User Reviews

Not the best of Laurel's solo silent films but a rather funny and almost surreal little film. It was shot on Catalina Island, and the primitive setting of 1925 is in stark contrast to the present day tourist and cruise destination it has become. A restored version can be found on Kino's Stan Laurel Collection, a highly recommended compilation of 17 of his silent movies before he teamed with Oliver Hardy in 1927. Laurel plays Winchell McSweeney, whose fisherman parents forced him to leave home and make it on his own when they can no longer afford to keep supporting him. He takes a boat out of the village, but accidentally sets the ship on fire when he attempts to take a photograph of the passengers. The women end up on the island with McSweeney, and is constantly pursued by them, including one Amazon-size girl. McSweeney threatens to throw himself off a cliff if the girls don't stop chasing him, but at that moment the men who were also shipwrecked wash ashore. Not needing the hero anymore, the Amazon-woman tosses him over the cliff anyway ( everything turns out fine in the end).