Not much survives of this, Stan Laurel's first movie. By my watch, assuming that it was cranked at the right speed, just 73 seconds, which involve Stan, wearing a tricorn hat, almost getting run over by a steamroller, then getting on it and having it move in various unusual maneuvers and speeds. At the end, he appears in a nice straw boater and blue blazer, and he is dragged off by various people, presumably to a nut house.
What can I usefully say about this film? It is nothing, just another scrap of film from another of the innumerable short comedies produced in the 1910s and 1920s, except that, of course, Stan Laurel would be teamed up with Oliver Hardy a decade later and star, direct and write some of the greatest film comedies that exist.
But at this stage, he is .... not much. True, he was a former member of the Fred Karno troupe, whence Chaplin had come... and later, the great British comedian and astronomer, Will Hay. But for the moment, he is someone whose potential lay in the future.
I rate this a 5 out of ten, but for historical interest only.
