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In this enjoyable Harold Lloyd comedy, our boy Harold (playing a down-and-outer whose acquaintances include a scrappy little beggar girl and her lame dog) finds himself coming to the aid of a pretty heiress whose inheritance is in danger of being weasled away by a shyster lawyer in cahoots with a gang of thugs. Every Lloyd film has a rollicking climax full of visual stunts, and the one to this movie shows Harold verbally or physically assaulting every police officer in the city in an attempt to lead them to the gang's lair.

Everything comes right in the end, as Harold, heiress, beggar girl and dog get to sit down to a mighty dinner and we get to turn off the T.V. with a smile on our faces.

This is quite a good Harold Lloyd short, perhaps the best I've watched so far. During the first reel, the comedy centers somewhat uneasily around the lead character's poverty - but then it picks up with a lengthy chase involving the entire police district (actually anticipating Buster Keaton's more celebrated COPS [1922]); likewise, Lloyd's ineptitude as a burglar brings to mind Laurel & Hardy's later Talkie short NIGHT OWLS (1930). The subplot about an attempt to fleece heroine Mildred Davis out of an inheritance (by a shady lawyer with the revealing name of Leech) is also interesting; given a macabre spin, it would soon see service in many an 'old dark house' thriller. Apart from Davis, Lloyd is supported in this one by two other amiable characters - a little street girl and her brave injured dog.

The Boy (Harold Lloyd) has no money for food. Neither does The Waif and her little dog. The Girl (Mildred Davis) is an innocent heiress being robbed of her inheritance without her knowledge. The Boy gets tricked into leading her kidnappers. All he really wants is the food. When she get kidnapped, he sets off to rescue her.

It's the first pairing of Harold Lloyd and his future wife Mildred Davis. The story is simple. Lloyd has plenty of good humor and a few minor stunts. Leading the cops is the comedic highlight. It's a good solid 22 minutes.

This Harold Lloyd comedy is both very enjoyable and very thoughtful, and it works especially well considering that it was made during a time in Lloyd's career when he was gradually making a transition in the way that he portrayed his characters on-screen. The story and the characters bear many resemblances to Charlie Chaplin's popular comedies of the same era, but Lloyd and director Alfred Goulding give it a style and tone of its own.

Lloyd plays a penniless drifter who befriends a very young street waif, played with charm by Peggy Courtwright, whose character is accompanied by an equally endearing dog. The three of them are rescued from a scrape with authorities by an heiress played by Mildred Davis, who turns out to have some worries of her own.

After a bit of a slow start, things pick up, and it works very well, combining the different story lines with plenty of slapstick and some very thoughtful moments as well. Most of the themes are familiar ones, but it does a good job with them, and Lloyd succeeds with some material that is rather different from that in most of his movies.

This Harold Lloyd silent film is fun because it has fast-moving story, plenty of chase scenes and sight gags, good camera-work and some great expressions on the actors' faces. It also has a couple of endearing people such as a poor little girl and her lame dog, and a good-hearted woman.

Of course, being a "silent," I expect exaggerated facial expressions, but some in here are ones that made me laugh out loud. You see all kinds, from shady winks to eyebrow raising to evil-looking smiles. Hey, it's a story about a crooked lawyer and a bunch of thugs (almost the same). One of the lawyers is named "Leech."

The little girl, called "The Waif," is played by cute Peggy Courtwright. "Waif" is a common term in these silent films, which Charlie Chaplin and others featured a lot: homeless, extremely poor creatures, male, female, children and dogs.

"The Girl" as she is called, is played by Mildred Davis. It was her first appearance in a Lloyd film. Four years later, she and Harold were married.

Another interesting feature in this film was the sudden switch to a blue tint in the second half. It would be shown for a couple of short scenes.

The ending, of course, was the best. You will have a smile on your face at the very last scene in the diner. These wild endings are the norm for silent comedies and are great fun to watch.. I loved how Harold rounded up the cops.

A penniless young man (Harold Lloyd) tries to save an heiress (Mildred Davis) from kidnappers and help her secure her inheritance.

This film has the distinction of being the first Lloyd-Davis pairing, and before the two had been married. They made an excellent screen couple, as can be told from this and future films.

