Professor Beware

This was Harold Lloyd's final comedy before his first retirement. The 1938 film features Harold as an archaeologist who starts to believe that he may be a reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh for whom things did not end up well. Wonderful cast of supporting comedy players (including Raymond Walburn, William Frawley and Lionel Stander) in an intermittently amusing affair with, for me, one hilarious sequence.

There's a scene in which Harold, accompanied by Walburn and Stander, is picked up on the road for a ride by what turns out to be the small town sheriff. Well, Stander has just snatched up a stolen chicken and when he sees the sheriff's badge shoves the chicken onto poor sap Harold who hides it under his jacket.

As they ride along with the sheriff, the chicken starts to make clucking sounds and, as a cover-up, Harold starts pursing his lips like he's imitating a chicken. Of course, the hilarity in the sequence builds as the chicken starts making loud squawking sounds with Harold now trying to convince the increasingly suspicious, albeit dim witted, sheriff that the racket is coming from him.

At one moment there is a camera shot of Harold's legs, as seen from Harold's angle looking down at them, as we see a chicken egg roll down them to the floor of the car. I almost fell out of my chair laughing. This comedy might not be Harold Lloyd at his best but it is well worth a look if you can find a copy somewhere. The not so great box office on this one convinced Harold to retire for about ten years, and the film is ably directed by workman director Elliott Nugent.

This film and "Welcome Danger" are the only two feature films distributed by Paramount that did not wind up in the big box of Lloyd films put out about ten years ago. Welcome Danger has been on Turner Classic Movies a few times, but Professor Beware was never on VHS or DVD and disappeared off the face of the earth since AMC decided that zombies combined with sexual assault were more entertaining than good old fashioned slapstick. Please catch it if you can, it is worth it.