History Creator / HaroldLloyd

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[[caption-width-right:350:{{Adorkable}}!]]
->''"My humor was never cruel or cynical. I just took life and poked fun at it. We made it so it could be understood the world over, without language barriers. We seem to have conquered the time barrier, too."''[[note]]Lloyd in 1970, shortly before his death[[/note]]

* NitroBoost: In the short ''Get Out and Get Under'', Lloyd gives his car heroin to make it go faster. Presumably he was not all that familiar with the effects of heroin.

* NoStuntDouble: Even after the injury above, this still applied.

* BananaRepublic: Lloyd goes to one in ''Why Worry?'' and ends up in the middle of a revolution.

->''"My humor was never cruel or cynical. I just took life and poked fun at it. We made it so it could be understood the world over, without language barriers. We seem to have conquered the time barrier, too."[[note]]Lloyd in 1970, shortly before his death[[/note]]

In 1923, following the tremendous success of ''Film/SafetyLast'', (the one with the "clock dangling" scene as shown on this page) Lloyd left Creator/HalRoachStudios and became his own boss during his era of greatest success, the 1920s where he produced more feature films than Chaplin and Keaton. Unlike those rivals, he never took credit as a writer or director of his films despite closely controlling all aspects of production. His films during these years became famous for thrilling, elaborate stuntwork and long chase sequences, all of which were performed by Lloyd himself. Even more impressively, this was done after losing the thumb and forefinger on his right hand when a prop bomb exploded too early.

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[[caption-width-right:220:And if you think this is daring, remember he's holding on with a mutilated hand.]]

* ''Film/GrandmasBoy1922'' (1922)

* EekAMouse: In ''Movie Crazy'', Harold unknowingly wears a magician's coat to a party and accidentally lets out a bunch of white mice on a crowded dance floor, leading to this reaction from several women (and one [[CampGay very effeminate man]]).

** In ''The Freshman'', he takes an interest in a {{crossword puzzle}} Jobyna Ralston is working on while riding the train, and winds up face-to-face with her.

* {{Ruritania}}: "Thermosa" in ''His Royal Slyness'' (Harold plays the Prince of Razzmatazz; his rival is the Prince of Roquefort).

* {{Ruritania}}: "Thermosa" in ''His Royal Slyness'' (Harold plays the Prince).

* {{Sequel}}: After several years in retirement Lloyd attempted a comeback with ''The Sin of Harold Diddlebock'', a sequel to ''The Freshman''. For this movie he teamed with one of the greatest comedy directors of TheForties, Creator/PrestonSturges, the maker of razor-sharp satires like ''Film/SullivansTravels'' and ''Film/TheLadyEve''. It was a disaster, Lloyd retired from filmmaking for good, and Sturges's career never recovered.

Lloyd attempted to adapt the Glasses Character for talkies but met with gradually diminishing returns and was essentially retired by 1938. He held the copyright to most of his features and was reluctant to show them in revivals or on television, and consequently his reputation diminished over the decades in comparison with his contemporaries'. Some of Lloyd's features were released on VHS in the early 1990s, and a DVD collection of features and shorts was finally released in 2005. Creator/TheCriterionCollection currently has the rights to Lloyd's catalog and is releasing his films on Blu-ray.

* ''Film/{{Grandmas Boy|1922}}'' (1922)

* MagicFeather: The "magic amulet" in ''Grandma's Boy''.

'''Harold Clayton Lloyd''' (April 20, 1893 -- March 8, 1971) was one of the biggest stars of UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood. Along with Creator/CharlieChaplin and Creator/BusterKeaton, Lloyd (sometimes described as "The Third Genius" in reference to the other two actors) dominated the silent comedy genre in the 1920s.

* ShoutOut: The scene in ''An Eastern Westerner'' where a gang of riders on horseback wearing white hoods charge into town is strongly reminscent of the Klan on horseback in ''Film/TheBirthOfANation''. Happily, in this film the riders in white hoods are the bad guys.

** He also loses the girl in ''Number, Please?'' when the purse he's spent the whole movie trying to bring back to the girl is eaten by a goat.