Hot Water | |
---|---|
Directed by |
Fred C. Newmeyer Sam Taylor |
Produced by | Harold Lloyd |
Written by |
Thomas J. Gray Sam Taylor Tim Whelan John Grey |
Starring | Harold Lloyd Jobyna Ralston |
Cinematography | Walter Lundin |
Edited by | Allen McNeil |
Distributed by | Pathé Exchange |
Release date
|
|
Running time
|
60 min |
Country | US |
Language |
Silent film English intertitles |
Box office | $1,350,000 |
Hot Water is a 1924 silent film starring Harold Lloyd.
Directed by Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, it features three episodes in the life of Hubby (Lloyd) as he struggles with domestic life with Wifey (Jobyna Ralston) and his in-laws.
Episodic in nature (effectively three short films merged into one), the first episode features Hubby winning a live turkey in a raffle and taking it home on a crowded streetcar, much to the chagrin of the other passengers. The second features Hubby grudgingly taking the family en masse out on his brand new Butterfly Six automobile, and the third is an escapade with his sleepwalking mother-in-law.
The film is a light comedy with minimal character development, and followed Lloyd’s early 1920s pattern of alternating what he called “gag pictures” with “character pictures”. Some distributors had complained about the length of his previous elaborate feature Girl Shy, and Hot Water was the response. Its storyline was also interesting as a unique departure from most of Lloyd’s 1920s features, because his character was married with a family, and was not striving for success, recognition, or romance. It was popular at the box office and grossed $1,350,000, an excellent return for a film of the period. The fictional "Butterfly Six" was in reality a 1923 Chevrolet Superior Sedan.
In 1962, the "live turkey" and "Butterfly Six automobile" sequences were included in a compilation film produced by Harold Lloyd himself entitled Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and created a renewal of interest in the comedian by introducing him to a whole new generation.