Why Worry? (1923)

Directed by: Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor | 60 minutes | comedy, adventure, family, romance | Actors: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, John Aasen, Wallace Howe, Jim Mason, Leo White, Gaylord Lloyd, Mark Jones

Harold Van Pelham is a very rich hypochondriac who is only busy taking pills and feeling sick. If he hears of an ailment, he certainly suffers from it. He does not realize at all that his nurse has been secretly in love with him for a long time, he is so busy asking for attention for his ailments. The cruise to the tropics for his health is romantic, if not for them, for the other couples on board, much to his nurse’s chagrin. At the destination, a revolution is underway and the warring parties make use of mutual violence and kidnapping.

Harold doesn’t notice what’s going on around him for a long time, it’s only when he ends up in prison that it starts to dawn on him that something is wrong. In his cell he befriends the great gentle giant Colosso (John Aasen) and together they manage to escape. This has already fueled his heroism, but if they want to harm his nurse, the turnips are completely cooked.

A crazy farce that rumbles on with one inventiveness after another. The way in which Harold can keep pretending not to notice anything is so very well thought out, everything is just right. When he is taken to the prison thinking that those nice soldiers will take him to his hotel, he suddenly turns around near the prison and runs away. You think that’s because he finally realizes what’s happening, but he runs fast to get his briefcase for the ‘hotel’ and then runs back to the soldiers.

Completely idiotic, but commanding great admiration is the scene in which he has to take on a large army together with his nurse and the giant befriended. Largely hidden behind a wall, he supposedly marches in front of the troops as an army chief with a rifle. Those troops consist of two rows of stakes resembling the tops of rifles that he and his nurse run along the walls at the right pace. A great find in every way. A super fun film that melts every gloom in the warm tropical sun.