Former funny football player Harold Lloyd (as Harold Diddlebock) spends over two decades in a dead end job, gets unhappily fired, happily drowns his sorrows in drink, then buys himself a circus. With sneaky sidekick Jimmy Conlin (as Wormy) helping, Mr. Lloyd tries to talk his pet lion "Jackie" off the ledge of a skyscraper. He has a yen for nubile young co-workers, like Frances Ramsden (as Frances Otis), but Lloyd is shy with women...
Written and directed by Preston Sturges, "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" got Lloyd out of retirement for one last film. We inappropriately begin with the end from "The Freshman" (1925) and climax by re-making a classic sequence from "Safety Last!" (1923). You'd expect to find a comment straining for something nice to say about a silent film star in decline, but this is different - Lloyd is in fine condition, the film's a mess.
***** The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (2/18/47) Preston Sturges ~ Harold Lloyd, Jimmy Conlin, Frances Ramsden, Raymond Walburn
Written and directed by Preston Sturges, "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" got Lloyd out of retirement for one last film. We inappropriately begin with the end from "The Freshman" (1925) and climax by re-making a classic sequence from "Safety Last!" (1923). You'd expect to find a comment straining for something nice to say about a silent film star in decline, but this is different - Lloyd is in fine condition, the film's a mess.
***** The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (2/18/47) Preston Sturges ~ Harold Lloyd, Jimmy Conlin, Frances Ramsden, Raymond Walburn