What is it with the clowns and revolutions? Keaton's masterpiece 'The General' occurred amongst civil war, Chaplin got plenty of laughs behind enemy lines in 'Shoulder Arms', while Lloyd has done the same here in 'Why Worry?'
Traveling to a remote tropical island in order to recover from health difficulties, in a formerly sleepy town, Lloyd finds himself in the middle of a revolution. Taken for an enemy he is imprisoned, where he befriends a giant, escapes, and together they quell the revolution. The genius here is less to do with how they win the revolution and more to do with how blasé they are about it all. Instead of being fearful about prison, Lloyd is happy to be led their by soldiers, believing, due to language difficulties, that he is being lead to a hotel. Upon escaping, being naive to the revolution brewing, his immediate concern, is how to cure the giants toothache. The giant rolls cannon balls at soldiers and knocks them down like ten pins while Lloyd marks strike on the wall, and amongst the mass of injured bodies, his only concern is whether any of their boots will fit him, after his became wet.
After a neat set up, this sequence of events comprising the second act is very funny, while he gets continues a neat running gag of a friend constantly being maimed while he remains untouched. All the fighting does become a little monotonous by the end, and despite retaining his naive charm, Lloyds does not play a typically likable character - being self involved, disrespectful and a thief. We readily accept this however as we understand it as a parody - of spoilt wealthy brats and of hypochondria - and an excellent one at that.
Traveling to a remote tropical island in order to recover from health difficulties, in a formerly sleepy town, Lloyd finds himself in the middle of a revolution. Taken for an enemy he is imprisoned, where he befriends a giant, escapes, and together they quell the revolution. The genius here is less to do with how they win the revolution and more to do with how blasé they are about it all. Instead of being fearful about prison, Lloyd is happy to be led their by soldiers, believing, due to language difficulties, that he is being lead to a hotel. Upon escaping, being naive to the revolution brewing, his immediate concern, is how to cure the giants toothache. The giant rolls cannon balls at soldiers and knocks them down like ten pins while Lloyd marks strike on the wall, and amongst the mass of injured bodies, his only concern is whether any of their boots will fit him, after his became wet.
After a neat set up, this sequence of events comprising the second act is very funny, while he gets continues a neat running gag of a friend constantly being maimed while he remains untouched. All the fighting does become a little monotonous by the end, and despite retaining his naive charm, Lloyds does not play a typically likable character - being self involved, disrespectful and a thief. We readily accept this however as we understand it as a parody - of spoilt wealthy brats and of hypochondria - and an excellent one at that.