While it may not be the funniest Keystone comedy ever made, Settled at the Seaside is pleasant, lightly amusing, and typical of the "Fun Factory" at its peak. It's also brief, running little more than six minutes. This was a so-called split-reeler, which shared a reel with another short film of equal length, either a second comedy or perhaps a documentary of some sort.
Our setting is a seaside amusement park, and our leading players are Charley Chase and Mae Busch, who went on (separately) in later years to establish themselves as comedy stars at the Hal Roach Studio. They're cute and very chummy indeed in this film's opening courtship sequence. Charley offers Mae a ring. She kisses it, kisses him, and then fusses with his necktie. This results in a childish squabble, she storms off, and from there on the lovers are at odds. Mae flirts with a pudgy married man (Fritz Schade) who is saddled with a nagging wife (Gladys Brockwell). The wife is the unwilling subject of the film's most memorable sight gag, when the wicker roller-chair in which she's seated hurtles out of control, hooks onto a merry-go-round, gives her a few good spins, and then sends wife & chair flying headlong out onto the pier.
Mae, meanwhile, flirts madly with the lady's husband, but makes it a point to shoot a few smirks at the camera, just so viewers will know that this is all a great lark as far as she's concerned. While Charley angrily strides about the amusement park, in search of his girlfriend, Mae and Fritz strip down to their swimsuits and take turns diving from the pier into the ocean. Fritz earns the film's biggest laugh with an amusingly botched dive that turns into an awkward butt-flop. These scenes feel like cheerfully improvised home movies; in fact, the whole film feels like that.
That's about all there is to Settled at the Seaside, but fans of the leading players will get a kick out of it. It's nice to see Charley & Mae looking so young and sprightly, and having such a great time.