Now or Never
About Now or Never
Mary, a nanny played by Mildred Davis, takes the child Dolly on a trip without asking the parents, so she can meet a sweetheart she has not seen since they were young. He wrecks a car in a barn, loses his money to a tramp, and finishes the trip clinging under a train. On board he has no ticket. Dolly's father is a passenger. Mary does not want him to see her with the child, so she sits with the father and leaves Dolly with the young man, who also has to dodge the conductor. The father ends by approving the trip, and Mary finds that her employer has just hired her sweetheart.
Cast & crew
More about Now or Never
Hal Roach and Fred C. Newmeyer directed. Sam Taylor is the credited writer. Hal Roach produced. Pathé Exchange distributed the short in 1921. Mildred Davis plays Mary. Anna Mae Bilson plays Dolly; a TCM credit spells the name Anna May. Harold Lloyd is billed as the boy. A TCM print is timed at 36 minutes. Wikidata lists 35 minutes. A Cornell Cinema note lists 40. Scott Simmon, cited by that program, says the train scenes used three trains: the one in the shot, one carrying the camera, and one with the lights.
Themes
Making
Lloyd climbs out a window, is shut onto the roof, and rides into a tunnel. The camera car ran on a parallel track.
Look
The train gags were shot from a camera train running beside the one Lloyd rides, with a third train carrying lights.
Preservation
Prints circulate, including a copy on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- The roof sequence was staged on a train mock-up. Lloyd comes out of a tunnel covered in soot.
- The year before, during Haunted Spooks, Lloyd lost a thumb and forefinger and afterward wore a prosthetic glove.
- Davis later married Lloyd.
Scenes
- He rides the last miles under the train after a tramp takes his money.
- Left with Dolly, he hides from the conductor while her father sits in another car.
- On the roof he goes into a tunnel and comes out black with soot.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-now-or-never)
- Wikimedia Commons (Now or Never (1921).webm)
