He Wouldn't Stay Down (1915)
*** (out of 4)
Funny black comedy has Charley Chase planning on murdering his best friend (Ford Sterling) so that he can then steal the insurance money from his wife. The title card calls this a "Farce Comedy" but that's probably because the term "black comedy" hadn't been invented yet. This comedy is pretty much as black as you can get as we not only get murder but also a suicide attempt to scare the wife. These dark subjects make for an extremely funny short from Keystone and it also let Chase shine as a director. He does a terrific job at keeping the film's pace at a high level and he perfectly milks the sequence where his character is trying to set the murder up. The drowning attempt and the follow up contain some very big laughs as does the ending where Sterling shows back up to seek revenge. I had been wanting to see Sterling in action for many years now and he certainly didn't disappoint as his comic timing was as great as everything I had heard and he really added a lot of entertainment to the movie. Chase is also at top-form playing that lovable bad guy that he would play countless times throughout the 1920s.
