Some stretches of this short comedy are rather plain, but it has a couple of good gags that are worth seeing. Lupino Lane stars, and it was directed by Roscoe Arbuckle (under the alias that he used when he was blacklisted), so there is some talent involved. Lane is good with certain kinds of material, but in other places it sorely misses Arbuckle's presence on the other side of the camera.
Lane plays a lazy nephew who is evicted from his apartment when his uncle cuts him off. The first part is largely bland, as Lane is better with physical comedy than with subtler comedy that calls for the right expressions and gestures (which is what the first part here involves). Arbuckle himself could have performed this part in a much more entertaining fashion. Once the moving process starts, Lane and the movie as a whole improve.
The dangling piano sequence is a good one, well-conceived by Arbuckle and well-acted by Lane. It gets a lot out of a simple idea, and it reminds you of some of the classic Harold Lloyd sequences in the way that it combines humor and suspense. There are also a couple of other gags that Arbuckle seems to have borrowed and adapted from his friend Buster Keaton. They are funny and are well-executed, though they'll already be familiar to many viewers through Keaton's movies.
Lane plays a lazy nephew who is evicted from his apartment when his uncle cuts him off. The first part is largely bland, as Lane is better with physical comedy than with subtler comedy that calls for the right expressions and gestures (which is what the first part here involves). Arbuckle himself could have performed this part in a much more entertaining fashion. Once the moving process starts, Lane and the movie as a whole improve.
The dangling piano sequence is a good one, well-conceived by Arbuckle and well-acted by Lane. It gets a lot out of a simple idea, and it reminds you of some of the classic Harold Lloyd sequences in the way that it combines humor and suspense. There are also a couple of other gags that Arbuckle seems to have borrowed and adapted from his friend Buster Keaton. They are funny and are well-executed, though they'll already be familiar to many viewers through Keaton's movies.