east / west
by
Douglas Messerli
Frank
Terry and H.M. Walker (writers), Hal Roach (director) An Eastern Westerner / 1920
As
some film writers have noted, Harold Lloyd’s 1920 film, An Eastern Westerner, directed by Hal Roach, is not his funniest,
and, at moments, entirely loses its comic edge. But for me, that is just what
makes this short so very interesting.
The film does have some extremely funny
sets, including a long scene where, forced into a poker game, Lloyd, with a
perfect hand, leaves the table briefly, using his time to create a mustache as
he gets drinks for his fellow players, checking out their hands and he serves
them, and, confident in his winning, puts
in all his
chips—only to discover that the crooked player next to him has switched hands.
An early scene in New York, show Lloyd at
a large dancing hall whose patrons are celebrating “700 cocktails before the
probation hour.” The only thing that seems to be actually prohibited in this
hall is “The Shimmie,” a dance with its close bodily contact was thought by
many to be obscene, and was banned in many dance halls. Warned several times for dancing “The Shimmie,”
Lloyd seemingly cannot resist repeating the dance’s movements, often with the
unintentional help of other patrons.
Some of this film’s Western chase scenes
are as good as anything in Chaplin’s early films.
But some of the best humor comes from
intertitle cards, written Frank Terry and H. M. Walker. Late to arrive home,
Lloyd’s parents sit up waiting for him, the mother suggesting “Don’t be harsh
on him dear. I’m sure he’s just at the Y-M-C-A”; the card provides her
husband’s reply: “He may have started to the Y-M-C-A but they moved the
building.”
When the evil cowboy bully, Tiger Lip
Tompkins (Noah Young) is introduced, the intertitle describes his as having
broken 8 of the 10 Commandments, and as having “twisted” the other two—which,
obviously, forces us to reimagine those commandments to wonder which two he
might wanted to “twist.”
But in this film there are even darker elements. First of all,
our “hero,” such as he is, is not the middle-class achiever, who Lloyd plays in
many of his roles, but a snobby rich boy who tries to get away with whatever he
can—the very reason why his frustrated wealthy parents pack him off to his
uncle’s ranch in the west.
But even worse, when he finally does
succeed in procuring the key to release The Girl’s father, Tompkins calls out
what is described as “the Masked Angels,” a posse dressed in Klu Klux Klan-like masks
that seems to include all Tompkins evil coven.
After escaping
the evil “Angels” again and again, sometimes by using them as his own shield
and, at other times, by diving into barrels, covering himself with sheets,
etc., Lloyd manages to outwit the entire band, rushing after a train which he
seeming catches. The Girl who has also chased after him, cannot get aboard,
and, sadly, watches her only salvation speed off to his own survival.
Of course, we know that, when he and she
finally find their way back East, they will be greeted with open arms and
allowed a large inheritance. This time Lloyd’s extravagant antics have not been
able to save him from himself.
And the myth of the two Americas, one a
civilized, if slightly naughty world of wealth of privilege, the other of a
wild, brutal and violent force that constantly needs to be contained, was
repeated and extended even to comedy.
Los Angeles,
April 22, 2017
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