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The Sin of Harold Diddlebock |
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Also known as The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, this collaboration between silent comedy star Harold Lloyd and screwball comedy genius Preston Sturges was meant to be a splashy comeback for both. Unfortunately, it sank at the box office. It's not surprising, because the movie's story line is a wayward tangle, and every scene is a strange mini-movie of its own--but that's exactly why it's worth watching today. Mad Wednesday starts with footage from Lloyd's 1925 classic The Freshman. Because of his success on the football field, Harold Diddlebock (Lloyd, who seems to have hardly changed in 22 years) is offered a job. Full of hope and promise, the former gridiron champ finds himself in a bookkeeping position that consumes the next 30 to 40 years of his life, until he's abruptly fired. Stunned, Diddlebock takes his first drink; when he awakes two days later, he has no idea what he's spent the last 48 hours doing. It turns out he's bought a circus and... well, you get the idea. Every scene is its own little gem of delirium, including one in which an artistic bartender invents the drink that launches Diddlebock into his drunken spree. But the scene in which Diddlebock explains to a lovely coworker how he fell in love not only with her, but with her six or seven older sisters before her, is almost as delightful. Lloyd isn't always adept with Sturges's madcap dialogue, but the sterling supporting cast of character actors makes that language spin like a top, including Rudy Vallee, Franklin Pangborn, Lionel Stander, and Margaret Hamilton (better known as the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz). --Bret Fetzer
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