Girl Shy (1924)

I remember seeing an interview with a fella who had interviewed Harold Lloyd well after his days as a film star, and he said that Lloyd was kind of boring and that the experience had been like talking with your stereotypical Rotarian. Dull, maybe, but I bet he wasn’t unlikeable, at least if he shared any traits with his Glasses Character. Glasses was usually shy and nerdy but, when the chips were down, capable and reliable.

In Girl Shy, Harold Meadows lives and apprentices with his Uncle Jerry (Richard Daniels). They are tailors in Little Bend (“as you rip so shall they sew”) and mending ladies’ dresses is as close to any girl as Harold, who suffers with a terrible stutter when he’s nervous, can come. He’s a figure of fun and none of the gals has taken the trouble to get to know him.

Ah, but these still waters run deep. Behind the community’s back, Harold is studying womankind and writing a book about his discoveries. “He was so afraid of girls,” the titles tell us, “that he made a secret study of them, and the more he studied them the more he feared them.” When he has a few days off, he intends to take the manuscript of “The Secret of Making Love” to a publisher in the big city.

The book instructs young men on the best methods for conquering different types of girls, the types being suggested by movie clichés. We see a couple of these chapters acted out. #15—My Vampire. Here Harold recommends indifference. A Theda Bara burlesque follows. When the vamp (an uncredited Nola Dolberg) threatens to kill herself with a dagger, Harold hands her a scimitar instead. #16—My Flapper. This time Harold uses the cave man approach while an uncredited Judy King gives us a wild Clara Bow.

On the train into the city, Harold meets the lovely and wealthy Mary Buckingham (Jobyna Ralston) when he rescues her dog from being thrown off. Of course he is immediately smitten by Mary, who is being pursued for marriage by the cad Ronald DeVore (Carlton Griffin) who is already married but prepared to forget it if Mary will only say “Yes!”

Other complications ensue when Harold’s book is read aloud in the publisher’s office and the women all go into hysterics. The publisher rejects the manuscript and the would-be author, too ashamed of himself to declare his love for Mary, pushes her away. She then accepts DeVore. On the day of the marriage, Harold learns that his book is going to be published after all (as deliberate humor with the new title “The Boob’s Diary") and of DeVore’s treachery. Or lechery. Or both. And the film ends with a terrific chase sequence as Harold rushes to the chapel to prevent the I-Dos, utilizing cars, trolleys, horses, horse pulled wagons, motorcycles, and anything else he can find that will get him from here to there in a hurry. The rescue at the altar was pretty obviously a major inspiration for a similar moment in The Graduate (1967).

The film is fast and funny, with an emphasis on romance over gags. It’s never dull and not for a moment will you think you’re watching a Rotarian.

The pictures was produced by Lloyd and directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor. Taylor, Tim Whelan and Ted Wilde concocted the story and the titles were written by Thomas J. Gray.