An amusing tour of the flophouses and the seedier side of Los Angeles, circa 1916, when you could REALLY be poor through no weakness of your own.
Charlie has just been let out of prison and tries to make his way through this Dickensian milieu without a cent. But he's spirited, enlivened by the challenge, not depressed.
A bit of theft here and there, a sad tale for the flophouse owner. When he impudently uses his cane to pull the feet out from under a police officer, the cop does a forward somersault in mid-air. There are pratfalls and then there are pratfalls.
The plot doesn't matter much. It rarely does in his earlier short. He is recruited by another criminal to help burglarize a house. They enter it and begin crashing into tables full of silverware, sitting on pianos, setting off alarm clocks and so on.
Charlie saves the pretty mistress of the house from harm by his partner and in return she gets him off when the police arrive.
Charlie has just been let out of prison and tries to make his way through this Dickensian milieu without a cent. But he's spirited, enlivened by the challenge, not depressed.
A bit of theft here and there, a sad tale for the flophouse owner. When he impudently uses his cane to pull the feet out from under a police officer, the cop does a forward somersault in mid-air. There are pratfalls and then there are pratfalls.
The plot doesn't matter much. It rarely does in his earlier short. He is recruited by another criminal to help burglarize a house. They enter it and begin crashing into tables full of silverware, sitting on pianos, setting off alarm clocks and so on.
Charlie saves the pretty mistress of the house from harm by his partner and in return she gets him off when the police arrive.