filmbriefs
Director · Actor · 1888–1967

Fred C. Newmeyer

2
briefs
13:00
average
26 min
in total
On film.briefs2
13:00

Safety Last!

Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor · 1923

A 1923 silent romantic comedy starring Harold Lloyd, Safety Last! follows a young man’s desperate attempts to appear successful in 1920s Los Angeles so he can marry his girlfriend. When a publicity stunt goes awry, he must scale a skyscraper — culminating in the iconic clock-face sequence. Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor for Hal Roach Studios, it balances slapstick with narrative rigour, using physical comedy to explore ambition, class, and endurance.

13:00

The Freshman

Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor · 1925

Harold Lloyd stars in this 1925 Pathé silent comedy as a freshman who tries to win popularity by imitating a movie hero, only to become the campus joke. His journey from delusion to self-acceptance unfolds through tightly constructed set-pieces — a falling-apart suit, a disastrous dance, and a climactic football game shot on real stadium fields — all anchored by Lloyd’s precise physical performance and Walter Lundin’s unshowy cinematography.