Sammie in Siberia

Harold Lloyd one-reeler. Harold is part of the infamous US Army detachment that went to Vladivostok and Archkangelsk, Siberia, after the Bolshevik revolution to try to put a stop to it. They stayed two years, and didn’t accomplish shit except to earn resentment of the US that persists to this day.

The Bolshies here are shown as the bad guys, plundering and raping the peasants. Probably a lot of truth in that. But they are also shown as bumblers on the scale of the Keystone Kops, which makes it okay in my book. It’s damn cold in Siberia. We see a soldier from Florida who is shaking so hard he can hardly stand up. A guy from California is even worse. Then we see Harold, who “spent a lot of time at the Chicago lakefront.” He’s warm as toast, even feels a little overheated. He later tells the Siberian girl he wants her to come home with him to Chicago. “You’ll get used to the cold weather,” he says! Lots of good sight gags here.