Professor Beware

PROFESSOR BEWARE (A Paramount Release, 1938), directed by Elliott Nugent, stars Harold Lloyd, silent film comedian of the 1920s, in his final sound comedy of the 1930s. Lloyd, whose movie career dates back to 1915, first appearing in comedy shorts before reinventing his "glasses" character from short to feature length comedies through the next decade, has come a long way since his talking debut in WELCOME DANGER (1929). Producing a new comedy every two years by the 1930s, Lloyd was always searching for new ideas to make his next comedy better than his last. Though PROFESSOR BEWARE attempts to work its way with familiar material adding a fine mix of old and new comedy routines, the final result is a series of segment chases during its 93 minute course.

The prologue opens briefly "in ancient Egypt 3000 years ago" where Neferus is being buried alive in a tomb while Anebi, the woman responsible for his downfall, screams while looking on. Move forward, "Los Angeles, 3000 years later," introduces Professor Dean Lambert (Harold Lloyd), an archealogist for the Olympia Museum, who happens to be the exact replica (except for his glasses) of the statue image of Neferus. Because of Neferus' fate, which has Lambert refusing to have anything to do with women fearing it may be responsible for his own downfall, as explained on the Egyptian tablets, history begins to repeat itself. No sooner after driving away from the museum does Lambert meet Jane Van Buren (Phyllis Welch), a damsel in distress stranded on the road with her car in the ditch with "Snoop" Donlan (William Frawley), her talent scout, on their way to an audition. Hanlon not only happens to be found drunk inside her car, but happens to be left unconscious in his underwear. Lambert is talked into giving his clothes to Donlan so they can be on their way to the theater. When Lambert is caught by the police in his underwear, he gets arrested and immediately loses his museum job. Invited to go on an Egyptian expedition, Lambert accepts, leaving for New York City to meet the boat on its way to Egypt, but has trouble heading for his destination. Being accused of stealing Donlans's priceless watch, Jane, who loses her audition anyway, drives cross country in the stolen museum station wagon, searching for Lambert to bring him back to prove his innocence. Their paths eventually do meet, with Lambert, determined not to miss that boat to Egypt, both venture on their cross country road tour which becomes a series of one misadventure after another. Also in the cast are Raymond Walburn (Judge James G. Parkhouse Marshall), Lionel Stander (Jerry Jerimiah), Thurston Hall (J.J. Van Buren), Clara Blandick (Amelia Green, the landlady), Cora Witherspoon, Sterling Holloway, Irving Bacon, Montagu Love, Charles Lane, Guinn Williams, Ward Bond, among many others.

Though PROFESSOR BEWARE doesn't compare with Harold Lloyd's best silent comedies (namely SAFETY LAST (1923), SPEEDY (1928), the film overall is entertaining enough to sit through its entirety without losing any interest. Scenes involving Lloyd's Lambert driving his car under a tent, or he ending up frozen after being taken out from a refrigerated train car, are reminiscent to any one of the Three Stooges comedy shorts. There's also a lengthy scene involving Lloyd, Walburn and Standing bumming a ride on top of a freight train and making a run the opposite direction as the train approaches a tunnel, this being one of the highlights. As mentioned before, PROFESSOR BEWARE is a series of individual chases before its climatic run involving a build-up crowd of people chasing after Harold, being more in mood than exact manner to Buster Keaton's better constructed comedy short, COPS (1922). The aforementioned character-types help the movie along, and PROFESSOR BEWARE does have its huge assortment of them to go around. Lloyd's co-star, Phyllis Welch, makes her first and farewell performance on film. She works well as Lloyd's traveling companion, and might have gone further in movies had she not married and retired upon the film's release.

Unlike Lloyd's silent and sound comedies, PROFESSOR BEWARE was possibly the only Harold Lloyd comedy circulating on television since the 1960s, and more commonly shown notably on New York City's WPIX Channel 11 (1967-1973) for several years before having a brief stint on public television in the early 1980s. From 1994 to 1999, PROFESSOR BEWARE became part of the film library to cable television's American Movie Classics As much as Turner Classic Movies has had many tributes to the films and career of Harold Lloyd, ranging from silent to talkies, thus far, PROFESSOR BEWARE has never become part of its movie package. With no know video cassette or DVD distribution, PROFESSOR BEWARE deserves better recognition considering it being one of those movies that appears to have improved with age, regardless of its thin plot with familiar run-on gags in Harold's Lloyd's world of comedy. (*** tablets)

This was Harold Lloyd's final comedy before his first retirement. The 1938 film features Harold as an archaeologist who starts to believe that he may be a reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh for whom things did not end up well. Wonderful cast of supporting comedy players (including Raymond Walburn, William Frawley and Lionel Stander) in an intermittently amusing affair with, for me, one hilarious sequence.

