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Viewers familiar with Harold Lloyd's great comedies of the 1920s may find Are Crooks Dishonest? somewhat startling, for in this early short our hero plays a role quite different from the all-American go-getter we remember from the later masterworks. Once he'd established his "glass character" Harold was always a good guy; often clumsy, a little naughty on occasion, less than perfect certainly, but unfailingly honest and law-abiding. Early on, however, it seems he wasn't always so well behaved. Are Crooks Dishonest? is the sort of comedy where the main characters are con artists and the humor comes in watching the cons attempt to out-con each other. The biggest surprise is that Harold himself plays a con man who is just as crooked as any rogue ever portrayed by W.C. Fields.

Harold works in tandem with his frequent co-star in these early films, Snub Pollard. We know from their first entrance that the guys are crooks: they emerge from shrubbery in a park, spot an approaching cop, and quickly slip back into the shrubbery until he's gone. Harold and Snub run a scam in which they trick strangers into buying worthless jewelry; Harold even carries their stock in a box conveniently labeled "Phoney Jewelry Co." Meanwhile, dark-eyed vamp Bebe Daniels, dressed in exotic finery, bilks the suckers by reading palms and telling fortunes under the name of Miss Goulash in the nearby Mystic Temple, a groovy-looking command post for shady doings that she shares with her cohort, "Professor" Goulash. (It's unclear whether the professor is Bebe's father, husband, boyfriend, or merely her partner in crime.) The Mystic Temple is tarted up with lots of Halloween-like decor -- bats, black cats, skulls, etc. -- and also offers the requisite sliding panels in the walls. Our story, such as it is, concerns the collision of the Harold & Snub partnership vs. the Goulash duo, as these crooks repeatedly scam each other out of ill-gotten gain. That's the gist of it, plus you get a rare opportunity to see Snub Pollard in drag. (Yuck!)

Sure doesn't sound like a typical Harold Lloyd comedy, does it? Are Crooks Dishonest? isn't exactly a laugh riot, but it's off-beat and amusing, and the sheer novelty of the thing is refreshing, especially for fans who've seen Harold's more characteristic works. It surely must have been fun for Bebe Daniels to play such a jaded, worldly con artiste, a far more colorful assignment than her usual roles in these comedies. She's a treat to watch, and looks a helluva lot better in that gypsy outfit than Snub Pollard does.

This is a good Harold Lloyd comedy, with many funny moments and good gag ideas, featuring Lloyd with frequent supporting players Snub Pollard and Bebe Daniels. This one stands out among the many movies they made together, in offering Daniels a very good role that gives her a chance at times to take the spotlight and even outshine the other two.

The setup has Daniels as a medium, and Lloyd and Pollard as two con men. Daniels's character easily outwits them in a first encounter in a park, but then they meet up again in a much more prolonged battle of wits. These two skirmishes are both quite amusing, and the latter also features some clever visual ideas. The movie starts out just a little slowly in setting things up, but once the characters come together, it moves quickly.

Daniels is even more appealing than usual, and her character gives her more opportunity than usual to compete on equal footing with Lloyd. The part is well-written, and it fits well with her strengths. All of the characters are likable, amoral scamps, but her character is the one with the most depth to it, so it's easy to wish her well.

Lloyd and Pollard, of course, hold up their end nicely, and the result is an enjoyable short comedy with some good material.

I just watched this, an early Harold Lloyd short film that featured his "glasses" character on Kino Video's DVD of "The Harold Lloyd Collection". He's actually a con man with Snub Pollard as his partner who gets discovered by Bebe Daniels who herself performs fake séances. What she discovers is that Lloyd and Pollard bilk many customers by dropping fake rings that are "lost". I'll stop there and just say this was quite funny especially when Harold and Snub enter the place Bebe works and encounter some creepy contraptions and put on costumes like Snub trying one of Bebe's outfits. Not too much slapstick but what there is of was also quite funny. So on that note, I recommend Are Crooks Dishonest?

This is a very odd movie for Harold Lloyd--at least in regard to the sweet character he played in movies throughout the 1920s and 30s. Instead of a nice guy, he and Snib Pollard are con men--out to rob everyone blind. In a particularly successful con, Chester pretends to have lost a "very valuable ring" and a bit later, Harold finds it as a stooge is also looking for the ring. The ring, of course, is a cheap one dropped and then found by Harold, but the greed of the stooge is so great, he "convinces" Harold to say nothing and sell him the "valuable" ring and then they run away to enjoy their luck(?). Again and again they find patsies until they meet up with a woman who herself is a con woman (working with a guy doing fake séances). She arranges a nifty con and takes all the money they stole--and has a cop standing by to make sure they give her the money.

As luck would have it, the two con men stumble into the lady's shady business when no one is home. Soon, the lady returns and messes with their minds--releasing a lot of dirty tricks to punish them for their wicked ways.

All around, this is a completely odd and contrived film, but it is also exceedingly funny, as the jokes work very well and Lloyd and Pollard make an excellent team. Plus, while creepy and strange, I liked seeing Pollard dressed like a lady.

The 26 year old Harold Lloyd is a kind of 20th century Odysseus in this film. He is unembraced by professional society (even though he belongs to it) just like Odysseus when he returned to Ithaca. He is a trained professional, but his pursuit of happiness through a loving relationship and meaningful work is denied him. Romance seems to be inaccessible to him in this film. Acceptance within the society that he was brought up in is also inaccessible. Thus the question, are crooks dishonest? If he is forced into dishonesty because the society that he belongs to turns its back on him, is he wrong to do that? The alternative is just to settle for mediocre jobs and barely pay the bills.