Step Forward (1922)

Ben Turpin is the entire crew of a trolley car and Phyllis Haver is his girl friend. Although he protests he is trying to save up to get married, Heinie Conklin sells him an automobile.

That's about the limits of the plot in this typically funny Sennett comedy. The rest consists of expertly rendered gags set in an amusing series of events that makes sense. It's certainly not the sort of movie most people associate with Sennett; it's not the chaotic-seeming Keystones. Sennett had built up a studio that did all sorts of comedies, from the pure slapstick extravaganza to situation comedies.

This one is pitched midway between the two extremes, and it stars Sennett's top comic of the era. Mind you, I don't particularly care for Ben Turpin and his signature crossed-eye gag, but he was a capable physical comic and, while any of a dozen of Sennett's comics could have taken he lead in this one, Turpin was paid a lot of money, so they used him a lot.