Dirty Work in a Laundry

I've been trying to look at this for years, but every other copy has been too beat up. Finally, a copy in decent shape! It's Ford Sterling in Dutch gear, snarling to beat the band. He won't steal candy from a baby, because the baby hasn't got any, but he will steal milk from its bottle. He escapes to a laundry where he flirts with Minta Durfee, but when the cash receipts fly into his hat, he leaves, only to return for a melodrama ending and the Keystone Kops against their erstwhile Chief.

By the summer of 1915, this type of comedy was a bit old-fashioned at Keystone, but Chaplin had left and Arbuckle was about to flee to faraway New Jersey where he could make interesting comedies without Sennett bothering him. Sterling was always a popular actor at Keystone -- indeed, he was a fine actor in general, as his career would later demonstrate. Why not take the tried-and-true tropes, the flirting in the park, the burlesque-Griffith chase, the Kops, and give them a try at 20 minutes .... long for Keystone, despite the previous year's TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE? The result is a good short, carried on the charms -- hardly the right word -- of its star/director.