User Reviews

Nowadays, some might call this a "romcom." (I wouldn't, but feel free to do so.) That is, it's a romantic comedy involving a pair of young lovers, in this case Charley Chase and Mae Busch, and the obstacles they must overcome—mainly, her disapproving parents—before they are permitted to hook up. Love in Armor is one of several shorts Charley and Mae made together around this time, and it's a mildly amusing romp for Keystone fans, perhaps a tad less chaotic than some, at least until the wild finale. I tend to enjoy the Chase/Busch pairings, not only because they make a nice couple, but because, as a fan of their later work for Hal Roach, I find it interesting, and a little poignant, to see them when they were so bright-eyed and youthful, back in their apprenticeship days with Mack Sennett.

Weirdly enough, while watching this short I found myself thinking of the comedy of Shakespeare's day. The plot of Love in Armor, with only slight adjustments, could have been used on stage in Elizabethan times. (And I'll bet it was, under various titles.) Mae comes from a wealthy family, and although Charley seems like a perfectly decent young fellow, her parents disapprove of him, and forbid them to meet. Why? Because he's not upper crust. Meanwhile, the low comedy maid and butler in Mae's household engage in lots of vigorous knockabout, which is also very Shakespearean. Charley and Mae steal off together to a nearby park to do some spooning, but it is there that Mae comes to the attention of an icky corpulent man (Fritz Schade) who comes from Europe, possibly Germany—he's described in a title card as "The Foreign Person," and dresses rather differently from the other characters. (Although this film was made during the Great War, his nationality isn't really an issue; and besides, America was still officially neutral.) This shady character, who is immediately smitten with Mae, hires a pair of goons to rough her up, so that he can come to her rescue. His scheme unfolds as planned, and Mae's parents show up just in time to witness it. Our bogus hero introduces himself as Baron Von Hossenfeffer. The parents are duly impressed, and invite the dignitary to Mae's party that very evening.

Charley is not invited to the party, but he slips in anyway, and disguises himself in a suit of knight's armor. In a highly unlikely coincidence, the two thugs hired by the Baron earlier that day just happen to show up at Mae's home, during her big party, to burglarize the place. Charley, still clad in armor, eventually manages to subdue the burglars, expose the Foreign Person as a scoundrel, and win over Mae's parents. After a typically frenzied Keystone mêlée, the short ends with a nice closeup of our triumphant couple, kissing.

Mr. Chase, at this early stage in his career, makes a pleasant juvenile lead, but I especially enjoy watching Mae Busch in these pairings. We're more accustomed to seeing her in talkies, that is, the older, hardened Mae who often played Mrs. Hardy, and gave her husband hell; it's a treat to see her so young and pert, as she larks about with Charley behind her parents' backs, having such fun. The Roach Studio version of Mae is battle-scarred and cynical, but Keystone's Mae is saucy and sassy. She's quite cute, and it's a pleasure to spend time with her.

Another flirting in the park comedy from Keystone, and still in a raw and chaotic form, sustained, for the modern viewer, by the careful editing -- at this stage, Keystone probably had the best editing in the industry. The slapstick is raw and unrefined, with many a kick in the backside.

Most interesting is the -- in the context of the Keystone mayhem -- naturalism of Charley Chase and the gorgeous Cecile Arnold as the young lovers. When Chase became a leading comedy star for Roach in the 1920s and the 1930s, he managed to combine that naturalism with a sharp comedy construction for some of the best comedy shorts of the period. Here, caught in the midst of the Keystone zanies, that makes him stand out as engaging and even funnier to the modern eye. The result, while not great, is worth a look.

Mae Busch and Charley Chase are in love. However, her father does not approve. A Baron sees Mae and concocts a fake kidnapping in order to get her attention. In other words, he pays two guys to pretend to try to abduct her and the Baron waltzes in like a hero and saves her. Well, the scheme seems to work as her family think the Baron is great and invite him to the house. But Charley and the two accomplices have other ideas...

In the period from about 1913-1916, Keystone was the producer of most of the best comedies Hollywood had to offer. While some are VERY rough by today's standards and too many rely too much on mindless violence, they generally hold up well today, though most are not what you might consider classics. Good...but rough.

This occasionally rough Keystone comedy has a couple distinctions that set it apart. First, it's one of the earliest comedies that starred Charley Chase. Second, it's a bit more plot-driven and less slapsticky than a typical film of the time. Though I must admit that the cactus bit was a bit lame as it was overused...a lot!

The first half of this early Keystone comedy is basically set-up, and the second half is delivery. The set-up portion, delivering the situation to us (boy loves girl, family doesn't like him, family prefers foreign baron who stages an attack by thieves so he can rescue her) plays rather generically and dully. The second half, once we are set with what's going on, is quite funny, being based on two quite well-executed situation sequences involving a well-timed extended gag with a piece of cactus and the boy disguised in a suit of armor.

The boy is a very young Charley Chase, here Keystone's youthful-comic romantic interest. He's not as developed a performer as one might be used to seeing, but the awkward situation of being caught gatecrashing a party by hiding in the armor is just the kind of very amusing absurd-logic situation we might associate with his later Hal Roach comedies. It's also very pleasant to see a young Mae Busch here.

This is a legitimately funny little Sennett film, livened by some funny business with Charley interfering with the party while only Mae knows he is disguised, and a great glimpse of Chase at the start of his career. If only this had been made as a two-reeler, perhaps a little later, the set-up wouldn't take up so much of the running time!

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.

This is an exceptionally good farce comedy with Max Davidson in the lead. As is usual in pictures of the farce comedy order, it is not always the story that counts. What happens when Baron Von Haussenfefer after gaining entree to the home of the young woman of his choice, is caught stealing her diamond necklace, and is set upon by the girl's real sweetheart, who is biding in a suit of armor, is well worth the seeing. - The Moving Picture World, April 3, 1915