I wonder whether this was the film that convinced Hal Roach he had the makings of a comedy partnership in Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. They share a lot of screen time here, even though this isn't a Laurel & Hardy comedy as such. The boys play second fiddle to Priscilla Dean and a forgettable leading man, and they take an immediate and intense dislike to one another from the moment Stan appears on Dean's doorstep to deliver paint. Dean is feeling neglected by her artist husband and solicits the aid of Stan to cosy up to her in her husband's presence in the hope of making him jealous.
I don't think I would make Priscilla Dean feel neglected – she's something of a looker, and makes a good attempt at keeping up with the boys. Even though their third and fourth on the cast list, Laurel and Hardy supply all the memorable moments – apart from the guy who keeps departing with odd things attached to the top of his hat. Stan retells the story of Samson and Delilah at one point and, this being a silent film he has to tell it in exaggerated mime which he does very funnily. Another reviewer has observed that Laurel was a funnier comic than Hardy, and I think he's right. Having said that I think neither would have lasted long without the other once sound movies were established.
This isn't a classic by any means, but it possesses that frantic energy common to so many silent comedies and has quite a few funny moments. The chase finale is particularly good. The intertitles have a coy knowingness about them at times. 'He only kisses me on Sundays and holidays,' bemoans the neglected wife, and you know it isn't kisses that she's missing. And watch closely as Dean talks Laurel into being her accomplice. Read her lips. It looks to me like it's not 'do you want to make love to me,' that she's saying to him but something much more earthy.