While not exactly an obscure movie (at all), I often feel that Dr. Jack is often overlooked when it comes to Harold Lloyd's feature length films. Though it may not get as much attention as The Kid Brother (1927), The Freshman (1925) or Safety Last (1923), it is a pure delight of a movie.
Like all of the best silent comedies, this film has a very simple storyline. Dr. Jack (Harold Lloyd) is a friendly doctor, who is beloved by all his patients. His often-unusual methods are based on good old-fashioned kindness. One day he meets a beautiful girl (Mildred Davis) and falls in love. He is soon hired as the new physician for this beautiful girl, who has been under the supervision of a quack doctor who has convinced this healthy girl that she is in fact a very sick woman.
This movie is one of Harold Lloyd's most gag filled features. In fact, it takes a while for the story to actually start. At first this film is simple one gag revolving around Harold Lloyd being an eccentric doctor after another. This is in no way a complaint about the film. In fact, this is what I love about this movie. These early scenes before the story begins, are truly laugh out loud funny. This is the type of very clever and creative comedy that makes Harold Lloyd's films so delightful, and it is hard to complain when you get one great gag after another. There is also such a wonderful sense of pure comic energy in these early scenes that is simply hard to resist. However even when the story gets underway this comedic energy continues. The big climatic chase scene is especially wonderful. Yet even with the sheer number of gags, there is a certain seemingly effortless sweetness and charm to the romance in this film. At the same time the romance never once takes away from the delightful comedy.
How excellent this movie is, becomes all the more impressive when you put it into the context of where it came in Harold Lloyd's filmography. This was his third feature length film. Before it was A Sailor-Made Man (1921) and Grandma's Boy (1922). A Sailor-Made Man was originally intended as a short film but ended up being longer with nothing that he or producer Hal Roach felt like cutting. Therefore, it ended up being released as a feature film. Grandma's Boy was something entirely different than what Harold had done before. That movie was just as much of a character study as it was a comedy. Because of this while there were a lot of gags, they were all subservient to the story. Dr. Jack was a different film altogether. It was always intended as a feature film and was a movie where the story was secondary to the gags. With this in mind, it is truly impressive how well-crafted this movie is.
Like Harold Lloyd's previous two feature films, this movie was directed by Fred Newmeyer. Newmeyer's name appears as director on many of Harold Lloyd's most famous films and it could be said that he did his best work with Lloyd. However, this is not to say that his work away from Lloyd should be overlooked. He directed what many consider to be Larry Semon's best feature length film, The Perfect Clown (1925). He also directed the talkie Our Gang (or Little Rascals) shorts, The Pinch Singer (1936), Arbor Day (1936) and Mail and Female (1937). He even co-directed (with Gordon Douglas) the Our Gang kids in their sole feature length picture, General Spanky (1936). He also directed a silent feature (that is sadly considered lost) starring the great W.C. Feilds, The Potters (1927). Lloyd's co-star in this movie was Mildred Davis. This was his 13th film with her. They would only work in one more movie together, the infamous Safety Last (1923). In 1923 the two would get married in what is said to be one of Hollywood's happiest and longest marriages. They would remain married until she passed away in 1969. Fans of the silent Our Gang shorts may be delighted to see Mickey Daniels and Jackie Condon in a delightful comedy sequence. The first Our Gang short was released the same year as Dr. Jack. Fred Newmeyer was originally directed the first Our Gang short, but the film did poorly with test audiences and was reshot with Robert F. McGowan (who would remain the series director for quite a while) as director.
This film was a major box office hit, even outperforming Lloyd's Grandma's Boy earlier that year. The movie cost $113,000 and grossed $1,275,000.
Below are a couple of vintage articles about Dr. Jack. If you have trouble reading them, click on the pages and use your touch screen to zoom in.
Moving Picture World, 1922
Moving Picture News, 1922
For anyone interested in watching this short it can be found on YouTube below. If you want to own it, it is on The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection Vol. 2, which I highly recommend.
Resources Used
The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang by Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann
A-Z of Silent Film Comedy by Glen Mitchell.
https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/553892/doctor-jack#articles-reviews?articleId=24009
https://mediahistoryproject.org/
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