The Marathon

The Marathon (1919)

*** (out of 4)

Semi-remake of 1918's THE GASOLINE WEDDING features the same cast, a few different story bits but is actually much better. This time out everyone wants to marry the girl (Bebe Daniels) but her boxer father (Bud Jamison) picks a man ('Snub' Pollard) she's not all that crazy about. Enter the boy (Harold Lloyd) who plans on stealing the girl. THE MARATHON contains some pretty big laughs throughout its 10-minute running time so fans of Lloyd and silent comedies will certainly want to check it out. The film starts off with some pretty big laughs as the men are fighting over the girl and this leads to a very short man taking on a very tall man. Follow this up with a very good gag dealing with Lloyd dragging something "heavy" and yet all of this is followed by an even funnier bit involving a broken mirror where Lloyd must act out the person who is standing in front of the mirror. This here is without question one of the better shorts to come from Rolin as Lloyd is certainly at the top of his game here and Jamison also gets some terrific laughs as the former boxer. The sequence where the "grandma" is getting beaten up is just priceless.