Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

2freensel I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

CJBx7 SPEEDY (1928) tells the story of Harold "Speedy" Swift (Harold Lloyd), a young man that floats from job to job while dating Jane Dillon (Ann Christy), who lives with her grandfather Pop (Bert Woodruf). Pop drives the last horse-drawn passenger carriage in New York City. Unscrupulous developers who want to use his track for a streetcar will stop at nothing to take it out from under him. Can Speedy save the day? Directed by Ted Wilde.1928 was one of the last great years in silent film. The art form had reached a technical high point thanks to such films as FW Murnau's masterpieces THE LAST LAUGH and SUNRISE, William Wellman's WINGS, and King Vidor's THE BIG PARADE, which featured sophisticated cinematography and expressive acting. Many other films benefited from these innovations, and SPEEDY is one of them. Befitting its title, it features taut editing and vivid, fluid cinematography, using many tracking shots and shots from the front or the rear of a moving vehicle. We also get a wealth of wonderful location shots that show 1920s New York City in all its glory. No cheap looking back lot sets here; everything is REAL. And it makes a huge difference. Most importantly, though, it's a hilarious movie with moments of tenderness and quite a bit of suspense. We get an outing with Babe Ruth in a speeding taxi to Yankee Stadium, and a hilarious mêlée between Civil War veterans and the unscrupulous developers, as well as genuinely exciting chases and rides to the rescue. The film makes a nice detour from the plot to show Speedy and Jane's eventful outing at Coney Island. It doesn't matter that it's not really part of the plot – it works because it establishes the characters and it's full of funny moments, like the painted fence, a persistent dog, and Lloyd's comical efforts to avoid getting his suit dirty that are nearly foiled at every turn. This movie is very, very funny, but it also has a lot of warmth too – like the scene between Speedy and Jane in the moving fan, sitting among the furniture and imagining their married life together, as well as Speedy's devotion to Jane and her grandfather.Lloyd carries the film with his trademark good-natured, can-do persona, and he doesn't overplay either – he's very restrained and realistic. He holds it all together with his somewhat bumbling yet also quite inventive character, and his relentless optimism, which appealed greatly to 20s audiences and still does today. Lloyd and Christy make a charming couple. Apparently Ann Christy only made a few more appearances, mostly in Poverty Row efforts. It's a shame she didn't have more of a career – she's very likable and effective here, an appealing heroine. Everyone in the cast does fine work in their roles. I could say more, but it's best to see it for yourself. SPEEDY hasn't gotten as much acclaim as SAFETY LAST or THE FRESHMAN, but in my opinion, as great as those two movies are, this one is even more so. A true classic. RATING: 10/10

DKosty123 We are so fortunate that this film among many of Lloyds films that had not been in release for many years has recently been restored to it's original glory. This is a well done light romantic comedy which is what Lloyd not only specialized in but nearly invented as a medium.While it covers new ground, it also covers stuff Lloyd has done before with the street cars. If you have seen Girl Shy, you will realize that a lot of the street car stuff was done in that movie too though that one has a stronger story than this one.Lloyd's soda jerk chasing the young girl of his dreams in the basic plot. The wonderful covering of the old New York City area including the original Coney Island rides makes this film historic. Keep in mind, this was filmed in 1927 & released in 1928. That means when Babe Ruth makes his appearance in this movie, he is having on of his great seasons with the 27 Yankees. He is hitting 60 home runs that season. It would be over 30 years before Roger Maris broke that mark in 1961.This film does have some of Lloyds clever humor.

brimon28 The National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra, Australia, has a beautiful clean print of this very funny classic. At this week's showing, there was accompaniment on a grand piano by Mauro Columbis, who recently did such a superb job in the dark with DeMille's The Godless Girl. It is a truly marvellous experience to view these old movies as they were shown in the 'twenties. To those of us who were around then (but couldn't afford the ticket!), and who have become cineastes, Speedy is educational, as well as funny. At this showing, it was mentally stimulating to listen to some great piano work so well matched to the action. Clichés, yes, but well done. Has anyone else noticed that the Babe Ruth home run in Speedy is the same as a short video available on the net? This viewer, not being a baseball tragic, was unaware that Ruth batted left-handed.

Cyke 038: Speedy (1928) - released 4/7/1928; viewed 2/24/06 The River Thames floods in London, drowning 14. The 1928 Winter Games open in Switzerland. Charles Lindburgh is presented the Medal of Honor for the first trans-Atlantic flight.BIRTHS: William Peter Blatty, David L. Wolper, Vidal Sassoon, Jeanne Moreau, Frank Frazetta, Fats Domino, Ariel Sharon, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. DEATHS: Thomas Hardy, Douglas Haig.KEVIN: I found our final silent Lloyd film to be kind of disappointing. I suppose that after all the films we've seen from Lloyd, the best was already behind us so the expectations were unfairly raised for the final film. In the scene where we first meet Harold Swift, he's working at the local bar and doing lots of tricks with the bottles and glasses that are quite impressive for a man with only eight fingers. After he's fired from that job, he immediately gets a job as a cab driver, where he proves to have the worst luck in the world dealing with his fares and the cops. It was also nice to see Coney Island in the late 1920's, and a cameo by Babe Ruth, who shows that it was easier to do celebrity cameos during the silent era when acting and saying lines wasn't really a problem (and keep in mind, the word "cameo" wasn't used in that way until Around the World in 80 Days). During the chase across town in Girl Shy, I very much hoped that Speedy would measure up to that level of comic grandeur, but sadly the climax of this film, where he has to save his girlfriend's grandpa's horse-and-cart trolley business, fell far short of expectations. That, and I miss Jobyna Ralston.DOUG: Our last Harold Lloyd film, Speedy (which rests comfortably between Chaplin's The Circus and Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr.) was unfortunately not my favorite. While there were some very good bits of business (a crab in Harold's coat pocket causes trouble for anyone near him), the overall film just isn't as entertaining as, say, Kid Brother. What this film does give us is a look at Coney Island in 1928, not to mention a cameo from Babe Ruth. All films are also documentaries of the time they were made in, after all. Our hero, Speedy, initially seems perfectly fine with losing one job after another after only a day's work, so at first he seems downright irresponsible and careless. After messing up a delivery, he doesn't even bother to return before grabbing a newspaper and looking through the want-ads. The trip to Coney Island (I'm surprised he'd saved enough money for such a trip, but if he could do it in The Freshman, he can do it here) has some very good gags, some involving Harold's new suit getting dirty, some involving a dog, and some with the aforementioned crab. Later, though, Harold has to show his stuff when he must rescue his girlfriend's grandpa's horse-drawn trolley-car from evil gangsters who want to run it into the ground. The finale chase scene is pretty cool, particularly an unplanned accident where Harold crashes the trolley into an L-Train support, and must improvise by replacing the broken wheel with a sewer cover. Ann Christy is Harold's new girl, and just doesn't quite fill the void left by Jobyna Ralston. Looking at the timeline, it is worth noting that in the year after The Jazz Singer introduced sound into movies, the three masters of silent comedy (Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd) were all still doing excellent work (The Circus, Steamboat Bill Jr., Speedy).Last film viewed: The Kid Brother (1927). Last film chronologically: The Circus (1928). Next film viewed: Anna Christie (1930). Next film chronologically: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).The Movie Odyssey is an exhaustive, chronological project where we watch as many milestone films as possible, starting with D.W. Griffith's Intolerance in 1916 and working our way through, year by year, one film at a time. We also write a short review for each and every film. In this project, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the time period, the films of the era, and each film in context, while at the same time just watching a lot of great movies, most of which we never would have watched otherwise.