ロイド的運動としての乗り継ぎチェイス――セネット喜劇と『猛進ロイド』（1924）の比較分析から――

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The silent-era comedian, Harold Lloyd, more popularly known for his “human fly” character, also directed unique chases, which may be called “connected chases”. In this kind of chase sequences, Lloyd dashes toward a goal to save his heroine by changing various kinds of vehicles such as cars, buses, ambulances, bikes, street cars, and horses. The most representative of this kind is the 20-minutes chase sequence in one of his masterworks, Girl Shy.

His direction of this unique chase style is typical of his films. It is generally acknowledged that Sennett’s slapsticks were enjoyed by the working class and Lloyd’s films by the middle class. Lloyd created these connected chase sequences by improving on the slapstick chases by Sennett, Lloyd’s predecessor. Sennett presents violent and mechanical car chases in which people are represented as objects. Lloyd, on the other hand, humanizes Sennett’s chases. By employing different vehicles in a chase sequence, Lloyd establishes his character not as a man dominated by vehicles but as one controlling them. In this sense, Lloyd’s sophisticated improvement of Sennett’s chases can be interpreted as his attempt to appeal to the middle class audience, which prefers more human action.