Girl Shy
Encyclopedia
Girl Shy is a 1924 romantic comedy silent film
starring Harold Lloyd
and Jobyna Ralston
. The movie was written by Sam Taylor
, Tim Whelan
and Ted Wilde
and was directed by Fred C. Newmeyer
and Taylor.
The same day, a rich young socialite named Mary Buckingham (Ralston) has her automobile break down in Little Bend and boards the same train. No dogs are allowed aboard, so she hides her Pekinese under her shawl, but her pet jumps off as the train pulls away. Harold rescues her dog and helps Mary hide it from the conductor. She sees his manuscript, so he starts telling her about his book, overcoming his stuttering in his enthusiasm. They become so absorbed in each other that neither realizes that the train has reached its destination and everyone else has departed. Upon returning home, Mary rejects the latest in a string of proposals of marriage from her persistent suitor, Ronald DeVore.
After her car is repaired, Mary intentionally detours through Little Bend repeatedly, hoping to meet Harold again. On one such trip, Ronald is also along for the ride, and his unwanted attentions during yet another unsuccessful marriage proposal cause the flustered Mary to accidentally swerve off the road and get her car stuck near the outskirts of Little Bend. While Ronald walks back to town for a tow, Mary serendipitously runs into Harold, who is relaxing in a rowboat in a nearby stream. When Harold tells Mary that he is going to see the publisher, Roger Thornby, in a few days to deliver a new chapter for his book that he plans to write about her, they agree to meet afterward. Meanwhile, back in town, Ronald unexpectedly runs into a middle-aged woman who asks if he is finally going to take her home with him and introduce her to his family, but he stalls her, then rides away in the tow-vehicle.
Mr. Thornby's professional readers find Harold's book hilariously absurd, so he informs Harold that it has been rejected. Without any royalty money, Harold figures he cannot ask a rich girl like Mary to marry him. When he sees her, instead of telling her the truth, he pretends that he was only using her as part of his research, and that he really is not interested in her. Heartbroken and lonesome, Mary impulsively agrees to marry Ronald even though she has never really liked him. Afterward, though, one of Mr. Thornby's senior employees convinces the publisher that, if the staff liked the book so much, there must be a market for it, so Thornby decides to publish the book after retitling it "The Boob's Diary", a spoof on the popular romantic-advice books of the time.
Back in the tailor shop a few days later, a depressed Harold sees an envelope from the publisher that arrives in the morning mail, but he just rips it up without even opening it, assuming that it is a formal rejection notice. Fortunately, his uncle notices that one of the scraps is part of an advance royalty check for $3,000. At first, Harold is outraged and insulted to have his "pride and joy" ridiculed, but then he quickly swallows his indignation upon realizing that the royalty money means that he could probably propose to Mary after all. His elation is short-lived, however, when he sees a newspaper story announcing Mary and Ronald's wedding which is scheduled for that same day at her family's estate. Thinking all is lost, Harold gives up. However, by chance, the same woman whom Ronald had met in town a few days earlier walks in and, seeing the story, tearfully exclaims that she is Ronald's wife. As proof, she shows Harold a photo locket with the couple's wedding portrait and the engraved words "to my wife" that Ronald had given her two years earlier.
Harold takes the locket and races to stop the wedding, in a frenzied headlong-dash trip involving bootleggers, car chases and multiple changes of vehicle (from missing the train to various cars to a trolley
to a police motorcycle to a horse-drawn carriage to horseback) through the countryside and along the crowded streets of Culver City and Los Angeles. Eventually arriving at Buckingham Estate with only moments to spare, Harold bursts in just as the minister is about to conclude the wedding ceremony, but he cannot stop stuttering long enough to expose Ronald's intended bigamy
. So Harold whisks Mary up over his shoulder and carries her off. When they are alone, he tells her about Ronald and shows her the locket as proof. Mary, visibly relieved that she won't have to marry Ronald after all, and immensely grateful for Harold's heroic dash to save her from scandal, quickly forgives Harold's previous deceptions now that she sees that he truly did care about her all along, and she gets Harold to propose to her (with an assist from a passing mail-carrier's whistle to stop his stuttering), and she accepts.
. It is what Lloyd called a "character story" (as opposed to a "gag film"), and is notable for containing fewer of the stunts which characterize Lloyd's other films throughout most of its length, and instead focusing more on the relationship between Lloyd and Ralston. However, the lengthy finale of the film is one of the most exhilarating, non-stop action sequences of Lloyd's career. Some of the traveling shots with horses had a strong influence on MGM's silent version of Ben-Hur
(1925) the following year, and the famous final scene at the chapel was copied 44 years later in another MGM classic, The Graduate
(1967).
