Review of His Royal Slyness

Roach and Walker's "His Royal Slyness" is an American black-and-white silent short film from 1920, so this one came out briefly after World War I and it is only 3 more years until it has its 100thn anniversary. Maybe by the time you read this review, it is already over a century old. It features actor Harold Lloyd as the title character and people who know a bit about the days of silent film will know that he was one of the biggest stars back then, next to Chaplin of course, but also next to the likes of Keaton, Arbuckle, Laurel, Hardy and others. Like most of these, Lloyd is known to play the simple man who frequently gets into trouble while dealing with people that have a higher social status. And this is true here as well as this one goes right up to the President of a fictitious country named Thermosa. During these 25 minutes, Lloyd once again offers all his slapstick repertoire in a comedy where the humor mostly relies on switched identities or mistaken identities, a subject that was also fairly common back then. But even if Lloyd does a solid job and his supporting cast (including the experienced Davis and Pollard) isn't bad either, I must say that form a story perspective this film is not even working at under half an hour. The comedy is not frequent enough and there are no emotionally convincing moments either. Drama aspect is non-existent, even if the story may sound a bit like drama at times. Overall a disappointment and I give ti a thumbs-down.