Girl Shy

Harold Meadows is a shy, stuttering tailor's apprentice in a small California town who is so frightened of women that he can barely speak around them. In private, he channels his romantic ideas into a manuscript, a guide to winning love aimed at other timid young men. On his way to deliver it to a publisher he meets Mary Buckingham, a wealthy young woman, and the two fall for each other. When a misunderstanding convinces Mary that Harold was only studying her as material for his book, she agrees to marry Ronald De Vore, a suitor who is already married himself. Harold sets out to reach the wedding and stop it.

The film is a silent romantic comedy produced by Harold Lloyd's own company, released in 1924 and running about eighty minutes. Lloyd directed neither film here; Sam Taylor and Fred C. Newmeyer share directing credits, with Taylor's run including Safety Last! the year before and The Freshman the year after, and Newmeyer credited on the same three titles. Lloyd wrote the screenplay, produced, and stars as Harold, with Jobyna Ralston as Mary and Richard Daniels as Jerry Meadows. It took roughly two million dollars worldwide.

Audiences rate it 6.9 out of 10 on TMDB from around seventy-four votes, a modest but respectable figure for a comedy of this period.