http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ecWQO4RtcM
I can't embed this for reasons unknown, but watch it, DO watch it, it's magical! I first saw this movie in 1993, and though it has some highly improbable plot twists (i.e. a young woman who just had a major psychotic episode suddenly being well enough to live in her own apartment ), Johnny Depp's performance, innovative and charming, holds up well and reminds us why he is the working-est actor in Hollywood.
The movie (Benny and Joon) came on again last night, with a very young Depp looking like a Botticelli angel, and I was reminded of how cleverly his character, Sam, had incorporated elements of the Big Three silent screen comedians: Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd. He saved the best for last, climbing up a brick building and swinging from a window washer's rope with all the grace and style of Harold's character in Safety Last.
.jpg)
The scene where his schizophrenic girl friend, recovering from hallucinations and delusions in the hospital, sees him swing past her window (apparently she's the only one who can see him) is priceless. This performance presages his Don Juan de Marco turn, a wacky Fairbanks stunt that lands him, painfully, in the bushes.
I couldn't find a good clip of the Safety Last scene, the last few minutes of the movie where Harold swings like a pendulum, but I did come up with a few still pictures. About this picture: what would Harold say (WWHS?). You know, based on everything I've found out about him, I think he would really like and admire and be entertained by Johnny Depp. He appreciated actors who could play it straight as well as funny, and his quirkiness, bold risks and leading-man good looks are very Harold-esque. Harold loved Jack Lemmon, who also easily moved back and forth between comedy and tragedy. Johnny does it just as gracefully, and still makes us sigh.
