A Fresh Start

Lige Conley and Jimmie Adams get out of jail with instructions from warden Frank Coleman to get a fresh start. After lifting his wallet, they get a job as waiters, where they lust after Marvel Rea, who happens to be Coleman's wife. Since they all live in the same boarding house (along with a lion) , it soon turns into the usual free-for-all.

Director Jack White had started out as an editor and gotten a leg into directing by rescuing a troubled comedy through those skills. He parlayed this into a fine stint as a producer of comedy shorts during the silent era. This was because he could get a lot of talent who could build their own movies: a disgraced Roscoe Arbuckle, Charley Chase before he went to Roach, Lloyd Hamilton, Lupino Lane, and so forth. On his own, he stuck to the tried-and-true and didn't worry about logic so much as speed. Neither Adams nor Conley were the comics to fight him. The result here is fast, furious, and rather stupid.