Love in Armor (1915)
** (out of 4)
Fair comedy from Keystone has a coward (Charley Chase) afraid to go around the girl (Mae Busch) he loves parents. He ends up losing out on an invite to a party when a con man (Fritz Schade) hires two men to attack the girl so that he can run to the rescue and make a favorable impression on the parents. This comedy routine of the dorky boyfriend trying to impress the parents must have been going on for at least fifteen-years before this movie was released and it would continue to this day but this here just uses the story to minimum effect and in the end there aren't too many laughs to be had. I think the biggest mistake was keeping Chase out of the picture except for the start and finish. The center portion of the film isn't really strong enough to carry anything and it seems as if they weren't even trying to get any laughs. Busch doesn't make for the best love interest and Schade just doesn't have enough to work with. Even when Chase is on the screen the laughs are pretty weak and low key. The majority of the running time is just a set up for the final couple minutes and this just doesn't do anyone any good. A decent film but the topic has been done much better.