Love, Loot and Crash

Just watched this Mack Sennett Keystone silent comedy short on the Internet Archive. It would probably not be worth noting today except it has a couple of performers who would become famous later on: Charley Chase and Harold Lloyd. Chase plays a suitor of a woman whose father doesn't approve of him. Lloyd plays a fruit vendor whose cart keeps getting knocked off by cars passing by. Neither is recognizable since Chase doesn't have his mustache nor Lloyd have his glasses yet. The funniest person here is one Fritz Schade who plays a heavyset crook who disguises himself in drag as a cook for aforementioned woman and her father. Otherwise, it's mainly car chase scenes with added sequence of people falling down piers. Pretty funny even today if not completely hilarious. Still, if you're curious about two iconic comics in their early roles, Love, Loot, and Crash is worth a look for silent movie buffs.

Anyone looking for a good example of a typical Keystone product from the heyday of The Fun Factory is likely to enjoy Love, Loot and Crash, a movie whose title could well have served as a motto for the studio's output. This is a brief and enjoyable farce comedy, no masterpiece but amusing, and a "typical" Keystone in the sense that it's an ensemble piece without a dominant personality driving the action. There's no Chaplin or Arbuckle here, just a good solid team of performers romping their way through a scenario based on thwarted romance, mistaken identity, and criminality. It's a straightforward 1915 sitcom that culminates in a wild chase involving fast cars, a motorcycle, some ditch diggers, a prat-falling fruit vendor, and the Keystone Kops.

(Incidentally, it's been pointed out elsewhere in IMDb that the Sennett organization always utilized the correct spelling of the word "cops" in its films and publicity material, not "kops." For what it's worth, a quick Google search reveals some 119,000 usages of the phrase "Keystone Kops," so despite the studio's original practice it's clear that the "Kops" spelling has entered popular culture.)

Among the featured players in Love, Loot and Crash the best known is Charley Chase, who was only 21 years old at this time and barely recognizable to viewers familiar with his starring comedies of the 1920s and '30s. Here Charley acquits himself nicely as the smiling juvenile but has very little comic business to perform. Most of the laughs are earned by plump character actor Fritz Schade, who plays a crook disguised as a scullery maid and thus appears mostly in drag. Schade is amusing with his dainty gestures; there's a good moment when the local cop drops by to flirt with the plump new maid, and Schade turns to the camera to deliver a clearly lip-readable "Oh my God!" Still, the thought of Roscoe Arbuckle in the role points up how much funnier these scenes might have been.

Scholar Glenn Mitchell confirms in his book 'The A-Z of Silent Film Comedy' that the Italian fruit vendor is played by another promising young comedian on his way up, Harold Lloyd. He can be seen during the chase, performing wild falls. In later years, Lloyd teased his one- time employer Mack Sennett for not appreciating his abilities during his brief stint at Keystone. While that cannot be denied, Lloyd's modest contribution to this movie makes an already pleasant diversion still more enjoyable.

One of the all-time best Keytones, with great pacing and an unusually intricate plot for 1915. The car chase is among the best I've seen.

Look for a barely recognizable Charley Chase in his first really good film. A documentary I saw on Harold Lloyd leads me to believe Lloyd has a bit part as the fruit vendor who keeps getting knocked over. Can anyone confirm this?

Love, Loot and Cash (1915)

** (out of 4)

Keystone short has a father growing tired of messing up dinner so he puts an ad in the paper for a cook. A thief (Fritz Schade) dresses in drag and ends up getting job with plans on stealing everything in the house. As he makes his getaway thankfully the Keystone Cops are around and the chase is on. I'd be lying if I said I was a fan of the Keystone Cops. I've only seen a handful of their shorts so perhaps I just haven't seen the right one yet but I always find their films to lack any real laughs and that trend continues here. I didn't really laugh any during this film and I was especially disappointed in the way Schade was used. I've become a fan of his through the BECOMING CHARLEY CHASE set (where I watched this) and found him to be very funny but it seems like Sennett has him doing an impersonation of Fatty Arbuckle here as what's on display doesn't really seem to be his typical comedy. Charley Chase has a brief part of the man after the heart of the father's daughter but he too doesn't get much to do. The film does finally pick up some steam towards the end when we get to the actual chase. As expected, there's a lot of falling off high things and crashing through things, which is a staple of these shorts.

This comedy, according to IMDb, stars Charley Chase. However, he isn't the star of the film but is billed fourth (with his real name "Charles Parrot"). Chase and a buddy are up to no good and answer an ad looking for a cook. Disguised as a woman, this friend infiltrates the home until the scheme is discovered by a policeman. At this point, very typical "Keystone Kops" hi-jinx occurs--with a protracted chase, lots of pratfalls and a ton on slapstick. While none of this is atypical of these style films, this is a good example of the genre. Plus, for fans of Chase (like me), it's a good chance to see him in his less famous pre-Hal Roach Studio days. Watchable and breezy.