This movie was one of the first romantic comedies
to be filmed. It was also the second of six consecutive movies pairing Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston
, who left Hal Roach Studios as well to continue working with Lloyd. Unlike the normal style for filmed romances prior to Girl Shy, both Ralston and Lloyd were featured in comedic scenes.
The exterior shots of the "Buckingham" mansion and gardens were filmed at Lloyd's own estate
in Beverly Hills.
produced by Harold Lloyd himself entitled Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival
and created a renewal of interest in the comedian by introducing him to a whole new generation.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
starring Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....
and Jobyna Ralston
Jobyna Ralston
Jobyna Ralston was an American stage and film actress.-Early life and career:Born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland...
. The movie was written by Sam Taylor
Sam Taylor (director)
Sam Taylor was a film director, screenwriter, and producer, most active in silent film era. Taylor is best known for his comedic directorial work with Harold Lloyd and Mary Pickford....
, Tim Whelan
Tim Whelan
Tim Whelan was an American film director, writer, producer and actor.-Selected filmography:* Adam's Apple * When Knights Were Bold * It's a Boy * Aunt Sally...
and Ted Wilde
Ted Wilde
Ted Wilde was a comedy writer and director during the era of silent movies, though he also produced two movies with sound in 1930. He was born in New York, New York. His initial career was as a member of Harold Lloyd's writing staff. His final film as a director was Clancy in Wall Street in 1930...
and was directed by Fred C. Newmeyer
Fred C. Newmeyer
Fred C. Newmeyer was an American actor and film director. A native of Central City, Colorado, he is best known for directing a handful of films in the Our Gang series and for directing Harold Lloyd movies The Freshman and Girl Shy. Newmeyer also had an extensive directing and acting resume in...
and Taylor.
Plot
Harold Meadows (Lloyd) works as a tailor's apprentice for his uncle in the fictional small town of Little Bend, California, and is so shy around women that he stutters and can barely speak to them (to stop his stuttering, his uncle has to blow a whistle). Though his shyness makes him completely clueless in the art of courting or impressing the ladies, Harold writes a preposterous "how to" book for young men entitled "The Secret of Making Love", detailing what he naively believes is good advice about how to woo different types of young women, such as "the vampire" and "the flapper" (in scenes that parodied Trifling Women and Flaming Youth - two other popular films of the time) - and takes it to a publisher in Los Angeles by train.The same day, a rich young socialite named Mary Buckingham (Ralston) has her automobile break down in Little Bend and boards the same train. No dogs are allowed aboard, so she hides her Pekinese under her shawl, but her pet jumps off as the train pulls away. Harold rescues her dog and helps Mary hide it from the conductor. She sees his manuscript, so he starts telling her about his book, overcoming his stuttering in his enthusiasm. They become so absorbed in each other that neither realizes that the train has reached its destination and everyone else has departed. Upon returning home, Mary rejects the latest in a string of proposals of marriage from her persistent suitor, Ronald DeVore.
After her car is repaired, Mary intentionally detours through Little Bend repeatedly, hoping to meet Harold again. On one such trip, Ronald is also along for the ride, and his unwanted attentions during yet another unsuccessful marriage proposal cause the flustered Mary to accidentally swerve off the road and get her car stuck near the outskirts of Little Bend. While Ronald walks back to town for a tow, Mary serendipitously runs into Harold, who is relaxing in a rowboat in a nearby stream. When Harold tells Mary that he is going to see the publisher, Roger Thornby, in a few days to deliver a new chapter for his book that he plans to write about her, they agree to meet afterward. Meanwhile, back in town, Ronald unexpectedly runs into a middle-aged woman who asks if he is finally going to take her home with him and introduce her to his family, but he stalls her, then rides away in the tow-vehicle.
Mr. Thornby's professional readers find Harold's book hilariously absurd, so he informs Harold that it has been rejected. Without any royalty money, Harold figures he cannot ask a rich girl like Mary to marry him. When he sees her, instead of telling her the truth, he pretends that he was only using her as part of his research, and that he really is not interested in her. Heartbroken and lonesome, Mary impulsively agrees to marry Ronald even though she has never really liked him. Afterward, though, one of Mr. Thornby's senior employees convinces the publisher that, if the staff liked the book so much, there must be a market for it, so Thornby decides to publish the book after retitling it "The Boob's Diary", a spoof on the popular romantic-advice books of the time.
