Speedy (1928) November 19, 2008

'Speedy' was Harold Lloyd's last silent and one of his best. Shot on location in Manhattan, it centers on Lloyd's bespectacled "Everyman" Harold "Speedy" Swift, an absolute Yankee baseball nut who tries to save the last horse-drawn trolley bus in New York, operated by his girlfriend's grandfather. Babe Ruth has a wonderful cameo as a nervous passenger in Speedy's taxicab. Ted Wilde was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director, Comedy, in this thrilling nonstop ride through beautiful Coney Island and the pre-depression streets of New York City. Lloyd was known as a "thrill comic", and the urgency in his work stems from the sense that the "glasses character" is headed for either triumph or disaster, with nothing in between. Featuring live music from pianist Hank Troy.