Safety Last! with Live Piano Accompaniment at Royal Northern College of Music

Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Image courtesy of Park Circus/Harold Lloyd

Safety Last! Silent Film with Live Piano Accompaniment at Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), Manchester 26 October 2018 Tickets from £15 — Book now

Safety Last! (1923) contains one of the most famous images in all of silent comedy; a dizzying shot of Harold Lloyd, hanging from a a clock on the side of a 12-story Los Angeles high-rise, perilously close to death. It’s an image which resonates still today: a man caught up in modern machinations, who has climbed too high and finds himself staring down at an uncaring city, as his life ticks away. Of course Lloyd, who had lost a thumb and a finger four years earlier when a prop bomb blew up in his face, plays it for laughs.

Of the three great, famous silent comedians, Lloyd’s films are screened the least after those of Chaplin and Keaton. It’s exciting then, that Royal Northern College of Music have invited Darius Battiwalla to provide an improvised piano score to Safety Last! this October. The film stars Lloyd as a small town wannabe who leaves home for the big city, hoping to find the success to marry his childhood sweetheart. That proves difficult, but it doesn’t stop him from writing letters home boasting of fictional achievements. When his fiancé decides to come and visit, he realises that he needs to make some money, and fast.

His plan, somewhat improbably, involves climbing up the outside of the department store he works in in order to entice customers and sufficiently impress the store management. Aside from its famous climax, Safety Last! includes much of what made Lloyd beloved to audiences: visual gags, impressive stunts and an endearing underdog trying to make a success of himself. The film remains one of most well known and appreciated of the silent era and should continue to draw a crowd.

Safety Last! Silent Film with Live Piano Accompaniment at Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), Manchester 26 October 2018 Tickets from £15 Book now

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Where to go near Safety Last! with Live Piano Accompaniment at Royal Northern College of Music

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Following a major redevelopment, the iconic venue on Oxford Road will be reopening its doors to welcome the public back into the building this autumn. 

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Manchester Metropolitan University Students’ Union building houses a bar and various other facilities for students and staff.

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The Deaf Institute

The Deaf Institute is a vibrant gig venue and nightclub for which it is well worth taking a jaunt out of the Northern Quarter.

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