Safety Last contains that classic Lloyd image, the comedian hanging precariously from the arms of a clock ten stories off the ground. Harold is The Young Man Out to Make His Name in the World. Landing a job as a department store clerk, he sends to The Girl Back Home glowing letters and “lavish” gifts, leading her to think him suddenly wealthy and in need of financial advice. Upon her unexpected arrival, Harold enters into an elaborate ruse to impress the girl, climaxing in the now-famous publicity stunt.

“Later Lloyd films may have been more elaborate in production values, richer in individual comedy sequences, more profitable at the boxoffice, but Safety Last remains the ‘definitive' Lloyd film, and in the long run, probably his best. As a vehicle for the Lloyd character - half Charlie Ray, half Douglas Fairbanks - and as a platform for his unique formula of comedy, a dash of sentiment and stress on physical thrills - Safety Last just couldn't be more typical. The very first sequence is one of those deliberately misleading establishing gags so popular in the '20s, and from then on it races and bounds with never a let-up.... the most commonplace incidents are worked - and successfully too - solely for their laugh content....”