1923 | Brothers' Ink Productions

Here is the list for the Best Movie Stunts for the Decade 1920-1929 as listed in the book, 100 Years of the Best Movie Stunts!

1920: The Mark of Zorro

First time on the list for Zorro (not the last), and for Douglas Fairbanks. The Mark of Zorro represents the first in a line of Adventure films and Douglas Fairbanks was technically the first swashbuckler, an adventure actor that does a lot of the stunts himself. He was an incredible athlete, by all accounts, and this film showcases that ability very nicely.

1921: Never Weaken

Harvey Parry admitted on his death bed that he doubled Harold Lloyd on some of the stunts in this movie. This comedy movie would make way for all the dangerous slapstick comedies to come by Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton.

1922: Robin Hood

Great example of Douglas Fairbanks at the top of his game, but in this case he’s helped out by his stunt double, Charles Lewis in several stunts. This is also the first time Robin Hood makes the list (also, not the last) and it’s interesting to me that several movies hit the list multiple times. You’d expect that with movie series like James Bond, being highly stunt driven, but still seems like a surprise when it’s just different versions of the same movie, like Robin Hood and Zorro.

1923: Safety Last!

The second half of this film, where he is climbing up each floor of a building is sheer brilliance. It’s nerve-wracking! The final few moments hanging from the clock is as iconic a film moment as you get. It’s a single-solitary slice of film that represents everything that being a stunt performer is all about. This would be the poster boy for the stunt movement. In fact, this should be the award they give out at the Academy Awards for Stunts, a Golden Statue of Harold Lloyd hanging from a clock tower.

1924: Sherlock, Jr.

This is the period where Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton keep out-doing each other every film. But, I will add, that this particular film is just about my favorite stunt film of all time. It would definitely be in the top ten for best stunts of all time, it’s that great. Buster Keaton not only blows your mind with the stunts in this film, but it’s also an incredible film cinematically and some of the techniques he develops with this film are revolutionary.

1925: The Prince of Pep

This was where Richard Talmadge was trying to be an actor, but he soon found out that his talents lay with Stunt work. He goes on to be a fantastic Stunt Man and Stunt Coordinator in the years to come. In this one, he has a nifty gag where he jumps from the rooftop of one building through the window of the next building. He makes it look easy.

1926: The Devil Horse

Yakima Canutt is generally thought of as the grand-daddy of all stuntmen…not that he actually gave birth to all of them, just that he was a big reason why stunt work has legitimized as much as it is right now. He developed techniques for safety and paved the way for most of the stunt men to work behind the camera as an action director or second unit director and as a stunt coordinator. In this film he shows his early chops as a rodeo star as he rides the devil horse, Rex.

1927: Wings

This film won the first Academy Award for Best Picture, but thanks to Dick Grace, has some great flying stunts in it as well. No-one crashed a plane on cue better than he did.

1928: Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Another great film from Buster Keaton. This one is another one of those iconic images that help to propel the whole stunt world forward, an amazing stunt, where Buster just stands in one spot as the whole front of the building falls around him. Could have easily killed him if he was just a little bit off his mark. Great stunt.

1929: Tarzan the Tiger

Every wonder where Tarzan got his signature yell and signature swing from tree to tree from? Yep, from this movie. They used it in every Tarzan movie after that. Frank Merrill was very athletic and did all his stunts in a skimpy loin-cloth.

For more information about these stunt performers and these movies, including a lot of great trivia, please look for their chapters in the new movie stunt book, 100 Years of the Best Movie Stunts!

This entry is for the clock hang, which is always mentioned when people discuss early movie stunts of the silver screen. It’s amazing to note that Lloyd performs the stunt with only eight fingers, having lost two just a few years before, when a prop bomb exploded in his hand. I’ve heard several times that sometimes stunts are not fully planned out before hand. Jackie Chan certainly comes to mind, as someone who loves to explore the set during production to see if he and his stunt team can come up with gags. Harold Lloyd did this on Safety Last!.

Harold said, “…we did the final scenes of that climb(clock tower) first. We didn’t know what we were going to have for the beginning of it. We hadn’t made up the opening and after we found that we had, in our opinion, a very, very good thrill sequence, something that was going to be popular and bring in a few shekels, we went back and figured out what we would do for a beginning, and then worked on up to what we already had.” A stuntman had verified after Lloyd’s death that Lloyd performed the majority of the stunts himself on the rigged facade over a small platform, which was built near the rooftop’s edge and still had to be raised a great height to get the proper street perspective for the camera. The size of the platform did not offer much of a safety net, and had Lloyd fallen, there was the risk he could have tumbled off the platform. Lloyd first tested the safety precautions for the clock stunt by dropping a dummy onto the mattress below. The dummy bounced off and plummeted to the street below.

Photoplay in the July 1923 issue, by writer Adela Rogers St. Johns.

Safety Last! was directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor for Hal Roach Studios. Interestingly enough, the film Back to the Future pays homage to the Harold Lloyd “dangling from the skyscraper” by having one of the film’s stars Christopher Lloyd (no relation to Harold) hang from a clock tower as part of the plot. The dangling scene was also referenced earlier in the film during the pan of Doc Brown’s (Christopher Lloyd’s character) laboratory as a picture is shown featuring Lloyd hanging from a clock tower. In addition, a meta-reference appears in the opening scene of Back to the Future, in the form of a physical table clock which depicts the Safety Last! scene.

Things to look up (click on item to go to IMDB):

Glossary of film terms as defined by Wikipedia:

Facade – A facade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning “frontage” or “face”.

Check out our new Book, 100 Years of the Best Movie Stunts!

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Category Archives: 1923

Best Stunts of the Year List 1920-1929

Harold Lloyd and Safety Last!

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