SAFETY LAST!

"The image of Harold Lloyd hanging desperately from the hands of a skyscraper clock during Safety Last! (1923) is one of the great icons of film history."

In Safety Last Lloyd plays, “the Boy” from small town Great Bend, who is forced to leave his sweetheart (“the Girl”) to earn a crust. He moves to the big city in search of success, but only lands a job as a lowly department store clerk, but in his letters home to his sweetheart he tells her he is the store manager, spending all his wages on lavish gifts for her.

So convincing are his letters, that the girl makes a surprise visit to the city, during which the boy continues to pretend to be the manager, but knows he needs to find a new way to impress her.

Offered $1,000 by the store's real manager if he devises a successful publicity gimmick to attract crowds of people to the store, the Boy hires his roommate and construction worker friend "the Pal” to be a human fly on the outside of the multi-story store in a thrilling stunt, as a publicity stunt for the department store. Their plan is to split the cash after the friend performs the stunt. On the day however, the pal on the run from the law, and the boy is left to climb the building himself.

Eventually, he reaches the top, despite his troubles with a clock and some hungry pigeons, and kisses his girl. She continues to believe that he's general manager of the department store!