Never Weaken

Never Weaken
Directed by Fred Newmeyer
Sam Taylor
Produced by Hal Roach
Written by Hal Roach
Sam Taylor
H.M. Walker
Starring Harold Lloyd
Cinematography Walter Lundin
Edited by Thomas J. Crizer
Production
company
Rolin Film Company
Distributed by Pathe Exchange
Release date
  • October 22, 1921 (1921-10-22)
Running time
 19 minutes
Country United States
Language Silent film
English intertitles

Never Weaken is a 1921 silent comedy film starring Harold Lloyd and directed by Fred Newmeyer.

It was Lloyd's last short film, running to three reels, before he moved permanently into feature-length production. It was also one of his trademark 'thrill' comedies, featuring him dangling from a tall building. Lloyd and his crew honed and perfected their "thrill" filming techniques in this film, and put them to use in the 1923 feature Safety Last!.

Plot

Harold works in an office on a tall building next to his girlfriend Mildred (Mildred Davis). He assumes they will be married, but overhears her talking to a man who says to her, "Of course I will marry you."

Distraught, he decides to commit suicide, blindfolding himself and setting up a gun which will fire when he pulls a string attached to the trigger. But after putting on the blindfold he accidentally knocks over a bulb which pops, and he assumes he has shot himself. At that moment, a girder from the next door construction site swings into his office, lifting him and his chair outside. Pulling off the blindfold, the first thing he sees is a sculpture high on his building which he takes to be an angel, and he assumes he is in Heaven. However a jazz band on an adjacent rooftop garden soon disabuses him of that notion, and he realises he is high above the city.

After several perilous escapades high on the construction site, he finally makes it to the ground, only to realise that the man Mildred was talking to was her clergyman brother, who has agreed to officiate at their wedding.

Cast

Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis in a scene from the film


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