Why Worry?

The zaniest, most cartoonlike of all Harold Lloyd features recaptures the energetic anarchy of his wilder short subjects while at the same time drawing from the sort of satirical innocent-ugly-American-abroad adventures that Douglas Fairbanks and Anita Loos had popularized in the teens.

Lloyd plays an obtuse millionaire hypochondriac who "has taken so many pills he rattles when he walks." He blunders into a banana republic's revolution and must defeat a dictatorial regime backed by an unscrupulous Yankee. Along the way, he faces up to his imaginary ills and falls for his spunky, long-suffering nurse -- ably played by the quietly sexy Jobyna Ralston in her first feature as Lloyd's love interest. But the real star is John Aase n -- all eight feet, nine and a half inches of him -- who makes an excellent 503 pound mad hermit, buddying up with Lloyd for some of the most improbable and unrelenting sight gag sequences ever put on film -- among them, an extended effort to pull the giant's aching tooth.

The setting is obviously Latin America (and, in fact, the whole film functions nicely as propaganda, artfully fudging the United States' imperial subjugation of the region by focusing on a single American villain) but when real-life Mexicans earnestly protested the film's stereotypes, Lloyd responded by changing the intertitles to suggest that the whole thing takes place on a mythical island. I can't imagine anyone was fooled by this since the Latino stereotypes still dominate the film: lazy peasants, greasy strongmen, etc.

Why Worry? grossed slightly less at the box office than Lloyd's previous film, Safety Last (almost $1.5 million vs. almost $1.6 million), and cost about a hundred thousand dollars more to make (almost $221,000 vs. almost $121,000). It was his last film for producer Hal Roach. Lloyd went on to make his next ten films independently for release through distributors like Pathe, Paramount and Fox -- but despite a few wild sequences in films like Hot Water and For Heaven's Sake, he never again made a picture quite as snappy and offbeat as Why Worry?

If the film looks back to Fairbanks, it looks ahead to the hypochondriac heroes of Broadway's The Nervous Wreck and its film versions, including Eddie Cantor's Whoopee! and Danny Kaye's Up in Arms, not to mention the mythical political intrigue of W. C. Fields' Million Dollar Legs, the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup, Woody Allen's Bananas, and much else in the realm of American low comedy.

This is one of Harold Lloyd's most entertaining comedies, with Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston and John Aasen making good use of a variety of material, especially a lot of Absurdist-style gags and routines. It starts just a little slowly in setting things up, but once it gets going, there are a lot of good laughs without a slow stretch.

Lloyd plays a good-natured but completely oblivious upper-class hypochondriac who travels to the tropics for a rest, and finds himself in the middle of a chaotic revolution. His naive initial reactions to the situation are quite amusing, and few screen comics could have pulled them off as well as Lloyd does.

As things get hotter for Lloyd and Ralston, the hilarious giant Colosso (Aasen's character) joins the madness, and that leads to some even more humorous gags. The lengthy sequence resulting from the first meeting between Harold and Colosso is very cleverly done, squeezing more than you would ever have guessed possible out of a simple situation. Afterward, Colosso's size and strength are used in many imaginative ways, with a lot of rather elaborate sight gags that are set up nicely.

The whole thing works very well. Once everything is set up, it flies by so quickly that it seems only to have taken a fraction of its running time.

In "Why Worry?" Harold Lloyd plays Harold von Pelham, a pampered and spoiled millionaire who has all the time in the world to worry about medical conditions that don't exist, and treat his smitten nurse and trusted valet as mere lackeys. He goes to a South American retreat for some much-needed rest and relaxation, but instead finds himself in the middle of a revolution. Along the way he picks up a devoted friend, a giant man named aptly Colossus, who becomes as loyal as a dog to Harold because he helps to pull an aching tooth. By the film's end, Harold has plumbed reserves of hidden strength, realizes he no longer needs his pills and medications, and discovers his love for his nurse.

The funniest thing about "Why Worry?" is that this little band of lovable characters never has a clue what's actually going on around them. They don't know one side of the warring parties from the other; they just know when they're in trouble, and they go from scene to scene doing whatever is necessary to get themselves out of scrapes without realizing how they're affecting the bigger picture. This film is wonderfully written and performed, with hilarious bits. Watching Harold's transition from pampered wimp to scrappy freedom fighter is delightful, and he has wonderful chemistry with Jobyna Ralston, who plays his nurse, and John Aasen, the impossibly enormous actor who plays Colossus.

This film is a treat.

Grade: A

I had watched this in Hollywood as well but, given its late-night broadcast (being the last of 7 Lloyd films shown in a row), I was quite tired when its turn came and therefore not in the best position to appreciate it!

Lloyd is a spoilt millionaire and a hypochondriac to boot - not his typical struggling character therefore, but just as resourceful in dealing with situations beyond his control; he goes to a supposedly peaceful South American republic for health reasons and finds it torn by revolution! This film, then, would seem to be the precursor of all the south-of-the-border comedies which came much later - for instance Woody Allen's BANANAS (1971).

Still, while the comic action scenes at the climax certainly deliver the goods - Lloyd is assisted by a giant he met while in prison (and whom he had rid of a crippling toothache) - I think that the film is at its best during the earlier stages (especially the hilarious scene in which, taking a stroll around the village streets, he admires the leisurely lifestyle of the simple-folk there - with everyone he meets apparently sound asleep, unaware that their predicament is actually the result of a fresh beating by the oppressive militia!). Incidentally, this was Jobyna Ralston's first film with Lloyd (playing his loving nurse who, at one point, is disguised as a Mexican serving-boy in order to escape the lecherous attentions of the chief villain!).

Heavily medicated millionaire hypochondriac Harold Van Pelham (Harold Lloyd) is sent to Paradiso, a tropical island nation off South America, for his health. He brings along his adoring nurse and his valet Mr. Pipps. American Jim Blake leads a band of renegades against the sleepy government. Upon arrival, Harold is mistaken for an expected government representative. He escapes the firing squad with the help of wild giant fellow prisoner Colosso.

It's a cute little comedy. The first laugh comes as Harold tries to pull Colosso's tooth. It's extended slapstick fun for a simple premise. The giant is great visual contrast and a fun comedy partner. I don't know if he ever worked with Harold after this. They're certainly good together here although Harold is a little mean sometimes. There's a difference between cluelessness and callousness. As a rich self-obsessed character, he often drifts into the later. There is plenty of great physical comedy although it's missing a final one big stunt.