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  1. Canuck Jun 30, 2019

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    941B888D-D821-4827-AC03-747E51212A29.png Can you name the actor or the movie, or both?
     
  2. noelekal Home For Wayward Watches Jun 30, 2019

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    Harold Lloyd? Don't recall the film and not certain about the actor.

    Wonder if that's really him or a stunt double? On thing's certain. It's not CGI.
     
  3. bags1971 Jun 30, 2019

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    good film but he was only a few feet off the ground doing this used some good camera trickery at the time
     
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  4. vintagemillenial Jun 30, 2019

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    Safety Last if i recall correctly....
     
  5. Pvt-Public Jul 1, 2019

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    Saw that movie last fall. A friend of mine has a Wurlitzer Theater Organ in his home. He does several concerts a year and at least 1 silent movie night, where the musical score is played live.
    http://hardmanwurlitzer.com/
     
    Edited Jul 1, 2019
  6. jimmyd13 Jul 1, 2019

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    When I was a kid, BBC2 would play Harold Lloyd shorts at 6pm every weekday. I was late for Scouts on more than one occasion because of these, brilliant, films.

    And, yes, Safety Last ... the clock scene was filmed using forced perspective. Here's the scene:


    As for how it's done, the set was built on a rooftop with the camera on a rig giving just the right angle:


    I always preferred Harold Lloyd to Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin ... I think because he just looked so unlikely to do these sorts of stunts.
     
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  7. Canuck Jul 1, 2019

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    You folks are too good! It was the movie Safety Last, and the actor was Harold Lloyd. I have been told he did his own stunts (a la Buster Keaton), and he lost part of a hand while doing a stunt for a Roach Studios when a prop bomb exploded, costing him part of his right hand. In the movie Safety Last (and many others), he wore a prosthetic glove on that hand.
     
  8. Canuck Jul 1, 2019

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    While I watched the movie, I wondered how that feat was accomplished. Thanks for the link.
     
  9. jimmyd13 Jul 1, 2019

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    upload_2019-7-1_12-27-4.png
    I was just looking a little closer ....

    this film was released in 1923. The clock mechanism seems interesting. Obviously it's not something that can run but it's an electric movement. It seems like it's electromagnetic with two inductors either side of an oscillator. I didn't think these clocks were made until the 30s?
     
  10. Canuck Jul 1, 2019

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    This type of clock used on the exterior of buildings was typically a “slave” clock which received an electrical impulse from a master clock once per minute, from the master clock elsewhere in the building. But I am fairly certain the clock in the movie was just a prop clock, designed to allow the antics seen in the movie. One major maker of this type of clock was the McClintock Clock Co. which was founded in 1908. A successor company ( O B McClintock Clock Co.) produced this type of clock until the late 1940s.
     
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  11. S.H. Jul 1, 2019

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    I'm no expert in electrical clocks, but the ATO firm in France producing lots of electric clocks was founded in 1923 : http://www.viredaz.name/Horloges/ATOtextenglish.htm . Favre-Bulle clocks are even earlier.

    Master/receiver are also earlier : see Brillé regulator clocks.
     
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