Safety Last! (1923)

Harold Lloyd dangles from the hands of a giant clock high above a downtown Los Angeles street in Safety Last! The traffic below is real: the climb was shot on sets built on top of buildings, with the camera angled to hide the platform under Lloyd. He did it while missing the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, lost in a 1919 accident with a prop bomb that turned out to be live. Few images from silent comedy have been reprinted, parodied or restaged as often.