At the beginning of his career, Harold Lloyd copied other comedians' styles (such as his "Lonesome Luke", which was a derivation of Chaplin's "Little Tramp"). However, by 1917 Lloyd had perfected the look of his later characters (the glasses, hat and suit), but it took him another 'three or four years to soften and improve upon the character. You see, up until about 1920 or 1921, Harold Lloyd's characters in film were not especially sweet or likable--a far cry from his decent "everyman" character he later played to perfection in films like SAFETY LAST and THE FRESHMAN.
Here, Lloyd plays one of these difficult to like guys. While you want to like him and feel for him (after all, he's been told he can't marry his girlfriend), he's so mean and abrasive it's hard to care. When he visits her home, he spends most of the time slapping her father around in true slapstick fashion--resulting in an ordinary comedy for the period, but nothing that is sublime or transcendent of the medium.
I recommend this film to Lloyd fans and film historians. All others, try his later silent films first--otherwise relatively ordinary and dull films like this one will drive you away for good!