Why Worry?

Directed by Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, Why Worry? follows a hypochondriac (Harold Lloyd’s Harold Van Pelham) as he travels to a South American country for an extended rest and subsequently finds himself caught up in a revolution. It’s an appreciatively larger-than-life setup that’s employed to erratic yet often hilarious effect by Newmeyer and Taylor, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the movie’s mild success is due predominantly to Lloyd’s broad, go-for-broke turn as the inattentive central character – with the picture at its best when focused on his character’s oblivious exploits within the aforementioned South American country (ie it’s a long time before Harold realizes that he’s in the middle of a battle). And while Newmeyer and Taylor have packed the proceedings with a number of laugh-out-loud funny jokes and sight gags, including a terrific bit wherein Harold attempts to help a giant (John Aasen’s Colosso) extract a bad tooth, Why Worry?, though it runs a brief 63 minutes, contains several narrative lulls that ultimately (and effectively) wreak havoc on its forward momentum and diminish its overall impact – which does, in the end, cement the film’s place as a decent-enough comedy that feels like it could (and should) be better.

**1/2 out of ****