Harold Lloyd showed his satirical side when he made the one-reel comedy Billy Blazes, Esq. in 1919. Possibly his finest one- reeler, Lloyd parodies the Westerns of movie cowboy William S. Hart, who was a Hollywood superstar in his day and Lloyd's contemporary. Lloyd and the director of Billy Blazes, Esq. - Hal Roach - had worked as extras in several Universal westerns in 1912, so they were no strangers to the genre. Those westerns were shot on a town exterior located at Mixville, named after movie cowboy Tom Mix, and it seemed fitting that Roach and Lloyd shot Billy Blazes, Esq. at the same location; it was made in the interim between Bumping into Broadway (1919) and An Eastern Westerner (1920).

Throughout their partnership, Lloyd and Roach received valuable input from a stable of professional gag writers and Billy Blazes, Esq. was no exception. Frank Terry, an Englishman who joined Rolin, Roach's production company, in early 1919, served as the head gagman and writer for Lloyd and Roach on their Bill Hart spoof. Terry had cut his comedy teeth with the Fred Karno Company in England, where he worked with yet another Lloyd contemporary, Charlie Chaplin. Terry brought to Lloyd's films a wealth of knowledge of hilarious comedy routines. One gag he provided for Billy Blazes, Esq. gave the bespectacled Lloyd the ability to draw aim with his six-shooter before his enemy can blink. [Mel Brooks incorporated a similar bit in Blazing Saddles (1974), where quick draw Gene Wilder pulls his guns on a whole gang of outlaws before they can even draw their pistols.] Terry later left Lloyd and his company in 1920, but he returned briefly to work with the comedian on his early talkie, Movie Crazy, in 1932.

Producer/Director: Hal Roach
Cast: Harold Lloyd
BW-13m.

by Scott McGee