Kill or Cure

This one-reeler is essentially little more than a series of blackout gags built around Stan Laurel selling some patent medicine. It's unambitious and amusing enough, but not very memorable. The opening two gags, with Stan giving a spirited sales pitch to the deaf-mute, then speaking in outlandish sign language to an affronted older woman, are probably the best and bear the hallmark of Laurel's later, less ephemeral work. The the tirelessly brash salesman character he plays here is well-realized but not the kind of persona that could carry many films... or even necessarily a two-reeler... or even necessarily a one-reeler that required some kind of sequence of events. Still, it's fun and amusing -- just nothing special.