Grandma’s Boy

Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, Grandma’s Boy follows a timid coward (Harold Lloyd’s Harold) as he agrees to help capture a criminal (Dick Sutherland’s The Rolling Stone) in an effort of winning the affections of Mildred Davis’ Girl. It’s a thin premise that’s employed to hit-and-miss yet mostly watchable effect by Newmeyer, as the filmmaker, working from a script by Hal Roach, Sam Taylor, and Jean C. Havez, delivers a briskly-paced endeavor that receives plenty of mileage out of Lloyd’s winning, engaging performance – with the actor’s compelling turn generally compensating for a narrative that’s rarely as engrossing as one might’ve hoped. Having said that, Grandma’s Boy has undeniably been suffused with a whole host of agreeable elements and digressions – including a terrific flashback sequence detailing Harold’s grandfather’s (also played by Lloyd) exploits during the Civil War. (And it doesn’t hurt, either, that Newmeyer has packed the proceedings with a number of laugh-out-loud funny jokes and gags, such as a humorous bit wherein Harold and his romantic rival wind up holding hands.) By the time the entertaining, action-packed finale rolls around, Grandma’s Boy has cemented its place as a consistently watchable (albeit quite erratic) comedy that benefits substantially from Lloyd’s predictably engrossing work.

**1/2 out of ****