Black Oxfords

A gormless hero, freshly escaped from jail, dons a pair of BLACK OXFORDS and wins a horse race through the lamest cheating ever attempted in motion pictures. Will he nonetheless pay the mortgage, win the girl, and be pardoned for the crime he did not commit?

Since this is Sennett at its most average, its a pretty good spot to see how its comedy had evolved by 1924. This is not a crude Keystone, by any means. The gags now are more involved, visual and frequently quite creative. The influence coming from Felix the Cat and other silent animation is notable -- first in that animation is actually used here and there to complete a gag and second in that much of the humor comes from visual outrageousness. When this works -- mostly in the prison baseball game in the first reel -- the result is quite wonderful. But, in this film, it mostly does not work. There is a fake cow milking scene in the middle which would totally work in a Tex Avery opus, but just doesn't work in the reality imposed by live action film.

Once can see why, by 1935, this sort of comedy was long gone. But one can see why it would return by the 40s, wilder than ever, over at the Warner Brothers and MGM cartoon factories.