Acting
The storm, which takes up most of the second reel, is a trial run for the storm sequence in The Wizard Of Oz which Semon would make in 1925. Fox released a comedy that was an exact copy of Lightning Love just before the Semon film was due to come out. Albert E. Smith noticed the similarities and on September 5, 1923 attempted to have the Fox film pulled from the exhibitors.
Comedy on the golf links.
This early Keystone has Pete spying on his neighbor's wife through one of those little knotholes in a fence. The neighbor (Sterling) notices and chases him all over town with sheriff and family close behind. Fatty Arbuckle plays the peeper's wife(!).
A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz.
Larry having to go through a lot of trouble to get his girl. All from bomb baking cooks to high flying crashes.
Two criminals chase a plainclothes policeman who, while taking out his dog, witnesses their crime.
The Sportsman is an American film comedy first released in 1921, directed by Larry Semon and Norman Taurog. The film stars Larry Semon, Lucille Carlisle, Al Thompson, Frank Alexander and William Hauber.
In a dance hall, two members of the orchestra and a tipsy dancer fight over the hat check girl.
This early Chaplin film has him playing a character quite different from the Tramp for which he would become famous. He is a rich, upper-class gentleman whose romance is endangered when his girlfriend oversees him being embraced by a maid. Chaplin's romantic interest in this film, Minta Durfee, was the wife of fellow Keystone actor, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
A tramp gets drunk in a hotel lobby and, upstairs, causes some misunderstandings between Mabel, two hotel guests across the hall from her room, and Mabel's visiting sweetheart.
Charlie and a rival vie for the favor of their landlady.
A womanizing city man meets Tillie in the country. When he sees that her father has a very large bankroll for his workers, he persuades her to elope with him.
The Tramp, a film Johnnie (someone who loiters near theaters or studios to meet stars or get a job), attempts to meet his favorite movie actress at the Keystone Studio, but does not win friends there.
Jim, the apple of his mother's eyes, is the big-hearted galoot of a man and is sheriff of his small town. He is sweet on Nell, who he has known all his life. Just as he is about to propose to her, he finds out that he has missed his opportunity as Diamond Dan, a big city slicker, has already proposed to her, to which she's accepted.
When Fatty Arbuckle accidentally hits on the rajah, he declares, "Death to all flirts!" and hijinks ensue.
Larry's absurdly plush life of ease as a convict comes to an end when his sentence is up. Tossed out, he tries several ways, including a stickup to get back in the comfortable jail. Exchanging clothes with a lookalike escaped prisoner, he goes back, only to find he's to be hung. Now desperate to leave again, he joins other cons in a jailbreak.
Well-meaning but accident-prone bakery employee Larry is involved in numerous slapstick mishaps on the job. After accidentally causing the bakery owner to fall into a vat of cake batter Larry finds his job in jeopardy, but he redeems himself by foiling a robbery planned by the bakery foreman.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 'counter jumper' was the term used in both Britain and the U.S.A. to describe the lowest dogsbody clerk in a general store or emporium. Here, Semon is employed in that capacity in an Old West general store that caters for desperate characters. As usual for Semon, most of the gag set-ups are deeply contrived and implausible. We get here not one but two separate sequences in which randomly splattered stains just happen to resemble a human face.
Mabel tries to sell hot dogs at a car race, but isn't doing a very good job at it. She sets down the box of hot dogs and leaves them for a moment. Charlie finds them and gives them away to the hungry spectators at the track as Mabel frantically tries to find her lost box of hot dogs. Mabel finds out that Charlie has stolen them and sends the police after him. Chaos ensues.
Mabel and her beau go to an auto race and are joined by Charlie and his friend. As Charlie's friend is attempting to enter the raceway through a hole, the friend gets stuck and a policeman shows up.