Of Lloyd's work, this is not his strongest, and is not helped by its age. The prints available are grainy and in a variety of colors, and this is not likely to change. I hate to judge a film by its age, but with better Lloyd films out there and in better condition, I would not make this a top priority.

A Hal Roach HAROLD LLOYD Comedy Short Subject.

Poor Harold is living FROM HAND TO MOUTH until he meets a very pretty rich heiress who's the target for kidnappers.

There is much to enjoy in this little film which boasts excellent production values, some top notch chase sequences and a typically first rate performance from Harold. His future wife Mildred Davis plays the rich young lady, Snub Pollard is the comically wicked kidnapper & little Peggy Cartwright exudes winsome charm as the spunky waif. Fans will notice that Harold's right hand is intact; this film was made shortly before his famous accident which left him with only half a hand.

Robert Israel has composed an excellent film score which perfectly complements Harold's antics on the screen.

Once Bebe Daniels gave her notice, Harold Lloyd began seeking a female replacement. His producer, Hal Roach, discovered Mildred Davis, whose previous resume consisted of small parts in several movies. Lloyd felt she would be perfect for his next film, December 1919's "From Hand To Mouth." This became the first of 15 films she would appear alongside him. The comedian became totally smitten with the new-found actress, and the two married for a lifetime of total bliss in 1923.

"From Hand To Mouth" deals with a trio of lawyers who are looking to swipe the inheritance of Davis if she doesn't sign the legal papers by midnight. An attempted kidnapping by their hired thugs is intended to prevent her from laying down her John Hancock onto those papers. All that is in the way from their plans from obtaining a successful cache of dough is, of all people, Harold Lloyd, her future husband in real life.

Two people and one dog share the same problem: they have nothing to eat.The penniless man is joined by a waif and her dog.There is a dishonest lawyer working with a gang of criminals trying to swindle an innocent young heiress out of her inheritance.Then this lovely lady rescues Harold and the waif from the hands of the authorities.Maybe Harold could help the girl with the problem she's having.This silent comedy short, From Hand to Mouth (1919), has two directors, Alfred J. Goulding and Hal Roach.Harold Lloyd is truly great as this poor man.Mildred Davis is really amazing as his love interest.Peggy Cartwright is a magnificent child actress.And you gotta love the dog! There's also the great 'Snub' Pollard playing The Kidnapper.What fine moments this movie offers!

Lively comedy from Harold Lloyd that no doubt provided Buster Keaton with the 'inspiration' for Cops in 1922. He's an impoverished young man who redeems himself after being suckered into burgling the house of the heiress who earlier saved him from arrest. The heiress is played by his future wife Mildred Davis. Nothing groundbreaking, but enjoyable enough.

"From Hand to Mouth" marks a transition in Harold Lloyd's career, as he was phasing out the Chaplin imitations of his early days and began developing the bespectacled "glass character" that would bring him stardom. This is also Lloyd's first film with Mildred Davis, who became his long-term leading lady and (offscreen) his life-long wife. Snub Pollard and Noah Young, both of whom did excellent support work in many of Lloyd's best films, have good roles here. The film's climax, featuring a race against time, is a prototype for Lloyd's later "thrill" comedies.

In this movie, Lloyd plays a vaguely Chaplinesque drifter who mooches his way along with a little-girl waif (Peggy Cartwright, not very good). When a dog digs up a bankroll and gives it to the penniless Lloyd, he and Peggy rush off to a general store to buy some groceries. Lloyd hands over some cash, and takes possession of the food just as the grocer discovers that the dollars are counterfeit. This surprises Lloyd so much, he drops the food ... which is now ruined, and he has no money to pay for it.

Just as the grocer is threatening to arrest Lloyd, along comes an expensive car with a beautiful woman in it (Mildred Davis), who pays for the groceries. She's an heiress who (conveniently) is just about to claim her inheritance, but only if she can obtain certain documents (the McGuffin papers?) by midnight tonight. Naturally, a rival heir wants to stop her.

