A Sailor-Made Man (1921)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Fred C. Newmeyer

Writers:

Hal Roach (story) &
Sam Taylor (story) ...

Release Date:

25 December 1921 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

An idle, wealthy playboy foolishly joins the Navy when the father of the girl he wants to marry tells him to get a job to prove himself worthy.

Plot Keywords:

Ship | Rescue | Port | Monkey | Idle Rich

Cast

Harold Lloyd	...	The Boy
Mildred Davis	...	The Girl
Noah Young	...	The Rowdy Element
Dick Sutherland	...	Maharajah of Khairpura-Bhandanna

Runtime:

USA:46 min (2002 restoration) | USA:47 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G

Filming Locations:

Hal Roach Studios - 8822 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Hal Roach Studios

Trivia:

Both Lloyd and Hal Roach would haul the initial cuts of their films to theaters in the outskirts of Los Angeles for unannounced test screenings. They would carefully gauge the reactions of these audiences to individual scenes and re-cut the films accordingly. This film was unusual in that it was conceived as a 2-reel short but the 4-reel (just over 40 minutes) first cut tested so strongly with the test audience they were loathe to cut any of it. By audience default, it became his first feature-length comedy, by accident.

Goofs:

Continuity: When The Girl takes the cigar away from the old woman on the streets of Khairpura-Bhandanna, she turns and sees Harold approaching; she then immediately reaches out her arms to embrace him and she's holding the cigar in her right hand. In the next shot, as she has her arms around Harold's neck, the cigar is now in her left hand.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "American Masters: Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius" (1989)

a decent early Lloyd feature

While this film isn't really as long as most feature films, it is longer than a short and really falls in between the two types of films in length.

This film was remade three years later as WHY WORRY? though there were some changes made in the plot--enough that I recommend you see both. However the overall themes and plot elements are interchangeable. In both he's a rich guy who needs to grow up and be more industrious, and in both he ultimately rescues his lady while in a foreign land. In WHY WORRY? the setting was a revolution on a South American island and in this film it was a Muslim nation and its leader who kidnaps the lady to put her in his harem.

The general direction of the plot is pure Lloyd formula--wimpy guy meets girl and somehow rises to the occasion to fight for and win her. This is nicely made but not exactly different from many of his other films in this sense. It's worth seeing, but other films such as THE FRESHMAN, GIRL SHY and SPEEDY are better Lloyd vehicles.