Series: Harold Lloyd Director: Alfred J. Goulding Producer: Hal Roach Titles: Photography: Editor: Stars: Harold Lloyd, Snub Pollard, Bebe Daniels Company: Pathé Exchange Released: 29 September 1918 Length: 1 reel Production No.: L-41 Filming dates: June 6-12, 1918 Rating: 3/10

Swing Your Partners

Available on DVD:

At a dancing school for women, Professor Tanglefoot prepares his dancing girls for the arrival of two new instructors. The girl (Bebe Daniels) leaves a store and is spotted by a couple of gentlemen who take an immediate liking to her and follow her down the street, hotly followed by several other letcherous men. The boy (Harold Lloyd) is introduced, sleeping in a bathtub among a junk yard in the street. He wakes up, performs his morning exercises (at 2pm) with a couple of bottles and then gets ready for the day ahead, whilst his neighbor (Snub Pollard) lounges in his makeshift bed. But not for long... he springs into motion when Harold throws a pale of water of the fence and onto his head. The two fight through a chain link fence before Harold spies a man in blackface by a fence with a cooked chicken. He quickly liberates it from the man but is accosted by a policeman who witnesses the theft. A chase leads to a park with seven men now in pusuit of the beautiful girl before they all fall into a lake. Harold and Snub walk into the dancing academy and the professor mistakes them for the two instructors he is awaiting and puts them straight to work. Harold and Snub, dressed as cavemen, are immediately surrounded by the eager girls before they begin their new routine. Snub takes to the piano whilst Harold dances around foolishly in front of the women but ends up falling on the floor on account of a discarded banana peel from Snub. Harold then siezes the opportunity to casually rob the professor of his watch before the real dance instructors show up. Snub and Harold make a quick exit up the chimney and up onto the roof. Snub is captured but Harold manages to climb down to the ground where he is promptly arrested by the police and driven away in the wagon.

Favourite bit A spot of catch me if you can with the local cop. It's a fast scene with good timing on the parts of the actors involved in dodging the policeman and evading the man in blackface.

Trivia • Copyrighted July 23, 1918. • Reissued May 14, 1922. • The film was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required a cut of two near views of Lloyd on a piano stool facing the camera. [source: Wikipedia] • As well as the film being available on DVD from Looser Than Loose, there is a version with French titles available which is of a slightly better quality. • Harold and co. are chased around a large billboard with advertises Elsie Ferguson appearing in "A Doll's House" for one week Sunday June 9th. The film was directed by Maurice Tourneur and was indeed released on June 9, 1918. "Swing Your Partners" was filmed at the beginning of June 1918 but wasn't released until September, by which time "A Doll's House" had already run its course in theatres. See here for screenshot. • There are twelve dancers if you include Bebe Daniels. • With the exceptions of Bebe Daniels, Estelle Harrison and Hazel Powell, at least eight of the nine remaining dancers seen in the film were students of dancing teacher Ernest Belcher, father of actress/dancer Marge Champion and stepfather of actress Lina Basquette (the only one still unaccounted for at this time is June Lovering). My opinion • Just your usual run-of-the-mill Harold Lloyd silent film borefest with nothing new to get over excited about.

	Harold Lloyd The boy
	Snub Pollard The boy's neighbor
	Bebe Daniels The girl
	William Blaisdell Professor Tanglefoot
	William Gillespie Man outside store
	James Parrott Man outside store
	Gus Leonard Pedestrian
	Helen Gilmore Woman on street
	Dee Lampton Fat pedestrian
	Sammy Brooks Short pedestrian
	Estelle Harrison Dancer
	Hazel Powell Dancer
	Maynard A. Laswell Dance instructor
	Lew Harvey Dance instructor
	Max Hamburger Wagon cop
	Billy Fay Man in lake
	Bud Jamison [?]
	Dorothea Wolbert [?]
	Mildred Forbes Dancer
	Belle Mitchell [?]
	Charles Stevenson [?]
	Wallace Howe [?]
	Oscar Larson [?]
	Myrtle Watson [?]
	Lige Conley [?]
	Herbert Crawford [?]
	Grace Madden [?]
	Ariel Millais Man
	Isabelle Clark Dancer
	Elizabeth Kislingbury Dancer
	Mildred Heinze Dancer
	Heloise Cottle Dancer
	Celia Baker Dancer
	Dora MacKinnon Dancer
	June Lovering Dancer
	Helen Monahan Dancer
	Natalia Haraszthy Dancer

UNIDENTIFIED CAST

CREDITS (click image to enlarge)	INTERTITLES (click image to enlarge)

SHOT ON LOCATION (click any image to enlarge)

Acknowledgements: The Harold Lloyd Encyclopedia by Annette D'Agostino Lloyd (book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_Your_Partners (Wikipedia) Jesse Brisson (identification of Gus Leonard, Dee Lampton, Estelle Harrison, Hazel Powell, Maynard Laswell, Lew Harvey, Billy Fay and Max Hamburger) This page was last updated on: 14 September 2018