Let's get the errors from the previous reviewer's comments out of the way. This was not Sennett's first project. He had been writing for Griffith for three years, may have co-directed THE CURTAIN ROD, and had directed four or five comedies for his own unit at Biograph before this one. Plus acting for Griffith.
The story is a burlesque of Sherlock Holmes stories. A couple get a valuable piece of jewelry stolen, and offer the eponymous reward. Mack Sennett and Fred Mace are two private eyes who imagine themselves Sherlock Holmes, with deerstalker caps and fake mustaches. They decide they want to find the crook. Comedy ensues.
It's pretty good, mostly because it's silly. Most of Sennett's Biograph movies are modeled on the standard comedies of the era, but without much in the way of the mugging and sheer slapstick that would be the core of Keystone's remit. It worked, and apparently his bosses told him not to do that, because we do real acting here.
The story is a burlesque of Sherlock Holmes stories. A couple get a valuable piece of jewelry stolen, and offer the eponymous reward. Mack Sennett and Fred Mace are two private eyes who imagine themselves Sherlock Holmes, with deerstalker caps and fake mustaches. They decide they want to find the crook. Comedy ensues.
It's pretty good, mostly because it's silly. Most of Sennett's Biograph movies are modeled on the standard comedies of the era, but without much in the way of the mugging and sheer slapstick that would be the core of Keystone's remit. It worked, and apparently his bosses told him not to do that, because we do real acting here.
