Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (1989)

By Peter McGinn

When I started watching this two-part documentary about silent film era (and slightly into the talkies too) start Harold Lloyd, I thought I must have seen it several years ago. But no, I realized what I had seen was a documentary about Buster Keaton. Turns out there are crossovers and similarities between the big three comedians of that time: Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd. It turns out Lloyd was driven to succeed and hated losing even card games. That was great for his career but perhaps not quite so much for family. The behind the scenes glimpses of his filmmaking was interesting and the story of how, after pretty much copying Chaplin’s Little Tramp character (as other comedians did) he slowly settled into his distinctive character with the eyeglasses.