For Harold Lloyd's final silent film he chose to shoot most of it in New York City, no doubt using the facilities of Paramount's Astoria Studios as Paramount did release this film that Lloyd himself produced. And now with the demolition of the old Yankee Stadium, there is precious little left from that time in 1928 when Speedy was shot and released to the movie-going public.
Harold is his usual shy self who just can't seem to hold down a job. He can't even go have a good time with his girl Anna Christy without all kinds of things going wrong for him. But of course in the end he does redeem himself by saving Christy's father's horse drawn trolley franchise by making the route on time in the face of overwhelming obstacles by some unscrupulous people.
There was always a common thread it seems with both Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton and to a lesser degree Charlie Chaplin. They could be the worst kind of screw ups for most of the film, but from somewhere within always seemed to develop the intelligence and fortitude to defeat those bad guys in the end.
Old Yankee Stadium makes its appearance here and also in the film playing himself is Babe Ruth who Lloyd when he's a taxi driver gets to take to the game. The Babe was at the height of his career when he did his cameo in Speedy. He had just hit 60 homeruns the year before and in 1928 he would slip to a mere 54 homerun season.
More than Yankee Stadium were the shots of Coney Island. The fabled amusement area at the bottom end of Brooklyn is a real treasure trove of locations for Lloyd's sight gags. It's pretty run down now, but as a kid I can tell you it looked more like 1928 in the Fifties than it does nowadays. Steeplechase Park, Luna Park, a lot of the rest of it is now gone.
Speedy shows Harold Lloyd the silent comic at his best and the film itself is quite a piece of nostalgia for native New Yorkers like me.
Harold is his usual shy self who just can't seem to hold down a job. He can't even go have a good time with his girl Anna Christy without all kinds of things going wrong for him. But of course in the end he does redeem himself by saving Christy's father's horse drawn trolley franchise by making the route on time in the face of overwhelming obstacles by some unscrupulous people.
There was always a common thread it seems with both Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton and to a lesser degree Charlie Chaplin. They could be the worst kind of screw ups for most of the film, but from somewhere within always seemed to develop the intelligence and fortitude to defeat those bad guys in the end.
Old Yankee Stadium makes its appearance here and also in the film playing himself is Babe Ruth who Lloyd when he's a taxi driver gets to take to the game. The Babe was at the height of his career when he did his cameo in Speedy. He had just hit 60 homeruns the year before and in 1928 he would slip to a mere 54 homerun season.
More than Yankee Stadium were the shots of Coney Island. The fabled amusement area at the bottom end of Brooklyn is a real treasure trove of locations for Lloyd's sight gags. It's pretty run down now, but as a kid I can tell you it looked more like 1928 in the Fifties than it does nowadays. Steeplechase Park, Luna Park, a lot of the rest of it is now gone.
Speedy shows Harold Lloyd the silent comic at his best and the film itself is quite a piece of nostalgia for native New Yorkers like me.