This was my first look at Larry Semon, he was introduced in the story as the dumb-bell, so take that for what it's worth. I saw this silent film short as part of a package of old Laurel and Hardy flicks, and Ollie, or Babe as he's credited here, shows up in the story as the mean spirited foreman of a sawmill, ostensibly in competition for the owner's daughter with Larry. Fans of Warner Brothers cartoons of the Forties and Fifties will recognize some of the gags here, like rowboats being maneuvered on land in rapid fashion and pratfalls taken off of high buildings. Some of this was probably considered imaginative for the 1920's, and more than a few stunts looked incredibly well done, but overall the story seemed pretty unmemorable to me. You could predict what was going to happen with most of the sight gags, like Larry Semon having his trousers seat cut off by the giant saw blade. What I'd like to know is how film goers reacted to this type of stuff going on some ninety years ago at a time when most of it was pretty brand new. Today these seem like interesting curiosity pieces, and with that in mind, it's worth the time to sneak one in every now and then.
Review of The Sawmill
