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Classic Hollywood

Grandma’s Boy

56m

Directed by Fred Newmeyer • 1922 • United States
Starring Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Anna Townsend

This early feature-length silent comedy pushed the form forward by balancing slapstick hilarity with more serious character development. Using the extended running time to further develop his popular Glasses Character, Harold Lloyd plays the eponymous “grandma’s boy,” a meek young man whose timidity continually holds him back in life. When his grandmother gives him a lucky charm that she says will make him invincible, he is transformed from coward into crime-fighting hero.

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