The enterprising young man at ease in everyday mediocrity, yet at the same time capable of reinventing normality through his bold actions, is embodied by the bespectacled character we have come to know through Harold Lloyd’s successful films made from 1919 onwards. The shorter films of the preceding years were merely his training ground. In them, we can see how gags destined to be revisited in his later work were developed, and how persistently the right comedic framework was sought for his comic persona to inhabit. The recently recovered Kicking the Germ Out of Germany is no exception. Unlike Buster Keaton, Lloyd was spared military service. Making this propaganda film undoubtedly helped keep him away A Dog’s Life from the First World War. His oneiric, wishful dash to rescue a pretty Red Cross nurse (Bebe Daniels) held prisoner at enemy headquarters is accompanied by droll antics and a backdrop of parodied trench life, something that would surely have delighted the less demanding audiences of the time while making more critical viewers and veterans shudder.

Alessandro Faccioli