For Heaven’s Sake (1926)

dir. Sam Taylor. Comedy silent film starring Harold Lloyd, who plays dimwitted millionaire, J. Harrold Manners. Manners lives his life spending money with abandon, until one day he accidentally becomes the patron of a religious charity mission for the Downtown poor. Manners finds romance and a strange form of friendship with the Downtown gangsters and drunkards. There is plenty of visually impressive physical comedy but is something nasty and mean about the slapstick humor. Perhaps this is because Harold Lloyd plays a millionaire who spends most of the movie abusing and manipulating people into easing his newfound romance. He has little charm or lightness in this film. There is runaway bus scene that is very similar to Buster Keaton’s SHERLOCK JR. (1924), but not nearly as well done.