Snub Pollard is the leader of a gang of thugs who kidnap Davis, intending to detain her until the midnight deadline passes. Lloyd trails the goons to their hideout, and then tries to enlist the aid of a policeman. But the cop takes one look at Lloyd (who plays a shabby drifter in this film) and ignores him. Lloyd smacks the cop, who draws his nightstick and gives chase. With the cop in pursuit, Lloyd keeps running until he finds another cop ... then smacks him too, and now he's got two cops chasing him while he looks for a third. Lloyd keeps smacking the constables, until finally he's got a whole platoon of policemen chasing him. (This scene is clearly the prototype for the climax of Lloyd's sound film "Professor Beware".) When Lloyd has enough cops chasing him, he leads them back to Snub's hideout for a slam-bang finish. Will midnight strike before Lloyd can rescue Mildred and help her claim her inheritance?

This is not one of Lloyd's best films, but it's an interesting effort and it shows the gestation of his "glass character". The final scenes in the film are supposed to take place just before midnight, but the footage was clearly shot day-for-night and it isn't very convincing. I'll rate this film 4 out of 10.

(1919) From Hand To Mouth SILENT COMEDY

From the running time of 22 minutes that has (Harold Lloyd) who is gazing through a window into a diner while customers are eating. A little girl (Peggy Courtwright) and her dog then joins him before the owner of the diner notices and shew' s them away. And after sitting on the curb of the sidewalk, he is then offered a cookie by a customer, and he needed to make a small rip underneath the bag to grab one. Llyod then chases the little girl to which her dog eventually finds a wad of cash and brings it them. Meanwhile, while this was happening (Mildred Davis) has just been informed she will inherit her father's estate if she can sign some papers by midnight. Except that her conniving brother and the lawyer are conspiring together so that will not happen. Leading them the charge is (Harry Pollard) to prevent her from signing the document by midnight. And while she is being driven home by her chauffeur, she then notices the owner of a bakery forcing Harold Lloyd to pay for the bread and other donuts after he discovered it is not actual money after all. She intervenes to pay for all the bread/ donuts ruined before she drives away again. The first of 15 movies Harold Lloyd starred with Mildred Davis.

"From hand to mouth" is more than a hundred years old. This was the first movie Harold and Mildred Davis collaborated on and you can literally see their chemistry in both movies that ended up in their marriage in 1923 which lasted for over 46 years until Mildred's death in 1969.

"From hand to mouth" has more of a Chaplin vibe to it with a storyline including the girl needed to be rescued but Lloyd brings a new approach to it by adding extensive chase sequences and non-stop action that he perfects in his later movies and which would inevitably become his trademark. The movie is a feel-good comedy that you can help enjoying every second of its 21-minute runtime; everything in the movie is filled with humor, sarcasm and sharp metaphors, even the title cards.

Harold Lloyd was and still is a great talent as an actor, a stunt man and as a comedian and his movies are timeless, one of a kind, joyous and hilariously funny. This one, along with so many other short feature pictures, is only the beginning of an outstanding phenomenon who left the important legacy that should never be forgotten.

Harold Lloyd, Peggy Cartwright, and a dog are all very hungry. But when Harold innocently tries to pay for their food with counterfeit money, it's Mildred Davis who rescues them. She is an heiress if she shows up at midnight at the lawyer's office. But the lawyer is a crooked one, in cahoots with the residuary heir. They have a scheme to kidnap her, and prevent her from claiming her fortune. But when Harold falls in with the kidnappers and then discovers who it is they're going to abduct, he switches sides.

Lloyd had already had his big hit, BUMPING INTO BROADWAY the previous month. His was now a name to be reckoned with. But his longtime leading lady, Bebe Daniels, had left to star for Demille. Fortunately, his screen chemistry with Miss Davis in their first outing is excellent.... plus it gave more time for Lloyd's shenanigans, which is what the customers wanted. The two married in 1923.

Miss Cartwright is also very appealing in her role; she would become a member of the OUR GANG series for a few years. As for the dog, he's very good, and limps most engagingly. Was it an assumed limp? Was he in any other movies?

From Hand to Mouth (1920)

** (out of 4)

A tramp (Harold Lloyd) meets a young homeless girl and her dog and the three try to get some food. I'm sure this was meant to be a sweet little film but it doesn't come off that way and the lack of laughs make it rather uninteresting.

Eastern Westerner, An (1920)

** (out of 4)

A party boy (Harold Lloyd) is sent out west by his parents but once there he encounters a group of masked bandits. I really didn't find this short very entertaining. Not many laughs to be found here.