Silent Film: Safety Last!

Live piano accompaniment from Vermont-based composer Bob Merrill

With this 100^th anniversary screening, see why comic actor Harold Lloyd is known as the silent film era’s “third genius” alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. With its rush of perfectly executed gags and astonishing stunts, Safety Last! is an ideal introduction to his work.

Lloyd plays a small-town bumpkin trying to make it in the big city as a department store clerk. He devises a wild publicity stunt to draw attention to the store which results in one of the most famous images from the silent era: Lloyd clutching the hands of a large clock as he dangles from a skyscraper high above moving traffic.