Safety Last!

In SAFETY LAST!, as a rank amateur, he is forced to substitute for a human fly and to climb a medium sized skyscraper. Dozens of awful things happen to him. He gets fouled up in a tennis net. Popcorn falls on him from a window above and the local pigeons treat him like a cross between a lunch wagon and St. Francis of Assisi. In this movie Lloyd demonstrates beautifully his ability to do more than merely milk a gag, but to top it. Lloyd is driven out to the dirty end of a flagpole by a furious dog; the pole breaks and he falls, just managing to grab the minute hand of a huge clock. His weight promptly pulls the hand down from IX to VI. That would be more than enough for any ordinary comedian, but there is further logic in this situation. Now, hideously, the whole clockface pulls loose and slants from its trembling springs above the street. Lloyd was outstanding even among the master craftsmen at setting up a gag clearly, culminating and getting out of it deftly, and linking it smoothly to the next. (James Agee, Life Magazine 1949)