Harold Lloyd stars as an awkward tailor’s apprentice who stutters every time a woman engages him in conversation. The fact that he can’t even talk to the ladies doesn’t stop him from writing a fake tell-all book about his alleged romantic conquests. On the way to drop his book off to the publisher, he meets a wealthy woman (Jobyna Ralston) who’s betrothed to a greedy bigamist. Needless to say, he falls head over heels in love with her. Since Lloyd is poor, he thinks he doesn’t have a shot with his true love. Once his book becomes a sensation (the publishers, who at first mocked Lloyd’s novel, eventually decide to release it as a comedy), he sets out to stop Ralston from marrying the no-good lout.
Girl Shy kind of suffers from a long winded build-up, but once it settles in and finds its groove, it’s quite enjoyable. While there are several big laughs here, I can’t help but think that some of the gags would have benefited from sound (like the scene where Ralston smuggles her dog onto a train), which was still a few years away. Still, there’s plenty of funny stuff here to make it worth a look. Lloyd especially does a fine job during his date with Ralston where nothing seems to go right. (During a romantic interlude, he sits on a turtle thinking it’s a rock and winds up in the middle of a pond.)
The extended finale where Lloyd races against the clock to stop the wedding is action packed and contains lots of cool stunts and big laughs. He carjacks half a dozen automobiles, a policeman’s motorcycle, and even a trolley car in order to get to the church on time. This sequence is among Lloyd’s best work and is a real testament to not only his gifts as a comedian, but as a fearless stuntman as well.
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