Harold is by the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea, where he flirts with Bebe, pretends to be a lifeguard and roughhouses with the men in this slapstick comedy.Although Harold Lloyd had insisted on abandoning his moderately successful Lonesome Luke series, despite -- according to Lloyd's memoirs -- protests by producer Hal Roach, in favor of the more realistic looking character that he played for the rest of his career, he did not entirely abandon the hard-knocks slapstick; through 1919, he would star in a mix of story films with gags in them and rowdy slapstick affairs set on a single location. This one, set on the sea shore, is one of the latter. Although the public would gradually come to prefer the story pieces, particularly in lengths longer than a single reel, rowdy single-reelers like this were still popular -- and funny, too.

By the Sad Sea Waves (1917) *** (out of 4) After seeing how many women a lifeguard can get, Harold Lloyd decides to pretend to be one and sure enough it doesn't take long for him to get thrown into the action -- with both women and people actually drowning. When not playing the Lonesome Luke character, Lloyd began to experiment with the glasses but one shouldn't expect the same type of character that he would be playing during the 1920s. What we have here isn't quite as funny but I must admit that there were several times where I was laughing extremely hard. I think the highlight of the film comes when Lloyd is being grabbed by several girls and he's called to action when a man is drowning but the only problem is that he ends up saving the wrong person. There's some gags towards the end involving people getting the shower rooms mixed up and there are some fine laughs here, although none of them are all that big. I thought Lloyd was extremely good and rather charming here. This includes the before mentioned scene but I also thought his flirting with the girls was quite charming. 'Snub' Pollard isn't given enough to do here but it's always fun seeing him and Bebe Daniels is fine as "The Doll."

Harold pretends to be a lifeguard but he really has no idea what he's doing. However, a cop soon discovers the impersonation and chases Lloyd for much of the film. In the meantime, Harold finally gets a chance to prove himself when his girl is drowning. As the film ends, the cop is about to finally pounce on Lloyd and the film ends.About the time they made this Harold Lloyd comedy short, Lloyd began experimenting with his bespectacled character people came to know and adore in the 1920s. However, despite looking like the same character, the charm and innocence of his later wimpy "everyman" just isn't present. But, at the same time, if you don't compare this to later films but to comedies made by other contemporary comedians (such as Chaplin and Arbuckle), BY THE SAD SEA WAVES is an excellent film that is holds its own. A pretty good film and one that shows some of the evolution of Lloyd into a comic genius.