Safety Last!

Safety Last! contains one of silent comedy’s most iconic images: Harold Lloyd hanging precariously from the arms of a clock ten stories off the ground. Shot without trick photography (though there was a safety platform out of camera range), this sequence established Lloyd as the comedian who would go to any lengths—or heights—to get a laugh. As The Young Man Out to Make His Name in the World, Harold lands a job as a department-store clerk. His letters to The Girl Back Home lead her to believe he’s a smashing success; when she unexpectedly arrives in the city, Harold enters into an elaborate ruse that climaxes in the now-famous stunt.