Harold Lloyd at the Brattle

The Brattle Theatre is showing a digitally-remastered copy of Harold Lloyd's 1923 movie Safety Last!

Even if you haven't seen the movie, you may be familiar, at least by reputation, with the final sequence, in which Lloyd ends up manipulating himself into having to climb up the outside of a twelve story building, including a bit where he is hanging off of the hands of a clock which is, itself, in the process of falling off the building.

In any case, it's a lot of fun, even accounting for a couple instances of racism (black people are somewhat careless, and black people are cowardly and superstitious, both of which are actually funny if you manage to overlook the racist coding), one instance of acute anti-Semitism (Jews are money-grubbing, again, funny if you can overlook the coding), and a constant, as-expected, background level of sexism (although, frankly, I'm not convinced that the "women get violent at a fabric sale" is THAT far off base...)

But one of the other things that I want to mention was that there were a number of elementary-school-age kids in the audience, and it was pretty funny listening to their commentary. One of the final obstacles standing in Lloyd's way is a spinning wind-speed-measuring-thing (Lis tells me that it's called an "anemometer"). And I cracked up overhearing the kid behind us: "Why is that thing even on the roof? WHY IS THAT THING EVEN ON THE ROOF?"

Lis also makes the suggestion that wall climbers and rock climbers should watch this movie for inspiration.