Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

MissSimonetta Chaplin had City Lights. Buster Keaton had The General. Though Safety Last may be more iconic (indeed one of the most iconic movies of all time), I think The Kid Brother (1927) is the best expression of Harold Lloyd's brand of silent comedy: warm, peppy, and breathless in pace.This has to be one of the most tightly constructed movies ever. Other commenters have brought up how every shot, gag, and character is woven into the plot. There is not an extraneous shot in TKB. The gags are also uniformly excellent, not a dud in the bunch. More than his other features, Lloyd and his collaborators balance comedy and drama with seemingly effortless grace. Even when the story has brushes with dark material (ex. lynchings, stalking), it does not feel jarring.The character types who appear again and again in Lloyd's comic universe are here perhaps in their purest form: Jobyna Ralston as the love interest is at her most sweet and charming (in her last appearance opposite Lloyd), Walter James (who appeared as the intimidating father of Buster Keaton's love interest in Battling Butler the year before) is gruff but noble as Lloyd's estranged father, and the villains-- by God, the villains are terrifying here! The climactic chase/fight in the sunken ship succeeds not only due to the great choreography and Lloyd's physicality, but also Constantine Romanoff as the brutish Sardoni. When he throws Harold across the room, you can practically feel the bruises forming before he even lands!TKB also showcases Lloyd not only as a comedian, but as a performer in general. As an actor, he is the polar opposite of the reserved Buster Keaton; not to say Keaton is inexpressive (he was anything but), but Lloyd plays far more extroverted types, go-getters. Some say he mugs, but I think his expressions are among his best traits, a little exaggerated but hilarious. He oozes screen charm, all jaunty youthful energy so perfect for the optimism of the 1920s. Despite being in his thirties when this movie was made, Lloyd could still play eighteen and does it so well, channeling the insecurities that come from feeling you don't measure up to everyone else, trying to find yourself. He plays the emotional scenes well; nothing as powerful as the weeping scene in The Freshman, but still impressive.Overall, this is a masterpiece. Tight, funny, and with a happy ending which may or may not have you crying a little. What else could you want from a comedy?

bkoganbing The Kid Brother finds Harold Lloyd cast precisely as that, the youngest and least of three brothers of the local sheriff in a family that seems as competitive as the Kennedys. One shudders to think about the casualties if the Hickorys ever got to playing touch football.A carnival comes to town which is nominally run by Jobyna Ralston who was a poor man's Mary Pickford. Actually some of the less scrupulous carnival types are running it in her name. She gets Harold Lloyd to sign the carnival permit thinking he's the sheriff and in fact he does have the same name, Lloyd's just a junior.Like his friends Chaplin and Keaton, Lloyd is bumbling klutz for whom nothing goes right for seven reels, but then in the last reel Lloyd comes alive and shows some inner resourcefulness. Here he has to find the money that was robbed from the town fund collected for the building of a dam. The townsfolk think Lloyd's father did it as he was the custodian of the funds.By the way check out that makeshift raft that Harold Lloyd has in the final scene in which the chief crook is actually a part of the construction. The Kid Brother proves his worth to his family and for the audience its worth at the box office.

Neil Doyle I kept thinking how he deserves recognition as one of the great silent comedians alongside Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin--especially with his wonderful work in the well-crafted THE KID BROTHER.The simple plot has him as the youngest and rather nerdy kid brother with his two strapping brothers towering over him as the apple of their father's eyes. Whenver something has to be done, he's left out of the picture while his father assigns his brothers to the task.But the funniest scenes have to do with him trying to outwit and pull fast tricks on his brothers in a series of sight gags. They're perfectly willing to bully him whenever a show of muscle is involved--particularly when impressing a girl they all have a yen for.There are too many sight gags to enumerate here and they all involve physical dexterity and timing of the highest order. A particularly demanding set of stunts are performed in the latter half of the story when our hero must board a ghost ship to retrieve money his father has been accused of stealing. The scenes involve a monkey in a sailor suit and a vicious villain out for the kill in keeping hold on stolen money.All of it is photographed with great style and there's an emotional attachment to the romantic angle involving the girl (JOBYNA RALSTON) so that the hectic comedy is anchored by a story that keeps the comedy on firm ground.Summing up: A delightful physical comedy, wonderfully photographed and played by an excellent cast, with Lloyd at his all-time best. In my opinion, this one tops SAFETY FIRST.

David Elliott (robert-elliott7) While this is not one of Lloyd's most famous films, It is certainly one of his best. You can look through countless numbers of comedy films (The Gold Rush and The General included)and you will struggle to see better timing than that on display here. That is not a put down to those two classic comedies it is only a testament to the timing of Lloyd, Who was certainly on a par with Chaplin and Keaton. In this movie he plays the weakling in a family with two strapping brothers and a large hard to please father. Always put upon Harold has to capture a villain by himself to gain the respect of his father and brothers, And win the heart of his fair maiden. The amount of sight gags crammed into this 80 minutes is incredible, and the timing is as I said earlier is absolutely perfect.