The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (Mad Wednesday)

The unlikely combination of Howard Hughes, Preston Sturges, and Harold Lloyd produced this very funny and very rarely shown film, which was never really released in 1947 outside a few cities (a shorter, poorly cut version, Mad Wednesday, was released in 1950). Taking off from the last reel of Harold Lloyd's silent classic, The Freshman (see July 12), Preston Sturges brings the life of that dubious hero up to date (bringing Lloyd himself out of retirement for the occasion). It seems that, after the big football coup, the kid was offered a job by an admiring alumnus, as a minor clerk. Which niche remained his for some 22 years until his boss reconsidered - and fired him. The fun starts here, and takes Lloyd into some typically zany situations, including one sequence in which he dangles from a leash 80 stories above a sidewalk where a nervous lion is pacing - with the other end of Lloyd's leash tied to him. Lloyd is backed by Sturges' regular cast of comics - Rudy Vallee, Lionel Stander, Franklin Pangborn, et al.

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