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Safety Last!

Safety Last!

Comedy · Romance · Thriller · 1923

When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself.

Movie details

Safety Last!

“You're Going to Explode With "Safety Laughs" when You see This Fun Bomb.”

1923 Comedy · Romance · Thriller 1h 13m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

8.1 / 10

23.5K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

97 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

7.7 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Safety Last!?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Fred C. Newmeyer · Sam Taylor

Written by

Hal Roach · Sam Taylor · Tim Whelan

Harold Lloyd

Harold Lloyd

The Boy

Mildred Davis

Mildred Davis

The Girl

Bill Strother

Bill Strother

The Pal

Noah Young

Noah Young

The Law

Westcott Clarke

Westcott Clarke

The Floorwalker

R

Roy Brooks

Man Laughing from Window (uncredited)

Mickey Daniels

Mickey Daniels

Newsboy with Freckles (uncredited)

Court is in session

Put Safety Last! on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.