"When Paris Green Saw Red" is a very minor film, directed by the undervalued George Marshall. It's a low-budget western, basically an action drama but with some heavy-handed comedy relief. (In real life, "Paris Green" is a pigment in paint, but here it's the name of the hero.)
This movie deserves a footnote in film history, however, for an unusual reason: this is the movie that inspired Harold Lloyd to create his "glass character". The hero of this film wears eyeglasses, which give him a slightly comical appearance and cause the villain to underestimate him. Lloyd saw the value of this simple prop, and he was inspired to create the four-eyed optimist character who served as Lloyd's most popular screen identity.
Paris Green is a travelling preacher (with hornrim spectacles) who ends up in the old West, where the local desperadoes underestimate him and start bullying him. Green takes it for as long as he can, but then suddenly he whips off his eyeglasses and he's a man transformed...
This film's "scenario" isn't very interesting, but the movie deserves to be remembered: not on its own merits, but because of its importance in the gestation of Harold Lloyd's greatest character.
This movie deserves a footnote in film history, however, for an unusual reason: this is the movie that inspired Harold Lloyd to create his "glass character". The hero of this film wears eyeglasses, which give him a slightly comical appearance and cause the villain to underestimate him. Lloyd saw the value of this simple prop, and he was inspired to create the four-eyed optimist character who served as Lloyd's most popular screen identity.
Paris Green is a travelling preacher (with hornrim spectacles) who ends up in the old West, where the local desperadoes underestimate him and start bullying him. Green takes it for as long as he can, but then suddenly he whips off his eyeglasses and he's a man transformed...
This film's "scenario" isn't very interesting, but the movie deserves to be remembered: not on its own merits, but because of its importance in the gestation of Harold Lloyd's greatest character.
