Take a Chance

Take a Chance (1918)

*** (out of 4)

Harold Lloyd plays a young man who slips and meets a wash lady (Bebe Daniels) and quickly falls for her. When a rich man ('Snub' Pollard) shows up and takes her to the park, Harold follows them but then ends up getting mixed up with an escaped convict. TAKE A CHANCE is certainly going to appeal to silent buffs and especially fans of Lloyd who gets to show that early slapstick, which is just worked to perfection here. There are several highlights here but one involves Lloyd stepping on a bar of soap and then slip sliding all over the place. The physical talents of Lloyd here are incredibly funny. Another great sequence is when he hides in the backseat of a car and makes Daniels and Pollard turn against one another by kissing her and slapping him. The final few minutes of the picture turn into one long chase as Lloyd is mistaken for an escaped prisoner and we get a lot of funny stuff here. A lot of it deals with some silly cops you can't do anything right but these guys are actually much funnier than even the Keystone Kops. As I said, Lloyd really does a fantastic job here and Daniels is as charming as ever.

In the 1920s, the most successful film comedian was Harold Lloyd-- even more successful than his competitors, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. However, in 1918 when this film was made, Lloyd still hadn't hit his stride and created truly memorable films. Instead, he was making rather forgettable films in which his character was unimportant...it was just slapstick. Let me explain the difference. In the 20s, Lloyd succeeded because folks came to like the characters he played--sweet guys with a lot of gumption. But in slapstick, the characters are unimportant and what is important are gags and pratfalls...in other words, cheap laughs.

Here in "Take a Chance", the film is nothing but cheap laughs. So even though Lloyd finally was not playing his very forgettable Lonesome Luke character and looks like the guy he was in the 20s, he didn't act the least like him. Together, he, Sub Pollard and Bebe Daniels simply were interchangeable characters...all seeking quick laughs and nothing more. Because of this, the situations they put the three in weren't so important but laughs were...though when seen today this is an amazingly unfunny and even tedious film. What do an unattractive lady who likes to kiss men, Lloyd stealing a girl from Snub or an escaped convict have to do with each other? Nothing...and the film comes off as disjoint and forced. Back in the slapstick era folks might have laughed at folks getting bonked on the head and the like, but when seen today the film just seems tiresome and a waste of really talented actors.

Take a Chance is a landmark in not Lloyd's filmography but silent cinema in general, as one of the era's most recognizable characters was born. Take a Chance was the first film that had Lloyd adopt his signature "glasses" character, the goofy but lovable character who always found a way to get involved in sticky situations. Unfortunately, the short feels very much half-baked, almost as if Lloyd was more excited for the potential of his character that he threw together a short so that he could have something of an introduction rather than a competent project.

The short is a classic love story about Lloyd's character falling in love with a particular woman and finding ways to lose her and have himself succumb to bitter jealousy because of the man she's really in love with. Even for the early days of film, this seems like standard fare. At any rate, the short does have one great scene, which comes early in the one-reeler, where Lloyd is riding in the back seat of a vehicle, with his crush in the passenger seat and her particular lover driving (played by the likes of Bebe Daniels and 'Snub' Pollard, respectively, Lloyd's go-to characters of the era). The scene involves Lloyd mixing ways with both characters, either by kissing his lover or slapping her lover, causing a front-seat dispute amongst the two characters, with Lloyd sitting back and appearing innocent. This is a classic in silent film setups, and gives the "glasses" character a mischievous side, introducing him rather effectively.

Take a Chance, however, spirals downhill because of its major concern with trying to drum up slapstick humor and ridiculous setups rather than establish wit or character investment. There's nothing wrong with slapstick comedy but, unless you have great performers or circumstances that find a way to subvert themselves, you're basically poking and prodding schtick until it becomes overbearing and dry, which is what happens here. Nonetheless, more fun would be had when Lloyd found more interesting and exhilarating things to do with his newfound character in the next chapter of his particular career.

Starring: Harold Lloyd, 'Snub' Pollard, and Bebe Daniels. Directed by: Alfred J. Goulding.

Harold Lloyd is absolutely amazing in this two-reeler. His slapstick comedy has pitch-perfect fluency, and his recreation of events is well-observed. He is an eye-witness of his times, and a with a good voice-over his work is compelling.

Harold Lloyd had switched from his Lonesome Luke character to his more normal looking "Glasses" character the previous year. He had insisted on this because he felt that he wanted to be able to do more than Chaplin-at-Keystone slapstick comedy. In this one, he's still doing that style of comedy -- with a coda that suggests Chaplin's Mutual short THE ADVENTURER -- although there' s little to complain about in this one, It's quite funny.

Harold, dressed in formal morning clothes, snags a ride with Snub and Bebe to go a picnic. There are several good, rough gags along the way, and Harold gets to do some good pratfalls and kicks, as well as a good, early thrill gag. If you're looking for a story, or character, as Harold would later offer when he worked at greater lengths in the 1920s, you won't find those here, but you will find some well executed jokes and gags. Producer Hal Roach was definitely building a team that could build good comedies.