Admirable film.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

{This review is for the 89-minute version.}Harold Lloyd revisiting one of his silent-comedy classics with the help of one of the sound era's most revered directors reads like a match made in heaven. The reality is much more earth-bound.Harold Diddlebock (Lloyd) is first seen in a flashback to his college days, a heroic escapade lifted entirely from the 1925 Lloyd comedy "The Freshman." Two decades later, the game-winning student has become an office drone, so much so his boss fires him for lack of initiative. Drowning his sorrows in strong drink for the first time, Diddlebock wakes up to discover he is wearing a loud checkered suit and lost all memory of the previous day.What we know, and he doesn't, is that his dismissal has awoken a ferocious beast inside him: "A man works all his life in a glass factory, well, one day he feels like picking up a hammer."This seems a fantastic set-up for a Walter-Mitty-style comedy; add to it the legendary Preston Sturges as writer-director, bringing along his team of wisecracking supporting players, and what's not to like?Apart from two or three scenes, pretty much everything."Diddlebock" spends too much time replaying "The Freshman," with insert shots of Diddlebock's future boss overreacting to every play on screen. Then we fast-forward to the then-present, in which the boss drops the boom on middle-aged Harold. Sturges and Lloyd play this very real, with only some black humor for levity.This actually kind of works, as it effectively sets up Harold's rebellion. Coaxed into a bar by Sturges regular Jimmy Conlin, he tells bartender Edgar Kennedy that this drink will be a first-time experience."You arouse the artist in me," the bartender murmurs, inventing a concoction he calls the "Diddlebock."Then Harold's off to the races, literally, putting all his severance money on a pair of longshot horses. The sequence is sustained nuttiness, up there with the best Sturges comedies.But the second half, woof, what a stinker! You get the feeling either Sturges never developed his story, or else lost it in the editing room. Instead of a development of the Diddlebock character, Sturges has Lloyd walk around with a lion and a ten-gallon hat, something about impressing bankers to invest in a circus idea, while Conlin trails after him screaming "Mr. Diddlebock!" over and over.It's such a shame because the film had a chance of being so much better. Sturges revisits old themes, sending up capitalism especially with the notion of Diddlebock's midlife crisis being brought on by corporate greed. Lloyd shows he had skills as an actor, developing pathos and charm (the latter especially in a sequence with Frances Ramsden playing the youngest of seven sisters with whom Harold has successively, unsuccessfully fallen in love).But all that good groundwork comes to naught as Sturges sticks Lloyd on a building to revisit past glories, dangling from a lion's leash with Conlin overacting by his side. This plays so hollow it makes one long for when he was just a fired office drone. Diddlebock finds success, improbably enough; more understandable is the sad fact neither Sturges nor Lloyd worked much after this half-baked partnership bombed.

Surprisingly honest beginning showing what a swinery capitalism is. Then Everything turns silly and Lloyd does what he has done better elsewhere.I'm not surprised it turned out that way though. Had it continued like the beginning, we would have had the best socialist Comedy ever perhaps. That could of course not happen in a film financed by capitalists. Pity anyway.Begins in decency and ends in a snore - that's the size of it. And for the rest, I would have to say with the utmost sincirety, I guess, I would have to say: Yada, yada, yada, umpa and so fill out my lines - jaussa.

In 1947, 9 years after his last film, Harold Lloyd re-appeared once more to give the world his swansong. The story tells of a college hero who ends up in a dead-end job and how his life changes when he ends up redundant aftter 22 years. There will always be an interest in the last film of any great clown and while some disappoint, Lloyds finale is quite a joy. Make no mistake though, this is a far cry from his groundbreaking, hilarious romps of the 20's, but if you don't expect that you'll have a very enjoyable 90 minutes. After being made redundant the lifelong teetotal ends up getting drunk very quickly, and noisily!! Later on Harold wins a fortune on the horses embarks on a huge bender. When it's all over and Harold wakes up and he realises he can't remember a single thing about Wednesday! It turns out he had bought a circus and the rest of the film centres around that little problem. As you might hope with a Lloyd film there are antics high on a skyscraper which, strangely, aren't as convincing as his silent days of yore but still amuse. On a whole the film is fine ending to Lloyd's movie career, while not capturing his early greatness, the film entertains and a good few belly laughs are to be had. There is a romantic sub-plot, but this is kept exceedingly minimal and is quite amusing in it's own way.

"The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" and "Mad Wednesday" are like two twins who hate each other, so they try to change the way they look. Preston Sturges talked Harold Lloyd into coming back to movies after he had retired. Not only that but Lloyd allowed Sturges to use part of his film "The Freshman" for the opening of the film and to be an investor. Their agreement was that each had the final cut of the film. Lloyds' cut is called "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock". Sturges' is called "Mad Wednesday".Some material is lost on both cuts and some is added. Both are utterly funny with "Mad Wednesday" being a little crazier. Rudy Vallee is almost lost in "Diddlebock" but a major character in "Wednesday". And though both end with Lloyd and Frances Ramsden (The next Mrs. Sturges) in a horse drawn carriage, the last shot of "Wednesday" has the horse singing to the lovers.If you are interested in how two comic geniuses could shape the same material into two different pictures, then you must see them both. Silly. Funny. Absolutely must sees.