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Tillie's Punctured Romance  /  Safety Last!

Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)
December 5, 2015 - 3:00 pm

Live musical accompaniment provided by Cliff Retallick.

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with the British Film Institute and in consultation with Bo Berglund with funding provided by The Film Foundation, UK Film Council, and Saving the Silents, a Save America's Treasures project organized by the National Film Preservation Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Parks Service, Department of the Interior.

Tillie's Punctured Romance  (1914)


For this first feature-length comedy film ever, Marie Dressler, a triumph in the stage version of the same story, was brought to the screen by impresario Mack Sennett, and paired with Charles Chaplin as an unscrupulous seducer seeking to deceive country girl "Tillie."  Bowdlerized in several cut-down versions over the years, the film in this restoration may be experienced in its most complete version available anywhere.

35mm, b/w, silent, 82 min.  Production: Keystone Film Co.  Distribution: State Rights.  Producer: Mack Sennett.  Director: Mack Sennett.  Based on the play Tillie's Nightmare by Edgar Smith, with music by A. Baldwin Sloane.  Screenwriters: Craig Hutchinson, Hampton Del Ruth.  With: Marie Dressler, Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Chester Conklin, Billy Gilbert.

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with the Harold Lloyd Estate with funding provided by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Safety Last!  (1923)


Actor Harold Lloyd had included death-defying acts in certain early short films, and desired to make a feature with similar "thrills."  Inspiration came when Lloyd witnessed "human spider" Harold Strothers scaling a downtown Los Angeles building, setting up the central gag of Safety Last!—as well as our most iconic vision of Lloyd.

35mm, b/w, silent, 64 min.  Production: Hal Roach Studios.  Distribution: Pathé Exchange, Inc.  Director: Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor.  Screenwriter: Hal Roach, Sam Taylor, Tim Whelan.  Cinematographer: Walter Lundin.  Editor: T. J. Crizer.  With: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother, Noah Young, Westcott B. Clarke.