Sailor-suited Billy Dooley must get a dress uniform from the captain's daughter, Vera Steadman. Miss Steadman is, of course, a student as a girl's school, with the usual watchdogs on duty.
It's another of the late-silent comedy shorts that the Christie Brothers produced for release by Paramount. While Roach's gag construction was leavened by characterization and Sennett's by sheer, absurd assumptions, to the Christies, a plot was something that permitted the highly competent comics to get from one gag to the next as quickly as possible, and character was indicated solely by costume. It was almost pure circus clowning, and Dooley, who had been a stage dancer before this series, knew how to take a pratfall, make big gestures, and assume a simpleton's face. The result was almost invariably a highly competent, although not particularly memorable screen comedy.
And so is this. The only thing of note is that Miss Steadman gets to show some comedy chops with a couple of well-executed pratfalls of her own.
It's another of the late-silent comedy shorts that the Christie Brothers produced for release by Paramount. While Roach's gag construction was leavened by characterization and Sennett's by sheer, absurd assumptions, to the Christies, a plot was something that permitted the highly competent comics to get from one gag to the next as quickly as possible, and character was indicated solely by costume. It was almost pure circus clowning, and Dooley, who had been a stage dancer before this series, knew how to take a pratfall, make big gestures, and assume a simpleton's face. The result was almost invariably a highly competent, although not particularly memorable screen comedy.
And so is this. The only thing of note is that Miss Steadman gets to show some comedy chops with a couple of well-executed pratfalls of her own.
