Series: Harold Lloyd

Director: Alfred J. Goulding
Producer: Hal Roach
Titles: H.M. Walker
Photography: Walter Lundin
Editor:

Stars: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels
Company: Pathé Exchange/Rolin
Released: 31 August 1919
Length: 1 reel
Production No.: L-74
Filming dates: January 29 - February 6, 1919
Rating: -/10


Don't Shove

Available on DVD:
 

It's the girl's (Bebe Daniels) birthday - the first she's had in a year, and there is a gathering of people at her home. The boy (Harold Lloyd) arrives with his fat rival (Dee Lampton) and after an altercation between them after the boy knocks off the rival's hat he goes inside to offer the birthday girl a present. But the boy is distracted, his fat rival and an elderly guest (Gus Leonard) insert a pipe and tobacco into the packaging. She unwraps it and is disgusted (you just can't please some people!) and she orders him out of the house but not before the boy slaps the old man. The girl's father walks out after him and they get tangled up with a couple of bystanders. A trying to read his newspaper protests and the father slaps him. The guy's smaller brother steps in and beats up the father. The boy asks the brother to show him how to box, and during a demonstration, the boy hits a policeman.
The boy escapes into a roller skating rink where the guests from the birthday party show up. Eager to impress the birthday girl, the boy tries to go one better than an accomplished skater who has just been on, but he fails miserably. The manager comes back with a trophy and announced a "grand hurdle race - no fair shoving!" The race is off and the boy initially cheats his way around the course, which has one small raised bar which the skaters are expecting to navigate. The fat rival holds him up for a bit, but the boy shoves him aside and continues skating until the whole group end up in a free-for-all on the floor. The boy is awarded the trophy but the fat rival isn't happy and pulls out a gun (seriously?) and starts shooting the place up. The boy hides behind the birthday girl, who for some strange reason doesn't think to run for her life but rather, stand there in the firing range of the gunman. The film ends with no real conclusion.

Favourite bit
Big tough Noah Young is minding his own business when he gets a slap in the face by the girl's father, Bud Jamison. There's just no call for it!

Trivia
Copyrighted August 4, 1919.
At least one source lists Eddie Boland in the cast. If true, I haven't seen him and his credit is absent from this list pending conformation.
My opinion
The comedy scenes between Lloyd and Dee Lampton are among the best in the film. There is little to do for most of the cast.

Harold Lloyd
The boy
Bebe Daniels
The girl
Bud Jamison
The girl's father
Sammy Brooks
Rollerskater
Dee Lampton
Fat rival
Marie Mosquini
Party guest
Bob O'Conor
Party guest
Noah Young
Tough guy
Gus Leonard
Suitor
James Parrott
Party guest
Fred C. Newmeyer
Roller rink manager
George Marks
Willie
Lige Conley
[?]
Wallace Howe
[?]
E.J. Ritter
[?]
Chase Thorne
[?]
Maynard Laswell
[?]
Catherine Surtees
[?]
Dorothy Terry
[?]
Estelle Harrison
[?]
Orland Bush
[?]
Leona Fay
[?]
Gladys Leslie
[?]
Ethel Erwin
[?]

UNIDENTIFIED CAST

INTERTITLES (click image to enlarge)

POSTER
(click any image to enlarge)


Acknowledgements:
The Harold Lloyd Encyclopedia by Annette D'Agostino Lloyd
Jesse Brisson (help with identifications)
Jim Jarvis (information)
Jorge Finkielman (poster)

This page was last updated on: 03 April 2023