The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Good concept, poorly executed.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The plot.Twenty years after his triumphs as a freshman on the football field, Harold is a mild-mannered clerk who dreams about marrying the girl at the desk down the aisle. But losing his job destroys that dream, and when he finds a particularly potent drink at his local bar, he goes on a very strange and funny rampage (with a lion in tow). A rather odd film that doesn't really work. Not sure why it gets such good reviews. It was so poorly received when it came out that Howard Hughes pulled it, re-edited it and released it as Mad Wednesday in 1950! With an apparently shorter version that nearly cut out some of the players -- notably Rudy Valee.He also put Lloyd's name UNDER the title, causing a lawsuit by Harold. What a mess.I've read that the shorter version is more liked by viewers.

"The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" and "Mad Wednesday" are like two twins who hate each other, so they try to change the way they look. Preston Sturges talked Harold Lloyd into coming back to movies after he had retired. Not only that but Lloyd allowed Sturges to use part of his film "The Freshman" for the opening of the film and to be an investor. Their agreement was that each had the final cut of the film. Lloyds' cut is called "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock". Sturges' is called "Mad Wednesday".Some material is lost on both cuts and some is added. Both are utterly funny with "Mad Wednesday" being a little crazier. Rudy Vallee is almost lost in "Diddlebock" but a major character in "Wednesday". And though both end with Lloyd and Frances Ramsden (The next Mrs. Sturges) in a horse drawn carriage, the last shot of "Wednesday" has the horse singing to the lovers.If you are interested in how two comic geniuses could shape the same material into two different pictures, then you must see them both. Silly. Funny. Absolutely must sees.

Anybody who watches this expecting an example of what made Harold Lloyd the most popular comedian of the 20s (no, it wasn't Chaplin) will be sorely disappointed, and may even think that his earlier films are not worth watching. The truth is, this "comeback film" is nowhere near the quality of his earlier silent films, and especially not "The Freshman", to which this is supposed to be a sequel.***POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING***The problem with this film starts with the first 30 minutes; they are typical of a director whose style is completely inconsistent with Lloyd's trademark 1920s optimism. The first 30 minutes of this film (the footage from "The Freshman" excepted) are spent ridiculing in its entirety the philosophy that made Lloyd's previous films so fun to watch; his go-getter mentality, always making the best of a bad situation. The first part of this movie starts out slowly and depressingly, portraying Harold as a miserable loser who's been in the same job for 30 years who comes to work one day and gets fired.Sound like comedy gold to you? Me neither. It's really not the type of thing that Harold's character is best suited to, and it was only through the faint hope that something better might lie ahead that I kept watching. Thankfully, the movie does get better after the bar scene, where Harold has the first drink of his life and metamorphosizes into something resembling his old character again (he bets on a horse-race against incredible odds and wins a whole load of money, which he promptly uses to buy a circus). From there on, there are a few very funny gags (the best of them having to do with a lion), although there are also too many hysterics on Harold's part for my taste; something that wasn't present in his earlier silent movies. The final scene of the movie pays homage to Harold Lloyd's climb up the side of a building in his 1923 "Safety Last".***END OF SPOIILERS***I'm pretty sure that the only reason that this film's reputation has gotten this high is that almost all of Harold's other films have been owned by his family and though well-preserved, withheld from public view (aside from a limited-release VHS run in the early 90s and regular showings on TCM for those who get it). This is truly a shame, because his earlier works, unlike THIS uneven piece of film-making, are truly great comedic masterpieces on a level with the best of Chaplin's and Keaton's films. I dare anyone who's watched "Safety Last", "The Freshman", "Why Worry?" or "The Kid Brother" to say otherwise.Thankfully, The Harold Lloyd Trust has recently secured a DVD deal with New Line Cinema (27 of his films will be released on DVD in November 2005!) as well as a theatrical release deal with Sony (his films will play in New York City from April to May 2005, and there are also plans for Paris and other places). You can visit the official page of the Harold Lloyd Trust if you want to know more (haroldlloyd.com) Thankfully, Harold will be more visible soon than he has been in the last 50 years! I recommend that nobody buy this uneven movie but wait for his masterworks to come to a theater/store near you!

Calling this film brilliant isn't strong enough. The Dylan lyric "to laugh and cry in a single sound" fits because at the end of the film if your heartstrings are not being strummed then you may not be living.Lloyd is an everyman squashed by life who encounters a bartender and asks for his first drink, ever. The bartender rises to the challenge and... well, Lloyd spends part of the film piecing together what he did after consuming it... I'm telling you, this film is BRILLIANT. The way it's shot, the acting, the brilliant casting, the writing all work together in a way that has no equal in cinema; the silent version of "The Thief of Baghdad" comes to mind for its sense of unbridled fun and its soaring spirit. This is so much more than a comedy, at some point the movie glides past that label and really grabs the brass ring, you know what I mean? Truly brilliant, highest possible recommendation.