This is quite a fun little one-reeler from that perhaps most clownish of silent clowns, Larry Semon. From what I have seen of his work it is not his most typical, but none the less enjoyable. It's set in ancient Rome, where Larry is both King Seezer and a wandering minstrel (with some good early split-screen, it seems), so they switch places and Minstrel Larry gets a little too far with King Larry's favorite concubine.
The Roman setting provides ample opportunity for a very high concentration of gag titles, many of which are quite witty and many of which are quaint for deriving their humor from the juxtaposition of having ancient Romans use a lot of hip 1918-era slang. The whole thing is an excuse for a good send-up of how the Roman Empire has been depicted in "serious" plays, movies, &c.
When we reach the climax we are set up for a chase and some of Semon's trademarked large-scale and highly visually inventive gags, highlighted for me when he kicks over the Roman guards like a line of dominoes. This is much fun -- a nice silly treatment of a broad historical setting and more contained in its reel than what else I have seen from Semon.
The Roman setting provides ample opportunity for a very high concentration of gag titles, many of which are quite witty and many of which are quaint for deriving their humor from the juxtaposition of having ancient Romans use a lot of hip 1918-era slang. The whole thing is an excuse for a good send-up of how the Roman Empire has been depicted in "serious" plays, movies, &c.
When we reach the climax we are set up for a chase and some of Semon's trademarked large-scale and highly visually inventive gags, highlighted for me when he kicks over the Roman guards like a line of dominoes. This is much fun -- a nice silly treatment of a broad historical setting and more contained in its reel than what else I have seen from Semon.
