My comment refers to THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK, as I haven't seen the edited version Mad Wednesday-but I believe some cutting might do this film good. Too bad this movie is currently the most available Lloyd movie on the market. This great genius just shouldn't have ended his career with a movie like this-he certainly deserved a gracefully nostalgic summing-up like Chaplin with Limelight or Keaton with The Railrodder . Lloyd never starred in such a sloppy feature before. His idea of making a comedy just didn't go with that of Sturges. In this rowdy parade of lowest kind of slapstick, with unnatural puns and sayings as dialogue, there is little room for Lloyd to build up anything, neither gags, nor characterization. Too bad, for this film did have a good idea(what becomes of the go-getter who fails to achieve anything) to begin with, and a grand opening(highlight from The Freshman finale), and some terrific acting Lloyd delivered as a washed-up clerk who got fired after working for 20 years at the same position. All these look promising about 25 minutes, then the film just runs out of control. It even gives you an improvising feeling as it stumbles towards the end, when everybody has to shout their lines but nobody seems to know what is going on. . This film is so messy that resembles some low budget early talkie comedies, yet it was made in 1946! What a shame.
Review of The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
