The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
GIRL SHY (1924)
Run Time: 1:27:00
Producer: The Harold Lloyd Corporation
Director: Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Writer: Sam Taylor, Ted Wilde, Tim Whelan
Cast: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Richard Daniels
FILM MAKERS
This was Lloyd’s first independent production after his split with Hal Roach. It is what Lloyd called a “character story” (as opposed to a “gag film”), and is notable for containing fewer of the stunts which characterize Lloyd’s other films throughout most of its length, and instead focusing more on the relationship between Lloyd and Ralston. However, the lengthy finale of the film is one of the most exhilarating, non-stop action sequences of Lloyd’s career.
It was also the second of six consecutive movies pairing Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston, who left Hal Roach Studios as well to continue working with Lloyd. Unlike the normal style for filmed romances prior to Girl Shy, both Ralston and Lloyd were featured in comedic scenes. – wikipedia
SUMMARY
Harold Meadows (Lloyd) is a shy, stuttering bachelor working in a tailor shop, who is writing a guide book for other bashful young men, “The Secret of Making Love,” chapters from which are portrayed as fantasy sequences. Fate has him meet rich girl, Mary (Ralston), and they fall in love. But she is about to wed an already married man, so our hero embarks upon a hair-raising daredevil ride to prevent the wedding. – IMDB
*The Police Motorcycle which Lloyd steals is clearly a second prop bike on a trailer when Harold rides it. It is a stunt double riding for Lloyd in the cut away scenes.
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM
Read also: The Silent Types
Related Posts
The Vintagent Classics: Hex
Meet the Easy Riders of Bingo,…
The Vintagent Classics: Akira
The end of the world was only the…
The Vintagent Classics: TRON
The Electronic Gladiator
So here’s a question I’m wondering if I’m the only one asking ;
With yet another … fuffication of an old film that barely makes use of a M/C .. never mind use it as a central theme/character .
With all the hype about the GenZ Snowflake/ etc generation supposedly going bat(bleep) for motorcycles … well
Then WTF isn’t anyone in Hollywood or the Independents coming out with M/C based fiction films . I mean .. seriously .. the closest we get is a frame or two of a M/C here and there in some overly CGI’d action hero film … so where the Bleep are the NEW M/C fiction films worth watching ?
Heck .. even Norm Redus’s traveling buddy Hipster wanna be M/C show seems to of died on the vine ( barely worth watching but better than nothing )
Come to think of it … WTF is happening with M/C print magazines rapidly going the way of the Dodo ..?
So much for the rise of the cult of M/C’s if you ask me … cause they aint on the street … they aint in print .. they definitely aint on film or TV and other than InstaFamous/InstaBroke … they aint much online either
Any answers … thoughts ?? Hypothesis ?
Good questions!
As Curator of Film here at The Vintagent, I actually hold a very strict line on exactly that matter. I agree that Motorcycle Movies should be catalogued based on not just their presence in, but integral importance, or character in a film. I’ve held this line for decades with the other projects I founded and ran, including the infamous, long running film series which screened the ‘good, the bad, and the bizarre’ of vehicular cinema ‘Cine Meccanica’ (www.cinemeccanica.wordpress.com), and of course The Motorcycle Film Festival (the first of it’s kind).
Over the years, I have chosen to include some films which viewers may disagree with. A good example would be ‘Ghost Rider’ (2007). While I would not argue that it is a motorcycle film, at the same time, it seems that Johnny Blaze would never have become the Ghost Rider without his past as a second generation carnival stunt rider, and the personal trauma related to it, which made him the particular vigilante he became. The motorcycle is a part of him, is all he knows, and so Ghost Rider man and film is nothing without a motorcycle.
While there is no right or wrong answer to films like this, or even the more ambiguous ones, I simply use it as an example to illustrate that while I do take creative license from time to time as my Curatorship allows me, Be sure I overthink each and every one. Even those that come down to nothing more than a childhood connection. As with Snoopy’s Chopper in the Peanuts film ‘Race For Your Life’… sometimes there’s just links to Motorcycles in mainstream films that we realize later on shaped our love for the machines and the sport and so, exercising that same creative license afforded my position, an oddball film makes it in to the archive from time to time.
However! With the early silent films, from the beginnings of a medium that would forever change the world, I’ve chosen deliberately to set a different bar. In these films, simply the mere ‘mention’ should we say of a motorcycle earns it a place in the archive for the fact that without the privilege of historical hindsight, this is the burgeoning of the soon to be controversial art form, we now know as the ‘Biker Flick’ (as coined by Roger Corman in 1966 with Wild Angels).
