Only the first reel of this two-reel Sennett comedy survives. What does looks like it was inspired, to choose a kind word, by Chaplin's THE PAWN SHOP. Heinie Conklin is even made up to look like Chaplin, although he has a mustache like Snub Pollard. Ben Turpin plays the lead clerk, and has several good sequences, especially the opening one, in which he's arranging clothes on dummies and losing the struggle. Edgar Kennedy, hair starting to go, makes up the villain of the piece, and Polly Moran and Marie Prevost provide the sex appeal.
Well, Miss Prevost does. Lots of good gags, and for once, Turpin does not annoy me, with never a crossed eye to inspire terror in the audience.
The second half is said to involve a trip to the beach. This was not uncommon for two-reel shorts: do a bunch of gags in one setting, move, and do other gags in another.
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