Review of The City Slicker

This brief comedy is set in "a roller towel hotel in a saw-mill town," which apparently means the place is a pit. Sure looks like it! The lobby is full of decrepit old codgers, the registry book is covered with dust, and cats jump out of the strangest places. A disgusted guest tells the manager that he ought to hire a city feller to modernize the establishment, and soon young Harold Lloyd is on the job. He asserts himself promptly: when a belligerent old coot turns threatening Harold coolly takes his pistol and uses it to light a cigarette. Within a short time our hero the city slicker has made a real 20th Century hotel of the place, mainly by installing lots of impressive machines, i.e. push-button beds and such. Then Bebe Daniels arrives, and Harold the Flirt goes into overdrive.

Lloyd was still in his mid-20s when he made this movie and he's a bundle of wiry energy. The great gag sequences we find in the later classics aren't on display in this early effort, but our leading man compensates by leaping around the set like Doug Fairbanks. The only drawback in watching The City Slicker today is that, unfortunately, the surviving print material ends abruptly, leaving matters unresolved. The finale is missing, but it's safe to assume that, after a cute closing gag, Harold and Bebe end up in a happy clinch. This is an exuberant, high spirited one-reel romp that Lloyd fans will enjoy, despite the missing footage.