''Feet First'' is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film starring Harold Lloyd, a popular daredevil comedian during the 1920s and early 1930s. It was Lloyd's second sound film. The film's copyright was renewed in 1957, so it will not be in the public domain until January 1, 2026.

Plot

Harold Horne, an ambitious shoe salesman in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, meets his boss's secretary Barbara, thinking that she is the boss's daughter, and tells her that he is a millionaire leather tycoon. Horne spends much of his time around Barbara hiding his true circumstances, in both the shoe store and later as an accidental stowaway aboard a ship. Trying to evade the ship's crew, he becomes trapped in a mailbag, which is taken off the ship and falls off a delivery cart onto a window cleaner's cradle, which is hoisted upwards. Escaping from the bag, he is then dangling high above the streets of Los Angeles. After several thwarted attempts to enter the building, he climbs to the top, only to slip off, unaware that his foot is caught on the end of a rope, which rescues him inches from the ground.

Cast

* Harold Lloyd as Harold Horne * Barbara Kent as Barbara *

Robert McWade Robert McWade (January 25, 1872 – January 19, 1938), was an American stage and film actor. McWade was born in Buffalo, New York. He was the third actor named Robert McWade, after his father and grandfather. In 1902, McWade debuted on stag ...

as John Quincy Tanner *

Lillian Leighton Lillianne Brown Leighton (May 17, 1874 – March 19, 1956), known professionally as Lillian Leighton, was an American silent film actress. Leighton started her career in Chicago. Leighton was born in Auroraville, Wisconsin, on May 17, 187 ...

as Mrs. Tanner * Alec Francis as Mr. Carson * Henry Hall as Endicott * Noah Young as a Sailor * Willie Best as a Janitor * Arthur Housman as a Drunken Clubman * Nick Copeland as a Man Arguing With Friend * James Finlayson as a Painter *

Buster Phelps Buster Phelps (November 5, 1926 – January 10, 1983) was an American actor. Phelps debuted on film when he was a child. When the mother of another child had booked two simultaneous film sessions for that youngster, she contacted Phelps' mothe ...

as a Little Boy * Leo Willis as a Truck Driver

Production

Co-star

This was Lloyd's second film with Barbara Kent, and the last occasion on which he would appear with the same leading lady.

Stunts

The skyscraper sequence used techniques similar to those on Lloyd's most famous film, the silent ''

Safety Last! ''Safety Last!'' is a 1923 American silent romantic-comedy film starring Harold Lloyd. It includes one of the most famous images from the silent-film era: Lloyd clutching the hands of a large clock as he dangles from the outside of a skyscraper ...

'' (1923). The scene was filmed without special effects or

back projection Rear projection (background projection, process photography, etc.) is one of many in-camera effects cinematic techniques in film production for combining foreground performances with pre-filmed backgrounds. It was widely used for many years in ...

. Before the scene in the 1962 compilation film ''

Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy ''World of Comedy'', also known as ''Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy'', is a 1962 American documentary compilation of scenes from Harold Lloyd's best known films. The clips were personally selected by Lloyd, who also wrote the voiceover narration. ...

'' (produced by Lloyd), a title card reads:

"This sequence was made without trick photography and before process was perfected. The action — at all times — actually occurred as high up as you see it happen."

The impression of height was achieved by use of a skyscraper façade built on the roof of the Southern California Gas Company building at 848 South Broadway in Los Angeles. Lloyd had previously used this technique in ''Safety Last!'' at a location only a few blocks away from that used for ''Feet First''. The concluding sequence of the climb, in which Harold Horne falls from the building with a rope attached to his foot, briefly uses back projection for a

mid shot In a movie a medium shot, mid shot (MS), or waist shot is a camera angle shot from a medium distance. Use Medium shots are favored in sequences where dialogues or a small group of people are acting, as they give the viewer a partial view of th ...

. In the background, the

Eastern Columbia Building The Eastern Columbia Building, also known as the Eastern Columbia Lofts, is a thirteen-story Art Deco building designed by Claud Beelman located at 849 S. Broadway in the Broadway Theater District of Downtown Los Angeles. It opened on September ...

and Cecil Hotel can be seen.

Rereleases

The film was rereleased in the 1960s as part of the feature ''Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy'', in which Lloyd overdubbed some of his original dialogue, including changing the name of a black character originally named Charcoal. He also added a dramatic

underscore An underscore, ; also called an underline, low line, or low dash; is a line drawn under a segment of text. In proofreading, underscoring is a convention that says "set this text in italic type", traditionally used on Manuscript (publishing), man ...

to the climb sequence that was composed by

Walter Scharf Walter Scharf (August 1, 1910 – February 24, 2003) was an American musician, best known as a film, television and concert composer and arranger/conductor. Biography Broadway theatre Born in Manhattan, he was the son of Yiddish theatre comic B ...

. In the original release, the scene had no music. The film was rereleased in segments as part of Time-Life's ''Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy'' television series in the 1970s. However, as the majority of the clips in the series originated from silent films, the soundtrack was removed for the ''Feet First'' segments. The film has since been released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

in its correct format.

References

External links

*
The Harold Lloyd Trust
{{Clyde Bruckman 1930 films 1930 comedy films Silent American comedy films American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films Films set in Honolulu Films set in Los Angeles Paramount Pictures films Films directed by Clyde Bruckman Films with screenplays by Felix Adler (screenwriter) 1930s American films English-language comedy films Films scored by Mischa Bakaleinikoff