Larry Semon took over the Vitagraph comedy division, changed it from a drawing room comedy sort of production unit to one emphasizing more Keystone slapstick and starred and directed some good comedies with good cinematography. But eventually, although his stuff remained popular, his budgets ballooned out of control, his gags became repetitive and instead of an ensemble of comedians, it became about Semon. Did he run out of ideas? Was he simply unable to adjust to a more sophisticated way of constructing a comedy with a real plot and characters that would make an audience pay? Or was he just annoyed that Chaplin and Lloyd could do these things and thought that bigger booms would substitute?
In this short subject, we see Semon do a variation of Chaplin's THE ADVENTURER and while it is a decent enough comedy on its own terms, it doesn't begin to compare with the Chaplin effort. The gags are too cartoonish in their execution. It makes Semon, who doesn't give much of anyone screen time except for himself and Snooky the Humanzee, annoying. Also I can't accept a cast list which credits Norma Shearer as 'The Big V Beauty Squad' and ranks her after a Chimpanzee, even at the beginning of her career.
In this short subject, we see Semon do a variation of Chaplin's THE ADVENTURER and while it is a decent enough comedy on its own terms, it doesn't begin to compare with the Chaplin effort. The gags are too cartoonish in their execution. It makes Semon, who doesn't give much of anyone screen time except for himself and Snooky the Humanzee, annoying. Also I can't accept a cast list which credits Norma Shearer as 'The Big V Beauty Squad' and ranks her after a Chimpanzee, even at the beginning of her career.