Outspoken & Freckled

I’m a late – but tirelessly enthusiastic – convert to silent movies.

Though I’ve always been familiar with Harold Lloyd’s bespectacled visage, my introduction to the films of the so-called “third genius” of silent comedy came just a few years ago. My first Lloyd feature-length comedy was his final silent masterpiece: SPEEDY, produced by his own Harold Lloyd Corporation in the summer and early fall of 1927 and released by Paramount on April 7, 1928.

Thanks to Film Forum, the venerable New York City revival house, I’ll get a chance to see the film again this weekend – on the big screen, with live piano accompaniment and a very special guest.

Prior to the screenings of SPEEDY (in 35 mm) on Sunday, October 21 and Monday October 22, film historian John Bengtson will present an animated slide show tour of the movie’s shooting locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. And following…