Some swindlers con Monte Collins out of a thousand dollars of Fern Emmett's money in return for a goat in this funny short comedy directed by Roscoe Arbuckle.
Fair warning: I am a sucker for confidence games movies, so you might not find this as funny as I do. Certainly, the players are a touch mechanical in their performances, but the lovely series of confidence tricks is very nicely applied, with a very hungry goat.
The confidence game this is based on has several variations, like the Gold Ring Drop and the Fiddle Game. In the latter, a man leaves a violin at a restaurant as security for his meal; it's his one possession and he has treasured it for decades, while he goes to fetch some money. His partner then claims to be a dealer in rare musical instruments. He proclaims it a Stradivarius or an Amati, and says he will pay $10,000 for it. He leaves a business card with the restaurateur to give to the violin owner. Of course, when the owner returns with his money, the restaurateur will buy it from him.