There's a scene in which Harold, accompanied by Walburn and Stander, is picked up on the road for a ride by what turns out to be the small town sheriff. Well, Stander has just snatched up a stolen chicken and when he sees the sheriff's badge shoves the chicken onto poor sap Harold who hides it under his jacket.

As they ride along with the sheriff, the chicken starts to make clucking sounds and, as a cover-up, Harold starts pursing his lips like he's imitating a chicken. Of course, the hilarity in the sequence builds as the chicken starts making loud squawking sounds with Harold now trying to convince the increasingly suspicious, albeit dim witted, sheriff that the racket is coming from him.

At one moment there is a camera shot of Harold's legs, as seen from Harold's angle looking down at them, as we see a chicken egg roll down them to the floor of the car. I almost fell out of my chair laughing. This comedy might not be Harold Lloyd at his best but it is well worth a look if you can find a copy somewhere. The not so great box office on this one convinced Harold to retire for about ten years, and the film is ably directed by workman director Elliott Nugent.

This film and "Welcome Danger" are the only two feature films distributed by Paramount that did not wind up in the big box of Lloyd films put out about ten years ago. Welcome Danger has been on Turner Classic Movies a few times, but Professor Beware was never on VHS or DVD and disappeared off the face of the earth since AMC decided that zombies combined with sexual assault were more entertaining than good old fashioned slapstick. Please catch it if you can, it is worth it.

During the 1920s, Harold Lloyd was box office gold. You might be surprised to hear that his comedies outdrew those of Keaton or Chaplin during that era and he was the most popular silent comedian on the planet. So, with this amazing reputation, it's quite surprising that several of his sound comedies were relative duds....pleasant enough to watch but far less well written than his earlier efforts. A few were really good ("Movie Crazy" is a great sound comedy) but most were contrived and difficult to love. "Mad Wednesday" and "Professor Beware" both are among the difficult to love movies.

The story is about Professor Dean Lambert (Lloyd), a world famous Egyptologist. One night, he comes upon a damsel in distress and unquestioningly helps her....but it really makes no sense. After all, she wants him to change clothes with a drunk guy and wait out in the car....for a woman he just met! Soon, the police arrive and see the Professor in his underwear and they arrest him! Suddenly, he finds himself in the newspapers...and without a job.

Later, the woman he helped returns. Now you'd THINK he'd take her to explain the situation to the judge or prosecutor. Instead, he runs to New York because he is about to go on an expedition to Egypt. So, in other words, he fleas the state and risks a very long prison sentence AND loss of his reputation instead of staying in California to straighten out the problems. And, to get to New York, he soon finds himself bumming rides and riding the rails!! Oh, and did I mention that the Professor just happens to think he is the reincarnation of a 3000 dead Egyptian...and the lady who asked for his help was his lover 3000 years ago?!

Does ANY of this make any sense? Of course not!! Is it funny...sometimes. But at least Lloyd is likable in this film...and there are a few cute moments here and there. But on balance, it's definitely a sub-par Lloyd outing....and this would explain why it was a decade later when he made his next (and final) film.

"Professor Beware," in addition to the amazing Mr. Lloyd, boasts a supporting cast of heavyweights: Lionel Stander, Raymond Walburn, William Frawley, Sterling Holloway, Cora Witherspoon and Thurston Hall. Each of these character actors add immensely to the story, which is a quest in the best sense of the word. Lloyd is a professor of Egyptology who is searching for the final, but lost, tablet that will solve a riddle of the ages. His cross-country journey that ends on a yacht with one of the best comic fight scenes in movie history is fraught with mishaps and odd characters who block Lloyd's frantic attempts to get to New York in order to catch a steamship to Egypt. It is unfortunate that this film is not available in any form (I have a VHS tape from TV I made in the '90s) and not even on Turner Classic Movies. If you have the opportunity to see the film, be sure to do so. A true comic classic.

Professor, Beware is fun, funny, charming, heart-warming, and an all around great old film. More so, it is a great adventure like an original Indiana Jones movie. More so, it has some concepts that bear thinking about - more than most comedies. This is the kind of film that one gives a satisfied sigh afterwards and says: "They don't make em like that anymore".

Enjoy!