Pour l'amour du ciel

This lesser-known Harold Lloyd silent gem takes a very slight story and uses it as the basis for some entertaining and resourceful comedy. Noah Young also has a good role that gives him a more interesting character than he usually gets to play, and he gets some good moments of his own. The plot is fluffier than usual for a Lloyd feature, but the script is quite creative in using it for some sequences of classic Lloyd-style slapstick.

The setup has Lloyd as the kind of lackadaisical millionaire that he portrayed so well. His character accidentally donates the money to set up an inner-city mission, and becomes involved with the mission and with Jobyna Ralston, whose father runs it. There are a few slow stretches that are needed to advance the plot, but the story doesn't really ever try to carry the movie, leaving that instead to the imaginative comedy sequences.

This has the kind of madcap finale that characterized so many of Lloyd's movies, an interesting and entertaining variant on the race-against-time idea. But the best part of the movie actually comes earlier, when Lloyd's character sets out to round up the neighborhood roughnecks, followed by the scene of them suddenly finding themselves in the mission, and then Young, as the biggest of the bullies, confronting Lloyd. Three very funny sequences in a row, and they are pieced together with barely a pause.

Even by Lloyd's standards, this feature has some very good material. It's almost as good as the likes of "Safety Last", "The Kid Brother", and the rest of his very best movies.