of comic incidents are built around the giant: getting out of jail, taking out his (very large) tooth, using him as a gun carriage. Colosso searches for Harold's nurse, coming back with increasing numbers of women of all ages, finally carrying several on his back and pulling a tethered group. The relationship between Harold and Colosso is respectful and sweet as they quickly become fond of each other. Colosso's gratitude for the tooth extraction is touching. Defending his nurse from Blake puts Lloyd into frantic action pounding Blake senseless. He also races around thumping Herculeo. Amid this action, he stops to take his pills. The cure for his pill taking is to take them repeatedly and under duress. Colosso jerks the unwilling Harold around and shoves the pills down him, amusingly, and effectively, curing his hypochondria.

The settings are the typical comic opera concept of a Latin American village, with small balconied houses lining the unpaved streets that are occupied by foot traffic and donkey carts. Men wears sombreros, loose shirts, dark pants; women wear headscarves, blouses, loose skirts. Government soldiers dress in 18th century-style uniforms; the revolutionaries, lacking uniforms, sport bandoliers. Harold stands out in a suit and straw hat.

Harold Lloyd’s character in a film was generally one of two alternate personas: a shy, unassuming and naive young man, who is rather afraid of girls; or a wealthy, fairly self-assured clubman, lacking direction and ambition. The latter persona appears in Why Worry? Most silent comedians were fine athletes. Without the ability to say funny things, the comic had to do funny things, often involving a lot of jumping around, falling over, spinning, somersaulting, and hanging off buildings or trees. Lloyd’s character registers strongly even in the midst of manic comic activities. Lloyd projects his cheerful, considerate, and sensitive personality even as he jumps over barrels, falls off walls, and hangs from windows.

In February 1923, Lloyd married Mildred Davis, his costar in his first four feature films. After his new wife retired from acting, Lloyd needed a new leading lady. Jobyna Ralston, who had been in films since 1919 and had made over three dozen short comedies with James Parrott, was young, cute, experienced, and already on the Hal Roach lot. Why Worry? was the first of six films they made together. Ralston enhances their films with her sweetness, charm, beauty, and comic skills. She made a few films in the late-1920s, but only three talkies, and faded out of pictures by 1931.

John Aasen, who stood somewhere around eight feet tall when he appeared in Why Worry?, suffered from gigantism, a condition of greatly enlarged body stature resulting from the production of excess growth hormone in childhood. By age 25, he was being promoted by a small Midwestern circus as a giant, the tallest man in the world. After the sudden death of George Auger, known as the Cardiff Giant, the first giant actor signed for Why Worry?, Aasen was found from a newspaper story about a Wisconsin shoe factory making shoes for the biggest feet in the US. After Why Worry?, Aasen made several shorts for Hal Roach Studios including Long Fliv the King (1926), with Charley Chase, and Should Married Men Go Home (1928), with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Not surprisingly, Aasen frequently played a circus giant, including in an uncredited role in Tod Browning's Freaks (1932). His filmography lists a total of fifteen films made betwen 1923 and 1936. He died in 1938 at age 48.

A thin face, long, pointed nose, close-set eyes, and small dark mustache gave Jim Mason a rather sinister appearance; he plays a typical role as the lecherous leader of the revolution. He appears as a gangster in Lloyd's For Heaven's Sake (1926). Born in Paris, Mason lacked acting experience when he immigrated to America in 1909 at age twenty. That same year, he made his first film, The Great Train Robbery (not to be confused with the famous 1905 film), produced by Vitagraph. He played a villain in dozens of silent Westerns and continued his career in dozens of talking Westerns, often as an uncredited barfly.

Cinematographer Walter Lundin worked with a succession of comedians. He shot many of Harold Lloyd's films in the 1920s, including Safety Last! (1923) and The Freshman (1925). In the 1930s he filmed Laurel and Hardy; in the 1940s Lundin worked mostly on Our Gangshorts at MGM. His technique was straightforward; point the camera at the comic while he did his stuff and periodically get the camera into the face of the comedian during a short pause in a stunt.

TCM Film Festival, 2014

Why Worry? was shown as part of the Special Presentations theme at the TCM Classic Film Festival in 2014, and featured the world premiere of Carl Davis' score for the film. Suzanne Lloyd, Harold Lloyd's granddaughter and keeper of his film work, and Leonard Maltin, author, critic and film historian, discussed the film. Why Worry?, Lloyd's fifth feature, was his last film for the Hal Roach Studio. Lloyd left Roach and his next film, Girl Shy (1924) was made by his own studio.

Further Reading

TCM Classic Film Festival, 2014