Der Unaufhaltsame

This is one of the earliest Harold Lloyd comedies I've seen, and while it's not the best short he ever made The Non-Stop Kid is very much the kind of pleasant, fast-moving and light-hearted romp that helped establish Harold at the top of his profession by the beginning of the 1920s. The plot is a simple concoction: pretty Bebe Daniels is surrounded by suitors, including Harold, but her father wants her to hold out for Professor M. T. Noodle ("empty noodle," get it?). Harold manages to waylay the intended fiancée, arranges for him to get knocked unconscious, switches clothes with him, and shows up at a tea party at Bebe's home disguised as the Professor. Comedy ensues.

This film was made less than a year after Lloyd abandoned his 'Lonesome Luke' character, which he freely admitted in later years was a shameless Chaplin imitation. At times, however, Harold still seems to be impersonating Charlie: for instance, as he steps up to the door of Bebe's home he bumps his shoe on a step and glances back at it in an unmistakably Chaplinesque manner. Once inside, he is handed a cup of tea that has been over-sugared, and his nauseated reaction suggests Charlie once again, a resemblance enhanced by the fake mustache he wears and by the fact that his own hair was still quite bushy at this time. Even so, there are a number of touches along the way that prefigure the Lloyd style soon to emerge, such as the sassy, joke-filled title cards and the eccentric dance Harold performs at the party, which owes nothing to Chaplin. (Actually, the dance may remind latter-day viewers of Groucho Marx!) The ending, when Harold and Bebe manage to escape from her tyrannical father, is very much the sort of triumphant finale Lloyd would favor in his great works of the '20s, a finale that leaves the audience with a warm glow.

So, all told, this is a pleasant little film. Perhaps it was meant as an inside joke that the fake mustache Harold dons as part of his disguise is a throwback to his former screen character, Lonesome Luke. If so, it may have been intended as a farewell to the more primitive comic style Lloyd and his colleagues were leaving behind. From here on, for the most part, there would be much less reliance on silly get-ups and gags borrowed from Chaplin or anyone else.

Although unrefined, and made before Harold Lloyd had settled into the screen persona that suited him best, this is still a generally amusing short comedy. In most respects it is similar to many other comedies of its time, combining some knockabout slapstick with identity mix-ups and romantic problems. Lloyd could do this material as well as almost anyone, and he gives his usual energetic performance.

The story has Lloyd's character in love with a young woman played by Bebe Daniels, whose father is intent on having her marry a Professor. Lloyd and Daniels always made a good screen couple, and they seem quite natural together. That helps a lot in keeping things going despite the sillier stretches, the overdone puns in the character names, the less successful slapstick, and the like. Daniels makes good use of small gestures and expressions in defining her character's relationship with Harold.

It's good to see many of Lloyd's movies, even the less outstanding ones, finally coming out on good-quality releases. This one is not especially memorable, but it's a mostly entertaining comedy that also showed some indications of what he would do later on.

At the beginning of his career, Harold Lloyd copied other comedians' styles (such as his "Lonesome Luke", which was a derivation of Chaplin's "Little Tramp"). However, by 1917 Lloyd had perfected the look of his later characters (the glasses, hat and suit), but it took him another 'three or four years to soften and improve upon the character. You see, up until about 1920 or 1921, Harold Lloyd's characters in film were not especially sweet or likable--a far cry from his decent "everyman" character he later played to perfection in films like SAFETY LAST and THE FRESHMAN.

Here, Lloyd plays one of these difficult to like guys. While you want to like him and feel for him (after all, he's been told he can't marry his girlfriend), he's so mean and abrasive it's hard to care. When he visits her home, he spends most of the time slapping her father around in true slapstick fashion--resulting in an ordinary comedy for the period, but nothing that is sublime or transcendent of the medium.

I recommend this film to Lloyd fans and film historians. All others, try his later silent films first--otherwise relatively ordinary and dull films like this one will drive you away for good!

The pretty girl Miss Wiggle is surrounded by suitors, but none of them will get the girl for her father wants her to marry Professor M.T. Noodle.Harold, who also wants the girl and the girl wants him, finds out about this and happens to meet the Professor.He intercepts him and becomes the professor himself.Soon he causes a mess at the tea party in the Wiggles' household.The Non-Stop Kid (1918) is a silent short comedy directed by Gilbert Pratt.The star of the movie is who else but Harold Lloyd.Bebe Daniels, who was romantically involved with Lloyd and was also in some of his Lonesome Luke movies, makes a fine female lead.Snub Pollard, another silent comedian, is very funny as Snub, the butler.William Blaisdell portrays Bebe's father.It's quite funny to watch Harold's musical performance.The skirt dance he performs is most hilarious.First we see 'Snub' showing him how the dance goes.The sugar gag is pretty funny.Sure Harold came up with something better later, since his comical character wasn't quite ready yet.But I had pretty much fun watching this.Harold never lets me down.

After a couple of years of Lonesome Luke, Harold Lloyd and Hal Roach decided to try a new character, the "Glasses" character that Lloyd always referred to as "The Boy." Dressed in a straw boater, glasses and an ascot tie -- the Ascot would disappear about 1922 -- the character, like Douglas Fairbanks' screen character, was recognizable human, slightly larger than life and, in the end, enormously and properly popular. In this early effort, however, although the look is fine, the technique is not quite there -- Lloyd remains a knockabout slapstick comedian. He's fun, but he's not quite Harold Lloyd yet.

The entire cast seems to be on the edge of the new style. There are plenty of characters in here dressed in silly facial hair, but even Snub Pollard is given his proper name in the credits.