Blu-ray Review: Ted Wilde’s The Kid Brother on the Criterion Collection

This disc continues Criterion’s exceptional track record of reviving Harold Lloyd’s silent masterpieces.

The Kid BrotherAn affable boy-next-door type with dorky horn-rimmed glasses, Harold Lloyd’s on-screen persona has sometimes been dismissed as merely charming—a likable average joe whose jocularity is no match for the poetic expressionism of his more highly regarded peers, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. And while it’s true that he lacked the underlying darkness of Chaplin’s Tramp or the mysteriousness of Keaton’s stoneface, Lloyd was no mere happy-go-lucky cipher. As exemplified by Ted Wilde’s The Kid Brother demonstrates, his films bristle with a markedly American anxiousness, a desperate yearning for acceptance that’s evident in every jittery hand gesture and abashed facial expression. In film after film, Lloyd’s on-screen persona has to prove himself worthy of respect, whether by climbing a skyscraper or winning the big football game. And in The Kid Brother, it takes nothing less than saving an entire town.

As the film’s title suggests, Lloyd’s protagonist, Harold Hickory, is the youngest of three sons, the scrawny runt of a powerful family whose name graces the town in which they live, Hickoryville. His father (Walter James) is the town sheriff, and his two burly older brothers (Leo Willis and Olin Francis) have relegated poor Harold to the domestic duties of cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry. Whenever Harold attempts to join in the men’s business—they’re handling the fundraising for a new local dam—he’s dismissed on sight. At one point, his dad even warns him, “Son, you might get hurt. This is a man’s job.”

And so, The Kid Brother is largely about Harold’s efforts to prove that he, too, is a man. After a failed attempt at breaking up an illegal medicine show, he eventually gets his chance when the villainous Sandoni (professional wrestler Constantine Romanoff) runs off with the dam money. Harold finds him, fights him, and outwits him, returning the funds to the town and showing everybody that, while he may not be as beefy as his brothers, he’s no less courageous.

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Featuring a hardscrabble rural setting that feels light years away from the spunky urbanity of films like Safety Last! and Speedy, The Kid Brother squeezes a succession of clever gags out of its rustic milieu. In one scene, it appears as though Harold is crouched down and crawling through tall grass, when in fact he’s placed his hat on a pig’s back in order to divert the town bully, Hank Hooper (R. Yearsley). And in another delightful visual joke, Harold devises an ingenious method of doing dishes by placing them in a net and spinning them in the sink.

But the film’s most exhilarating moment is also one of its gentlest. Harold, infatuated with a girl, Mary (Jobyna Ralston), from the medicine show, climbs a tall tree so as to keep her in view for as long as possible. As he ascends higher and higher, so does the camera (which was mounted by the filmmakers on a specially built elevator platform). The moment climaxes when Harold reaches the top of the tree, mountains visible in the distance, and calls out to Mary, “Good-bye!” There’s a remarkably tranquil tension to this sequence, as you wonder how high Harold will go and if the camera will really follow him all the way up, and it ends when Harold loses his balance and tumbles all the way down to the ground. Unfazed, he picks up a flower and pulls off the petals one by one as he recites, “She loves me…she loves me not.”

It’s this sort of creative, sweet-natured gag that truly epitomizes Lloyd’s comedic genius. There’s a sense of danger to this sequence, but also a recognition that everything’s going to be just fine. That same balance of lightness and suspense is on full display in the film’s climactic stand-off between Harold and Sandoni aboard an abandoned ship. Hilarious and restlessly inventive, Lloyd and comedy writer turned director Wilde make stunning use of this evocative, horror-movie locale, the kind of strange, shadowy setting one might expect to find in a Val Lewton film. Lloyd and Wilde assemble a remarkably energetic series of action-packed gags and stunts, each one flowing seamlessly into the next, from Harold dangling off the side of the vessel to putting his shoes on a monkey as a diversionary tactic.

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It’s a hugely satisfying finale that all culminates, as of course it must, with Harold and Mary walking off together in a tender embrace. Having defeated the brutish Sandoni, been accepted as a true Hickory by his father, and celebrated by the town that bears his family’s name, Harold finally gets the girl. And all it took was proving himself as a man.

Image/Sound

As with the Criterion Collection’s previous Harold Lloyd releases, The Kid Brother was restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and the results are crisp, clear, and beautiful. The image shows a remarkable depth of field, with minute details of the film’s striking natural locations visible throughout. Lloyd’s rubbery trademark facial expressions are noticeable even in long shots, amplifying the comedic impact of the many stunts and fight scenes in the film. There are very slight imperfections noticeable on occasion, including a few scratches and some mild fading around the edges of the frame, though nothing that distracts too much from the viewing experience. Criterion has provided two alternate soundtracks, a Copland-esque folk-inspired orchestral score by Carl Davis that perfectly suits the film’s pastoral setting, and a jauntily dynamic organ score by Lloyd’s favorite accompanist, Gaylord Carter.

Extras

Among the highlights of this release are two ultra-rare early Lloyd shorts, Over the Fence and That’s Him (both featuring new Wurlitzer theater pipe organ scores), and a video essay by John Bengtson on The Kid Brother’s locations that’s as intensively researched and beautifully illustrated as the similar features he’s made for prior Criterion releases of Lloyd’s films. Elsewhere, the audio commentary from 2005 by Lloyd archivist Richard Correll, film historian Annette D’Agostino Lloyd, and Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, is chatty and appreciative, if only fitfully informative. Suzanne Lloyd also appears in a dishy new conversation about her grandfather’s leading ladies and a 2005 featurette about Lloyd’s sprawling Greenacres estate. Greenacres also figures heavily in Bengtson’s video essay and provides the backdrop for a brief but insightful 1962 interview with Lloyd recorded for Dutch TV. A perceptive video essay by critic David Cairns on the film’s wonderful “monkey shoes” gag and a booklet essay by critic Carrie Rickey round out this jam-packed set, which provides loads of illuminating context about Lloyd’s career and the silent era as a whole.

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Overall

Featuring a crisp new restoration and oodles of illuminating extras, this disc continues Criterion’s exceptional track record of reviving Harold Lloyd’s silent masterpieces.

Score: 
 Cast: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Walter James, Leo Willis, Olin Francis, Constantine Romanoff, Eddie Boland, Frank Lanning, Ralph Yearsley  Director: Ted Wilde  Screenwriter: John Grey, Lex Neal, Howard J. Green  Distributor: The Criterion Collection  Running Time: 82 min  Rating: NR  Year: 1927  Release Date: March 12, 2019  Buy: Video

Keith Watson

Keith Watson is the proprietor of the Arkadin Cinema and Bar in St. Louis, Missouri.

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