Back in the tailor shop a few days later, a depressed Harold sees an envelope from the publisher that arrives in the morning mail, but he just rips it up without even opening it, assuming that it is a formal rejection notice. Fortunately, his uncle notices that one of the scraps is part of an advance royalty check for $3,000. At first, Harold is outraged and insulted to have his "pride and joy" ridiculed, but then he quickly swallows his indignation upon realizing that the royalty money means that he could probably propose to Mary after all. His elation is short-lived, however, when he sees a newspaper story announcing Mary and Ronald's wedding which is scheduled for that same day at her family's estate. Thinking all is lost, Harold gives up. However, by chance, the same woman whom Ronald had met in town a few days earlier walks in and, seeing the story, tearfully exclaims that she is Ronald's wife. As proof, she shows Harold a photo locket with the couple's wedding portrait and the engraved words "to my wife" that Ronald had given her two years earlier.
Harold takes the locket and races to stop the wedding, in a frenzied headlong-dash trip involving bootleggers, car chases and multiple changes of vehicle (from missing the train to various cars to a trolley
Pacific Electric Railway
The Pacific Electric Railway , also known as the Red Car system, was a mass transit system in Southern California using streetcars, light rail, and buses...
to a police motorcycle to a horse-drawn carriage to horseback) through the countryside and along the crowded streets of Culver City and Los Angeles. Eventually arriving at Buckingham Estate with only moments to spare, Harold bursts in just as the minister is about to conclude the wedding ceremony, but he cannot stop stuttering long enough to expose Ronald's intended bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
. So Harold whisks Mary up over his shoulder and carries her off. When they are alone, he tells her about Ronald and shows her the locket as proof. Mary, visibly relieved that she won't have to marry Ronald after all, and immensely grateful for Harold's heroic dash to save her from scandal, quickly forgives Harold's previous deceptions now that she sees that he truly did care about her all along, and she gets Harold to propose to her (with an assist from a passing mail-carrier's whistle to stop his stuttering), and she accepts.
Production
This was Lloyd's first independent production after his split with Hal RoachHal Roach
Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
. It is what Lloyd called a "character story" (as opposed to a "gag film"), and is notable for containing fewer of the stunts which characterize Lloyd's other films throughout most of its length, and instead focusing more on the relationship between Lloyd and Ralston. However, the lengthy finale of the film is one of the most exhilarating, non-stop action sequences of Lloyd's career. Some of the traveling shots with horses had a strong influence on MGM's silent version of Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur (1925 film)
Ben-Hur is a 1925 silent film directed by Fred Niblo. It was a blockbuster hit for newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This was the second film based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace...
(1925) the following year, and the famous final scene at the chapel was copied 44 years later in another MGM classic, The Graduate
The Graduate
The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Mike Nichols. It is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder...
(1967).
This movie was one of the first romantic comedies
Romantic Comedy
Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...
to be filmed. It was also the second of six consecutive movies pairing Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston
Jobyna Ralston
Jobyna Ralston was an American stage and film actress.-Early life and career:Born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland...
, who left Hal Roach Studios as well to continue working with Lloyd. Unlike the normal style for filmed romances prior to Girl Shy, both Ralston and Lloyd were featured in comedic scenes.
The exterior shots of the "Buckingham" mansion and gardens were filmed at Lloyd's own estate
Harold Lloyd Estate
The Harold Lloyd Estate, also known as Greenacres, is a large mansion and landscaped estate located in the Benedict Canyon section of Beverly Hills, California. Built in the latter 1920s by silent film star Harold Lloyd, it remained Lloyd's home until his death in 1971. The estate originally...
in Beverly Hills.
Cast
- Harold LloydHarold LloydHarold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....
as Harold Meadows, The Poor Boy - Jobyna RalstonJobyna RalstonJobyna Ralston was an American stage and film actress.-Early life and career:Born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland...
as Mary Buckingham, The Rich Girl - Richard DanielsRichard DanielsRichard Daniels , was an American film actor. He appeared in 27 films between 1922 and 1926.He was born in Gwubach, Wales and died in Los Angeles, California...
as Jerry Meadows, The Poor Man - Carlton GriffinCarlton GriffinCarlton Griffin , was an American film actor. He appeared in 50 films between 1915 and 1940.He was born in New York, New York and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:* Girl Shy...
as Ronald DeVore, The Rich Man
Renewed interest in Harold Lloyd
In 1962, the scenes of Lloyd rescuing the dog, riding on the train with Ralston and breaking up the wedding were included in a compilation filmCompilation movie
Film historian Jay Leyda discussed the origins of the compilation film in his work Films Beget Films.-Anime:A compilation movie, or compilation film, a term used by reviewers of Japanese anime, is a feature film that is mostly composed of footage from a television serial...
produced by Harold Lloyd himself entitled Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
and created a renewal of interest in the comedian by introducing him to a whole new generation.