I'm very fond of the Andy Clyde Columbia shorts. His slow reactions to the high-speed Columbia crashes were always a nice contrast.
Here, working with Del Lord, one of his old Sennett directors, the team has crafted a very nice short subject with a good curve of increasing insanity. Andy comes into Los Angeles to get a tractor dealership and his mean sister-in-law incites his wife to follow lest he indulge in hanky-panky. Of course there is a comedy of misunderstanding, starting with a fine turn by movie drunk Arthur Houseman.
This being a Del Lord short, there are some nice auto gags -- Lord got his start as a Keystone Kop as a stunt driver -- and as the situations become more and more bizarre, Andy is always amusing with his bemusement. If the story logic breaks down at the very end, well, by then the audience is too busy laughing to notice. All in all, a fine Sennett-style comedy that demonstrates how, for a short while anyway, the Columbia shorts department was its worthy successor.
