Welcome Danger

Brilliant silent comedian Lloyd made the transition to sound with this box-office smash (his highest grosser at the time) which cast him as a botany student expected to fill the shoes of his recently deceased San Francisco police chief father. He succeeds in smashing a ring of drug dealers led by the mysterious "Dragon," who later turns out to be Middleton, the pillar of the community. Amidst the criminal comedy is a dose of romantic comedy as Lloyd bullies Kent, who has disguised herself as a boy. Originally filmed as a silent by Mal St. Clair, WELCOME DANGER was largely reshot and turned into a talkie by Bruckman. Its running time, however, was just short of three hours--a long film by today's standards, and an unheard-of epic in 1929. An hour was cut from the footage, and though it was still too long, it was a smash hit. Lloyd's character had changed somewhat (as had audience expectations and needs), making him a less identifiable comic than in his previous outings. He was no longer "one of us" but a funny man on the screen, and his popularity would never match what it had been in SPEEDY (1928) and the classic SAFETY LAST (1923). (official distributor synopsis)