The Sin of Harold Diddlebook

Starring:Harold Lloyd, Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee, Edgar Kennedy, Arline Judge, Franklin Pangborn, Lionel Stander, Margaret Hamilton, Jack Norton, Robert Dudley, Arthur Hoyt, Julius Tannen, Al Bridge, Robert Greig, Georgia Caine, Torben Meyer, Victor Potel, Jackie, Frances Ramsden
Director: Preston Sturges
Studio: Alpha Video
Product Type: DVD

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Also known as The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, this collaboration between silent comedy star Harold Lloyd and screwball comedy genius Preston Sturges was meant to be a splashy comeback for both. Unfortunately, it sank at the box office. It's not surprising, because the movie's story line is a wayward tangle, and every scene is a strange mini-movie of its own--but that's exactly why it's worth watching today. Mad Wednesday starts with footage from Lloyd's 1925 classic The Freshman. Because of his success on the football field, Harold Diddlebock (Lloyd, who seems to have hardly changed in 22 years) is offered a job. Full of hope and promise, the former gridiron champ finds himself in a bookkeeping position that consumes the next 30 to 40 years of his life, until he's abruptly fired. Stunned, Diddlebock takes his first drink; when he awakes two days later, he has no idea what he's spent the last 48 hours doing. It turns out he's bought a circus and... well, you get the idea. Every scene is its own little gem of delirium, including one in which an artistic bartender invents the drink that launches Diddlebock into his drunken spree. But the scene in which Diddlebock explains to a lovely coworker how he fell in love not only with her, but with her six or seven older sisters before her, is almost as delightful. Lloyd isn't always adept with Sturges's madcap dialogue, but the sterling supporting cast of character actors makes that language spin like a top, including Rudy Vallee, Franklin Pangborn, Lionel Stander, and Margaret Hamilton (better known as the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz). --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Hilariously funny, Classic comedy!.......2007-06-14

With the advent and proliferation of "Infomercials" and "Paid Programming" which have come to fill the late night air waves of nearly every television station in the country, one is no longer able to catch some of the little known classic films which brought so much pleasurable entertainment to earlier generations of Americans. One such case of a film fading away into obscurity is The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. Filled with witty humor and Harold Lloyd's flare for outrageous stunts, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock is a must-see film which brings the action-packed humor of the silent era into the modern age and lays the foundation for so much of what passes for comedy today. The Sin of Harold Diddlebock is a 'coming of age' story which takes a comic look at a tragic character - the American worker who, after being used up by his employer of over twenty years, is forced into retirement with nowhere to turn and no options for his future. When he finally learns to let go and get in touch with his younger self, to once again 'think,' the real action begins and he comically turns despair into the great American success story as he breaks with a number of closely held social conventions of his time. This is a hopeful, light-hearted, uplifting film. A must see for anyone who thinks that life might have passed them by.

Two of My Favorite Movies.......2007-01-01

This movie is two of my favorites: The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947) 89 minutes and Mad Wednesday (1950)76 minutes.
The movie was re-released under a new title after Rudy Vallee's scenes were cut.
It's the story of Harold Diddlebock, Lloyd's character from 1923's The Freshman, twenty years after he was given a job by a grateful sports fan upon graduating from college.
The job was a dead-end clerical job, brightened only by a succession of sisters, each of whom he falls in unrequited love with, each of whom left the company to marry someone else.
Shortly after the youngest sister comes to work at the company, Harold gets cashiered on a Tuesday, handed his pension, and sent home.
At least that's the last thing he remembers when he wakes up Thursday. The rest of the movie is a hilarious romp as he recalls what happened on Wednesday and deals with the consequences.
Trust me, you are going to wish you could go to a Halloween Party dressed as Harold Diddlebock.

Inoffensive and Inauspicious.......2006-02-24

I tend to like really obscure, really old movies. Most are enjoyable while they last but utterly forgettable when they are over. Occasionally, I find a real gem I will want to see over and over again. This one falls into the first category.

Harold Diddlebock was an unlikely football hero in 1923. Because he helped to win the big game, he got a job working for a big sports fan. He was excited by the prospect but it was a stagnant, dead end. Now, 20 years later, he has been terminated and has no prospects. All he has is a few thousand dollars from his retirement fund in his pocket and a serious crush on a young lady who works for the firm. He has sequentially fallen in love with each of her older sisters as they have worked for the same firm over the years.

Harold is a teetotaler but when he is wondering the streets unsure of what to do, he allows a friendly bum to coax him into a bar where he has his first drink, a special concoction brewed especially for him. Depending on your perspective, he handles his liquor not at all or extremely well. When he wakes up, he finds that his money is gone and he cannot remember what has taken place. As he tries to recover his memories and his money, he learns more and more of the antics of his blackout and becomes ever more disheartened at what he learns. He was a real wild man and it is unfortunate he cannot remember what a good time he had.

As he tries to repair the damage, he stumbles from one silly situation to the next in a typical mid-20th century comedic fashion.

Alls well that ends well and the girl is really sweet too.

There is nothing memorable about this one but it was fun while it lasted.

Winning combination.......2006-01-15

I am a huge Preston Sturges fan who stumbled upon this movie. Preston Sturges and Harold Lloyd put together a real gem here. It has the Sturges touch of complete insanity encircling the "seemingly" hapless main character, Diddlebock (Lloyd). Diddlebock has lived a life of sacrafice, sobriety and told all to result in a hasty termination from his job after 20+ years. In the space of a day, Diddlebock falls into a life of debauchery and ultimately finds the fulfillment in his life he had given up on.

Great film, lousy print.......2005-04-25

It's difficult to figure why anybody would bother using a poor 16mm print to transfer to DVD when there must be good 35mm prints out there, but this is another case of showcasing a very poor 16mm print. Otherwise, this is an excellent madcap film, but it doesn't start cooking until the Edgar Kennedy bartender scene, and Kennedy was absolutely masterful. From this scene on, the rest of the film is a romp. There was much luck with the sequences with Jacky the lion, so Sturges must have lived a charmed life. All the performances shine.

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