A story of Cracker Jack and dog biscuits
Harold Meadows is the lead character played by Harold Lloyd in a paradoxically gentle and raucous romantic comedy. Harold is a shy tailor's apprentice who stutters at the best of times, but around girls all the time. The girls in his hometown of Little Bend make sport of Harold. For his part, Harold has decided to make a silent and distant study of the female sex. He has studied so diligently that it has resulted in a book about his imaginary love affairs.
THE SECRET OF MAKING LOVE
BY HAROLD MEADOWS
LITTLE BEND
Harold dedicates his book to the young men of the world to whom he passes on such advice as the way to win over the vamp is to feign indifference, and the way to a flapper's heart is to act the caveman. Oh, Harold. Silly advice indeed, but the basis for some very funny skits as we peek inside Harold's imagination.
Harold takes a momentous trip from his small town to the big city where he plans to grace a publisher with the honour of publishing his book. Aboard the train is Mary Buckingham, an heiress with a temperamental car who had not planned a railway trip. Harold becomes involved with Mary, her contraband pooch and some mixed up luggage. The sweet and attentive Mary is so attractive and unpretentious that Harold eventually forgets to stutter.
When Mary is picked up at the station by her driver, she impulsively kisses Harold goodbye. In a sentimental gesture, she keeps the empty box of Cracker Jack he bought her. Likewise, Harold hangs onto a box of dog biscuits that figured in their adventure. A dazed Harold drops his book at the publisher's office and returns home, dreaming of Mary. Can it be love?
A further encounter with Mary affirms the affection between the two starstruck lovers. Harold believes he will soon be a wealthy author and worthy of the girl of his dreams. Mary is a girl besotted and gives no thought to their differing stations in life.
On a follow-up visit with the publisher, Harold is given the gears by the girls in the office who had a great laugh over his efforts. He leaves the publisher heartbroken. His dream of being an author is quashed, and he feels he cannot propose to his girl. Harold makes what he imagines is the grand sacrifice for love, by breaking off the hopeless romance between a tailor's apprentice and an heiress. He has only succeeded in breaking two hearts.
Mary succumbs to family pressure to marry a man they deem suitable, but whom she can barely tolerate. The day of the wedding is a day filled with surprises. Harold is initially insulted to discover that the publisher has released his book as a joke entitled The Boob's Diary. The publisher's advance of $3000 assuages his outrage because now Harold is in the position of being able to propose to his beloved Mary. First, all he has to do is stop her marrying a man Harold has learned is already married!
The last twenty minutes of the movie is a race to the altar filled with thrills and gags. Harold starts out at a run and never lets up. Various automobiles are involved including one that belongs to a bootlegger and came complete with pursuing cops. There are horses and trolleys and a motorcycle, and two harnessed horses that make our Harold look for all the world like Ben-Hur. Will he get there on time? Lloyd's directing team of Sam Taylor and Fred Newmeyer keep the action frantically cutting between the race and the nuptials to give the audience a nail-biting finale.
The movie is filled with funny, clever and delightful gags that arise organically out of the character's actions and the situations in which they are placed. Two charming and delightful leads in Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston make Girl Shy a romantic comedy for the ages; always good for a laugh, a smile, and a gasp.
PS: Does anyone know where we could listen to this song?
When Mary is picked up at the station by her driver, she impulsively kisses Harold goodbye. In a sentimental gesture, she keeps the empty box of Cracker Jack he bought her. Likewise, Harold hangs onto a box of dog biscuits that figured in their adventure. A dazed Harold drops his book at the publisher's office and returns home, dreaming of Mary. Can it be love?
A further encounter with Mary affirms the affection between the two starstruck lovers. Harold believes he will soon be a wealthy author and worthy of the girl of his dreams. Mary is a girl besotted and gives no thought to their differing stations in life.
On a follow-up visit with the publisher, Harold is given the gears by the girls in the office who had a great laugh over his efforts. He leaves the publisher heartbroken. His dream of being an author is quashed, and he feels he cannot propose to his girl. Harold makes what he imagines is the grand sacrifice for love, by breaking off the hopeless romance between a tailor's apprentice and an heiress. He has only succeeded in breaking two hearts.
Mary succumbs to family pressure to marry a man they deem suitable, but whom she can barely tolerate. The day of the wedding is a day filled with surprises. Harold is initially insulted to discover that the publisher has released his book as a joke entitled The Boob's Diary. The publisher's advance of $3000 assuages his outrage because now Harold is in the position of being able to propose to his beloved Mary. First, all he has to do is stop her marrying a man Harold has learned is already married!
The last twenty minutes of the movie is a race to the altar filled with thrills and gags. Harold starts out at a run and never lets up. Various automobiles are involved including one that belongs to a bootlegger and came complete with pursuing cops. There are horses and trolleys and a motorcycle, and two harnessed horses that make our Harold look for all the world like Ben-Hur. Will he get there on time? Lloyd's directing team of Sam Taylor and Fred Newmeyer keep the action frantically cutting between the race and the nuptials to give the audience a nail-biting finale.
The movie is filled with funny, clever and delightful gags that arise organically out of the character's actions and the situations in which they are placed. Two charming and delightful leads in Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston make Girl Shy a romantic comedy for the ages; always good for a laugh, a smile, and a gasp.
PS: Does anyone know where we could listen to this song?