This decent parody feature is one of the movies written and directed by Roscoe Arbuckle (under a pseudonym) after he was blacklisted. Al St. John stars in a send-up of the kind of serial melodramas that had become so common at the time. It sorely misses Arbuckle's talent on the screen, but it has enough to make for some entertaining moments.
St. John plays a villainous gang leader who steals some papers, abducts a young woman, and then tries to do away with her and with the hero who comes to save her. St. John was a good supporting player in slapstick comedies, always willing to go over-the-top in his portrayals of heavies, romantic rivals, or whatever else Arbuckle, Keaton, or some other star needed. He gives the same energy to the villain here, but it's not quite as effective because there's no one else to balance it out.
Arbuckle's story has some clever satirical ideas. The title cards present the story as a mock serial, with numerous contrived cliffhangers, and the story makes use of numerous clichés from the genre, even including a scene in which the villains try to do away with the heroine in a sawmill. It's certainly not on the level of Arbuckle's classic on-screen comedies, but it's entertaining enough to be worth seeing.
