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Never Weaken

  • 1921
  • Passed
  • 19m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
2.2K
YOUR RATING
Mildred Davis and Harold Lloyd in Never Weaken (1921)
ComedyShortThriller

A man hits the streets with a scheme to keep his fiancé from losing her job, however, things quickly go from bad to worse.A man hits the streets with a scheme to keep his fiancé from losing her job, however, things quickly go from bad to worse.A man hits the streets with a scheme to keep his fiancé from losing her job, however, things quickly go from bad to worse.

  • Director
    • Fred C. Newmeyer
  • Writers
    • Hal Roach
    • Sam Taylor
    • H.M. Walker
  • Stars
    • Harold Lloyd
    • Mildred Davis
    • Roy Brooks
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.5/10
    2.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Fred C. Newmeyer
    • Writers
      • Hal Roach
      • Sam Taylor
      • H.M. Walker
    • Stars
      • Harold Lloyd
      • Mildred Davis
      • Roy Brooks
    • 27User reviews
    • 13Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos53

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    Top cast15

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    Harold Lloyd
    Harold Lloyd
    • The Boy
    Mildred Davis
    Mildred Davis
    • The Girl
    Roy Brooks
    Roy Brooks
    • The Other Man
    Mark Jones
    Mark Jones
    • The Acrobat
    Charles Stevenson
    Charles Stevenson
    • The Police Force
    William Gillespie
    William Gillespie
    • The Doctor
    • (uncredited)
    Helen Gilmore
    Helen Gilmore
      Wally Howe
      Wally Howe
      • Man in Wheel Chair
      • (uncredited)
      Gaylord Lloyd
        Robert Emmett O'Connor
        Robert Emmett O'Connor
          George Rowe
          George Rowe
          • Cross-Eyed Henpecked Hubby
          • (uncredited)
          Molly Thompson
            Tiny Ward
              Joseph White
                Vera White
                  • Director
                    • Fred C. Newmeyer
                  • Writers
                    • Hal Roach
                    • Sam Taylor
                    • H.M. Walker
                  • All cast & crew
                  • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

                  User reviews27

                  7.52.2K
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                  Featured reviews

                  bob the moo

                  The first half is rather amusing but the skyscraper routine in the second half makes it worth seeing

                  In a city full of skyscrapers a boy and a girl fall in love between window ledges. However their romance seems to be under threat when a lack of patients for her boss's doctor's surgery sees her told she'll be laid off. In order to keep his office hours relationship alive, the boy sets out to drum up some business and thus keep her job.

                  I've not seen enough Harold Lloyd to say whether or not I'm a massive fan but I have certainly never had any great desire to hunt his films down in the same way as I have with Laurel and Hardy (whom I generally adore). However with BBC4's consistently impressive Silent Clown's series of documentaries, I got a rare opportunity to see one of his shorts as selected by Paul Merton. The overly jaunty new score played over the film was a bit of a pain because although it fitted the action on screen, I didn't think it worked for the period the film came from. Regardless I got into the mild humour of Lloyd drumming up injuries on the streets as the film got going until it reached the high (sorry) point of the skyscraper conclusion. This section is pretty much the whole show as it demonstrates his daredevil sense of humour.

                  Sure he isn't actually 50 stories above the ground but the stunts are still very impressive let me assure you. His timing is good and although I didn't find this hilarious, he is impressive in how he plays the audience for laughs and gasps at the same time. The support cast all play to form but this is all about Lloyd and, considering I'm not a real fan, I did think he was well worth seeing.

                  Overall an impressive and amusing silent short film. Not as out and out funny as I would have hoped but the skyscraper scrapes are well worth seeing and make the second part of the film much stronger than the rather genial first half.
                  7Bunuel1976

                  NEVER WEAKEN (Fred Newmeyer, 1921) ***

                  This is one of Harold Lloyd's best shorts and the second of his thrill comedies (in chronological order) to be included in this collection. The film can be neatly divided into three sections: the first sees Harold ingeniously gathering patients for the despondent clinic where his beloved, Mildred Davis, works (and which probably influenced Lloyd's later feature FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE [1926]); the second, as was the case with many a Lloyd comedy, he goes through several failed attempts at suicide (when he mistakes Mildred's clergyman brother for her lover!); the last third - and the undeniable highlight - has the star up to his neck in trouble when he ends up high in the air on a construction site (featuring some of Lloyd's most incredible stuntwork, the whole idea was borrowed by Laurel & Hardy for the second half of one of their most popular Silent shorts, LIBERTY [1929]).
                  8planktonrules

                  a lot like three shorts combined

                  This is a very good Lloyd short, but in some ways it's like three totally different movie shorts grafted together. The overall effect, though, is excellent and this is a wonderful short.

