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      Ask Father

      Released Feb 9, 1919 13m Comedy List
      Reviews 80% Audience Score 50+ Ratings A young man asks his future in-laws for permission to marry. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (3) audience reviews
      Audience Member The wooing, and the gags, are lightning quick in this lickety-split short. Lloyd looks damn spiffy in a suit of armor. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Harold Lloyd is no Chaplin or Keaton, but he maintains the practical everyman stance with likeableness and perseverance. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Seriously? I'm the only person to review this movie? Awesome. I didn't recommend that Flixster put it in. This is one of those titles that no one jumped aboard. I have another issue. This is one of those thirteen minute movies. Like the last Harold Lloyd movie I reviewed, this review is going to end up longer than the film itself. Consider this more of a commentary than a comedy. I actually really like this movie. Sure, it is short, similar to <i>An Eastern Westerner</i>, but it is signfiicantly more straightforward that <i>Westerner</i>. <i>Westerner</i> was really a shameless collection of jokes all strung together against a western backdrop. Really, Lloyd has one joke in mind and he just molds it into a perfect gag. In fact, what this is what SNL tries to do week in and week out. It's one idea, but unlike SNL's completely beating to death of a concept, this is more of a different look that gives the idea a sense of completeness. While SNL (and I'm sorry for bashing it so hard, but there are some serious issues with a lot of the comedy on the show), tries to milk the lifetime of an idea by repeating the same joke, this is a modeling that always throws a new curve at its audience while not being afraid to use callbacks to previous ideas. I do have to point out the fact that Harold Lloyd must really be an adept climber because he does a scene straight out of <i>Safety Last</i> by climbing the side of the building. I wouldn't even be surprised to hear if it was the same building, equipped with convienient ledges that double for handholds on the side of the building. I was amazed to see that the actor perhaps developed that concept years before during the shooting of this film to really bring about his opus. Storywise, there's not much to go on. This reminds me of the Pixar short before a Pixar movie. We have the general outline of a plot, which in this case, is very clear. The plot then abandons the movie, but still stays in the subconscious as you see the boy fight against what seems to be a brutal joining of science and nature take place. There's a certain amount of chivalry that happens this film. While in other films (and I'm not saying that this movie has that sense as well), you are more concerned with getting to the visual gags. This one's got a ton of visual gags, but you really want the Boy to succeed rather than simply get splattered by a rug treadmill. That takes something that can't normally be found in a lot of comedies. There's no reason you can't sit down and watch this movie. It isn't perfect, but it is thirteen minutes long and has the most heart that I've seen out of a Harold Lloyd movie so far. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis A young man asks his future in-laws for permission to marry.
      Director
      Hal Roach
      Producer
      Suzanne Lloyd Hayes
      Screenwriter
      H. M. Walker
      Production Co
      Rolin Films
      Genre
      Comedy
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Feb 9, 1919, Original
      Runtime
      13m