Why Worry?

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Why Worry?
Poster for Why Worry?
Directed by	Fred Newmeyer Sam Taylor
Produced by	Hal Roach
Written by	Sam Taylor (story) H.M. Walker (titles)
Starring	Harold Lloyd (Harold Van Pelham) Jobyna Ralston (Nurse) John Aasen (Colosso) Jim Mason (Jim Blake)
Cinematography	Walter Lundin
Editing by	Thomas J. Crizer
Release date(s)	September 2, 1923
Running time	60/63 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent film English intertitles
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

For the song of the same name, see Why Worry? (song).

Why Worry? is a 1923 comedy silent film starring Harold Lloyd. It was made shortly after and within the same year as Lloyd's most well-known film today, Safety Last!.

1 Plot
2 Background
3 Cast
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Lloyd and the giant (John Aasen) fight revolutionaries in Why Worry?

Harold Van Pelham (Lloyd) is a rich businessman who fancies himself deathly sick when in fact he is perfectly fine. He decides to sail to a small nearly-unknown island some distance West of South America for his health.

Instead of the peace and seclusion he is seeking, he finds himself in the midst of a revolution, although for a long time he does not realize this (resulting in several hilarious scenes). Finally, he is thrown into prison where he meets the friendly giant, Colosso (Aasen). Together, they engineer an escape. After Harold helps Colosso pull out a bad tooth, Colosso is eternally grateful and vows to do Harold's will. Harold decides that the revolution is bad for his health and must be stopped. Harold, Colosso, and Harold's nurse (Ralston) manage to single-handedly quell the revolution. Finally, Harold realizes that he is not as sick as he thought he was.

[edit] Background

This was the last film made in Lloyd's partnership with Hal Roach. The village set for the film was used in Roach's Our Gang short film "Dogs of War", filmed at the same time and featuring guest appearances by Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston. Lloyd and Roach parted on good terms, as each simply wanted to go in different directions and Harold Lloyd now had enough money to independently finance his films. It was also Lloyd's first film to have Jobyna Ralston as leading lady. She would go on to star in his next five films.

The main character was originally to go to Mexico, but after some accused the film of unfair stereotyping Harold Lloyd decided to change the location to a remote island in the Pacific.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Cast

Harold Lloyd as Harold Van Pelham
Jobyna Ralston as Nurse
John Aasen as Colosso
Jim Mason as Jim Blake

George Auger (who used the stage name "Cardiff Giant"), a Ringling Brothers circus giant who was originally supposed to play to play the role of Colosso, died shortly after filming began. After a nationwide publicity campaign to find a replacement, Norwegian John Aasen from Minnesota was cast to play the part. He was discovered as a result of a newspaper article about his shoe size.^{[citation needed]}