Harold Lloyd's third feature-length film can be divided into three loosely-related sections: a) episodes in the life of a country doctor (presenting several typical gags while taking swipes at then-fashionable exclusive sanitariums and the nascent psycho-therapy at the same time); b) the poker game sequence (which has no real purpose in the film but is also its comic highlight!), and c) the 'escaped lunatic' routine (I don't know if there were actually any 'old dark house'-type films around this time - other than D.W. Griffith's solitary venture into the subgenre ONE EXCITING NIGHT [1922] - but this was already making fun of them!). While enjoyable and undeniably inventive on occasion, DR. JACK displays a definite drop in quality from its immediate predecessor, GRANDMA'S BOY (1922); Lloyd's next film, then, SAFETY LAST! (1923), not only would see him back on form but actually heralded his greatest period.
Review of Dr. Jack