                  The first portion consists of Harold trying to help his girlfriend keep her job as a receptionist for a chiropractor by, rather unscrupulously, drumming up business for them. Harold is a bit uncharacteristically cruel during these efforts, but I gotta admit they are still quite funny.

                  The second segment is also a bit uncharacteristic, as Harold mistakenly thinks his girl loves another so he tries repeatedly to kill himself. This is pretty maudlin and I felt just a tiny bit uneasy laughing at suicide.

                  However, it then transitioned from this into a live-action version of a Sweet Pea and Popeye cartoon. You know, the one where the baby climbs onto a high-rise under construction and nearly gets killed again and again and again. Harold Lloyd handles these stunts very deftly and the film ends when he is saved and he learns that his girl not only wants to marry him but the guy she was talking to earlier turned out to be her brother--the preacher! A cute film.
                  8JoeytheBrit

                  Wish I'd been around to see it in '21...

                  This is comedy crafted from the material of nightmares, and Harold Lloyd (or his stunt double) displays a light-footedness and dexterity that is frankly quite astonishing. When you consider that Lloyd lost a thumb and finger when a supposedly dud prop bomb exploded in his hand just a year before this film was made it just adds to the courage he displays as he wobbles around on the narrow girders of a partially-constructed skyscraper hundreds of feet in the air. For my money, his stunts here far outshine those from Safety Last, the feature Lloyd made a couple of years later, in which he hangs from a clock on the side of a building.

                  The storyline isn't much to speak of, and the film is really two movies combined as the first half has little bearing on the second. Harold mistakenly believes his beloved (the future Mrs Lloyd, looking a little like Drew Barrymore in some shots) has fallen for another man and unsuccessfully tries to commit extravagant suicide with a gun and a length of string just as a stray girder from the construction project outside his office lifts the chair on which he is sat out of his office and into mid-air. The scenes in which Lloyd is perched on the chair are teeth-grindingly difficult to watch at times, and your laughter is really an hysterical release of tension rather than amusement at what is taking place on screen. I'd love to have seen this in a cinema back in 1921 – the audience reactions must have been something to see, and would have made the viewing experience all the more enjoyable.
                  10Ron Oliver

                  Out On A Girder With Mr. Lloyd

                  A HAROLD LLOYD Short Subject.

                  A lovesick young man must NEVER WEAKEN when he unexpectedly finds himself in a most precarious & dangerous situation.

                  Here is one of Harold Lloyd's thrill pictures, which offers quick-moving comedy and genuine suspense. The first half of the film has Harold trying to roundup patients for his girlfriend's boss. The second half puts Harold up on the framework of a building under construction - clutching, crawling & careening out over empty space. His obvious athletic ability is made even more remarkable by the fact that he was using only half of his right hand, his disfigurement, caused by a studio accident, hidden by a glove.

                  Pretty Mildred Davis, who would soon become Mrs. Harold Lloyd, plays the object of his affections.

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                  Related interests

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                  Thriller

                  Storyline

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                  Did you know

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                  • Trivia
                    Pioneering stuntman Harvey Parry doubled for Harold Lloyd in several of the most dangerous shots in this and other Harold Lloyd films; only after the death of Lloyd (who was always said to do his own stunts) did Parry "go public" about his involvement.
                  • Goofs
                    The boy rips off a loosely thread button from his suit jacket and spills the glass of poison. His jacket is still missing the button up to when he is sitting in his chair awaiting the janitor to open the office door. However, when he is sitting on the chair on the girder, his jacket has regained the missing button, and it remains for the rest of the film.
                  • Quotes

                    The Girl: He can do anything he tries. Why, he even learned the names of all the vice presidents.

                  • Crazy credits
                    The cast title page is headed "Just passing by". Below the cast list: The Plot - a youth of twenty-one and a maid of eighteen. Shakespeare couldn't have asked for more.
                  • Connections
                    Featured in Hollywood (1980)

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                  Details

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                  • Release date
                    • October 22, 1921 (United States)
                  • Country of origin
                    • United States
                  • Language
                    • None
                  • Also known as
                    • Nur nicht schwach werden
                  • Filming locations
                    • Hill Street, Los Angeles, California, USA(construction site, above Hill Street tunnel)
                  • Production company
                    • Rolin Films
                  • See more company credits at IMDbPro

                  Tech specs

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                  • Runtime
                    • 19m
                  • Color
                    • Black and White
                  • Sound mix
                    • Silent
                  • Aspect ratio
                    • 1.33 : 1

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