Douglas MacLean is the nephew of John Stepping, who owns a bond brokerage house. MacLean wants to marry pretty actress Margaret Loomis. Stepping disapproves, and disinherits MacLean. When MacLean speaks with Miss Loomis at her hotel, she says a young man should work. Confronted with the prospect of working or starving, MacLean becomes a bellboy at the hotel, whither Stepping comes to track him down.
Looking at this movie, I was struck by how much it resembled the sort of feature that Harold Lloyd was appearing in for Hal Roach; there is even a thrill comedy sequence in which MacLean is perched on a high ledge, overlooking traffic. It's hardly surprising, as both men were working as light comedians, and making use of the same sort of gags. MacLean's feature, is perhaps better balanced, in that Stepping gets a funny sequence to show off his comedy chops, as he wanders from hotel room to hotel room, thinking each his own, encountering pretty girls in various states of undress.
After appearing on the stage and as a supporting juvenile, MacLean was hired by Thomas Ince to play the young go-getter in comedies. With his breakout movie, 23 1/2 HOUR LEAVE, MacLean was set in his star persona, a character he would play through the end of the silent era. At that point, he shifted to the role of producer, and continued through 1941. He died in 1967, age 77.
Although his disappearance from the screen made his memory vanish except for a few specialists in old films, his work is strong, and naturalistic. During the 1920s, he starred in more comedy features than the 'Big Three' - Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd - put together. working with the Library of Congress, silent film historian Ben Model has released this forgotten comedy and MacLean's ONE A MINUTE on dvd, with his own delightful score.
