I only saw Safety Last (1923) recently but I've seen this photo eons ago. Harold Lloyd barely hanging from a giant clock. Perhaps everyone who's remotely interested in cinema saw it as well. An iconic image of the old silent Hollywood, and a giant of a reminder of what they achieved in that early stage.

With the film comes another iconic name, the film's star, Harold Lloyd. Not unlike Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton—Harold Lloyd too acted with his body gestures, creating visual comedy. He did stunts as well. Of course he's not that famous as Chaplin or Keaton, rightfully so, no matter what the criers say, Lloyd wasn't a filmmaker, whereas the other two were, and great ones no less. Even then, Lloyd will shine with his own light, with his merit as an actor and he's great enough to be remembered as one of the master comedians of that time.

The film is made by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, both of them made movies with Lloyd in those days, but their names are almost forgotten, overshadowed by the performer.

In Safety Last, A young hopeful boy named Harold Lloyd (just like the actor who plays the character) goes to the city, in search for fortunes and prosperity, so that he can marry his sweetheart, Mildred, waiting at home. Unless he makes it, that hope is a lost cause.

But the city proves to be too much for Lloyd to handle. The modern life hands out one too many complexities to our young hero. Yet his promise to the bride-to-be is not dwindled. He wants to assure her that he's doing great, even if it means borrowing money, mortgaging or starving to send her jewelries.

There's actually a sequence I adore a lot. Lloyd just got his meager payment from the day job, and he proceeds to buy a chain for his sweetheart with the entire chunk of his pay. There's a poster outside, a tasty meal is advertised at $0.50 and that was the last of Lloyd's possession. Comically, he's still owed to the chain seller exactly the same amount. Lloyd puts down the 10 cents coins one after another and the food items on the meal vanishes one by one!

Seeing the scene, I remembered I saw the film on TV partially as a kid and such a powerful scene it was, it stayed with me over the years. It bore the marks of poverty, desperation and devotion. The willingness to go so far as to starve. To lie through his teeth and bear the harshness so the woman he cares about remains in the dark about his true condition.

Of course, this concept of the man bearing all the burdens of financial freedom to take care of his wife or partner is illaudable now, but it was the early 20th century. Homosexuality, Black People, Atheism everything was bad and punishable then. There's a scene with housewives storming the clothing store, and they go all berserk on the Lloyd who was working as a seller. It's hard to discern now whether the film is mocking the bourgeoise, or women.

Safety last is insanely hilarious nonetheless. The Boy or Lloyd goes through a series of importunate events that have the potentiality to ruin him and his dreams, yet he improvises and tries his best to find a way out of it. These are the prime source of comedy and they sure work.

And yes, people have wondered and still wonder how did they do that clock hanging scene because it is so real and there wasn't exactly VFX back then. Well, it is a case of illusion, visual trickery. A game of perspective. Here, you can see how it was done —