That's Him!...

"That's Him" is a Harold Lloyd film starring Lloyd and his familiar supporting characters, Bebe Daniels and Harry 'Snob' Pollard. The three made many films together in the 1910s and when Lloyd branched out with his own production company, he got two more leading ladies (one of which he ended up marrying) and there was no second male lead in these films. While I love Snub, Lloyd seemed to do better on his own.

The story begins with a struggling couple (Lloyd and Daniels) but their troubles soon seemed to be over when Harold receives a telegram saying he's just inherited $1,000,000! Included are train tickets to go to the city to collect the money. Unfortunately, Harold forgets to bring the tickets and so he rushes home to get them. On the way, he meets up with a robber (Pollard) who ends up shooting him...but since this is a slapstick film, Harold is just fine and he shoots Snub several times...and he, too, is just fine! What's next? Well, a LOT of other problems...all of which conspire to try to get him to miss the train.

It's highly unusual to see Snub playing a crook...and a violent one at that. Usually he's either a sweeter guy or perhaps Harold's rival in love. What's not as unusual is seeing Harold playing a bit of an action hero...especially when a gang of toughies attack.

Overall, a good Harold Lloyd for this time period. His work in the 1920s was incredible...and significantly better than "That's Him". But for 1918, it's very good and worth seeing. The print, sadly, is a bit grainy and I was able to find it on the Criterion Channel.

By the way, it was not unusual for films of the 1910s to feature white folks in black makeup playing black roles. It wasn't nice...but that was the norm...and you'll see the conductor on the train is clearly a white guy using burnt cork makeup.