Bumping Into Broadway

The Boy is a writer.The Girl is a chorus line girl.They both want to make it big but find it hard.But they do find each other.Bumping Into Broadway (1919) is directed by Hal Roach and its star is Harold Lloyd.Its female star is Bebe Daniels.Together they really hit it off.Snub Pollard plays Director of Musical Comedy and he's hilarious.Helen Gilmore does great job as 'Bearcat' the Landlady.Same thing with Noah Young who plays her Bouncer.Harold's brother Gaylord Lloyd is seen in the movie.This short has many funny moments.Harold's writing efforts is funny to watch.He moves on very slowly, letter by letter.And when he tries to escape the landlady and the bouncer.It's funny to watch Harold trying to get in the theater with his never-say-die way.And it also makes you laugh when Snub shows to his actors how those dance moves are done.Robert Israel's music (made in 2004) and Harold Lloyd's comedy skills make this movie a hilarious experience.

Lloyd is a struggling broadway writer while Bebe daniels is a show girl aspiring to be a star. They live next door to each other in a boarding house struggling to make ends meet. They meet one day and Lloyd offers to pay Bebe's rent while forsaking his own rent, thus setting off the hijinks. Three sets are used in this smart and insightful comedy; the boarding house, the broadway stage and set and an underground speakeasy which is raided by the cops. As Lloyd is chased up and down the boarding house eventually ending up in an old woman's home who was crying out for a man, you cannot help but smile. On the broadway set, as he tries to meet the director and sell his story before being forcefully thrown out, you grin. And after following Bebe to protect from the playboy star of the show who has dragged her along to the speakeasy where all hell breaks loose and harold uses a coat hanger to great comic effect, you must applaud. Final scene is perfect denouement to an enjoyable mish-mash.

Despite the title, the plot of this Harold Lloyd short is evenly distributed among three different settings: a boarding-house, a theater and an exclusive club. As in FROM HAND TO MOUTH (1919), comedy emerges out of the characters' desperation - but there's no denying the assuredness of the gags (in fact, I'd say that this one's an even better film) and, in any case, H.M. Walker's title cards are among the wittiest for a Silent that I've come across! Lloyd is in his element as the perennial dreamer, a novice playwright, and Bebe Daniels is an ideal co-star as an aspiring Broadway star. Still, the best scenes are probably those set in the casino - where the penniless Lloyd accidentally cops himself a large sum of money but, needless to say, he's not allowed to reap the rewards of his fortune because the joint is raided soon after by the Police!

This is the third comedy short I watched on the Kino DVD "The Harold Lloyd Collection" starring Lloyd in his famous "glasses" character with Bebe Daniels and Snub Pollard. Ms. Daniels plays a showgirl to Lloyd's playwright and they both now have to pay the $3.75 rent since they both got the same typed warning for the third time. Lloyd gives Bebe his money since she's broke but now Harold has to run from the landlady and her bouncer. Pollard has a brief part as a choreographer who's mean to Lloyd when they meet. There's also another funny chase scene involving cops infiltrating a gambling den where Lloyd meets Lady Luck. Very funny with all those chases and avoiding certain people. And what a sweet romance between Lloyd and Daniels. So on that note, I highly recommend Bumping Into Broadway.

Harold Lloyd was fast becoming cinema's most prolific comedian, and his star power was rising to new heights in 1919. The studio he was contracted to, Pathe Exchange, wanted to capitalize on his escalating popularity by making longer movies than his normal one-reeler 12-minute shorts. The company signed Lloyd to a nine-movie deal for expanded 30-minute films. His first two-reeler was November 1919's "Bumping Into Broadway." When seeing "Broadway," a viewer might think the movie is two separate one-reelers placed back-to-back. The first half deals with Lloyd trying to evade paying the $3.75 a month in rent by attempting to escape the cluthes of the landlord's enforcer. The second part deals with his trying to sell his play to a theater manger, only to end up in an illegal gambling house, where he breaks the bank by his successful bets on the roulette wheel. But a Keystone-like squad of police raids the place just as he's pocketing the dough.

"Bumping on Broadway" co-stars Lloyd's regular female sidekick, Bebe Daniels. The actress reached out to Cecil B. DeMille to seek out the possibilities of expanding her acting talents towards more dramatic roles. The famous director did hire her for his 'Male And Female' production as well as a number of movies for Paramount Pictures. "Broadway" was her second to last film with Lloyd after appearing with him in over 150 films.