While real life events such as Hollister in 1947 shaped the first true Motorcycle Movie in 1953 with ‘The Wild One’, i feel it is important to show how these new fangled machines were uses in small and unassuming ways in the new art form of cinema in the decades leading up to this moment, because they do seem to pop up right from the beginning. Call it crumbs marking a path that leads us to a final destination if you like, or just the workings of an obsessed cinephile’s brain, but in the final story, each tidbit shaped the world’s connection to a thing. In this case one that was very quickly vilified to the point that MCs adapted their attire and actions in real life to mimic how they were represented on reels of film. Life imitating art, imitating life.
Be sure that I also ponder daily, why the lack of Narrative motorcycle movies. In fact, it is the entire reason I founded The Motorcycle Film Festival in 2013. With acceptability of motorcycles as lifestyle on the rise, and easier, cheaper access to film and editing equipment with the innovation of digital media, we are living in the time of documentaries, but sadly not the narrative. My hope and goal with The MFF was to give a home to the docs, while highlighting the lack of, and encouraging the production of more new narratives. I’m proud to say over 4 years, we did just that, in a small, independent way.
One final note of interest… Many think of the heyday of Biker Flicks and ultimately the narrative Motorcycle Movie as spanning decades. In fact it was merely several dozen titles churned out between the years 1969 and 1971. Wild Angels kicking off the genre in 1966 yes, and one or two between that and Easy Rider (1969), but the rest of the ‘B’s were not pushed (though some filmed) onto the unassuming midnight movie, Drive-In crowd until this time. They were, for obvious reasons (violence, misogyny, etc), a hard pill to swallow and disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. Perhaps Hollywood felt a need for a decades long break? Perhaps finance didn’t like the insurance risk? I’m not the scholar to say. But I am the fan who would love to see (preferably at a Drive-In) a new wave of unique stories told on two wheels!
Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you at the flicks!
Corinna
P.S – pick up a copy of Paul d’Orlean’s ‘Chopper: The Real Story’, as there is an entire chapter dedicated to this subject, which I was honored to lend my thoughts to.
P.P.S – also see the article ‘The Silent Types’ for more on motorcycles in early cinema. https://thevintagent.com/2017/11/12/the-silent-types/
Corrina .. methinks you misunderstood my question .
I wasn’t not questioning your choices . I mean sure … ” Ghost Rider ” a bit too campy with the M/C as a special effect . But still … no questioning on my part . When there’s a lack of choices .. ya takes what ya can gets
My question is …. WTF are the NEW M/C films with the M/C and the riding thereof as a central aspect ?
Or better yet … why hasn’t Hollywood … or at least the major independents jumped on the bandwagon .. with err .. perhaps .. dare I say it … some $$$ backing from the M/C manufactures desperate for sales ?
I mean honestly … there has not been such a film since the CDN 2008 film ” One Week ” .. thinks about that … 2008 ! Pathetic
But then again .. maybe I can answer my own question … what with major M/C print magazines going down the tubes left and right … most websites ( NOT this one ) becoming nothing more than advertising platforms for the manufactures … even M/C ads (cable and TV ) all but disappearing .. new M/C sales verging on the apocalypse ..hmmm … perhaps the ‘ trend ‘ of M/C’s isn’t all that trendy after all ? Hmm …
But reading my own words … having a business background including owning several of my own .. very successfully I might add … perhaps those waning sales and failing print could get a swift boost in the posterior … if the film industry would catch on …
As for suggesting PdO’s ” Chopper ; the Real Story ” … had it since the day is was released …. read the ” Silent Types ” when it appeared here as well … so yeah … you’re communicating with a bonafide Boomer .. who’s overall – been there … done that .. got more damn T-Shirts than the wife wishes I had … sitting here once again wondering …
Where in the H-E double hockey sticks are the new films … not those flimsy for the most part poorly executed under financed … errr … documentaries of late … but genuine goram … new M/C Films
e.g. Wake up Hollywood and smell the oil !
Thanks for taking the time .. ciao … and …
Rock On – Ride On – Remain Calm ( despite the world being on the brink ) and do … please … Carry On
😎
The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and Mandy (2018) come to my mind as, somewhat, recent movies depicting motorcycles and riders as essential narrative elements. But I can only blame unruled capitalism for not giving a damn about motorcycles: they’re not the money-making mainstream masses of mindless moviemongers. Blah! Screw’em and their future.