When Keystone comedies are mentioned we tend to think of the finales: crazy chases involving fast cars, people on bicycles peddling past a spinning cyclorama, and cops careening around in patrol wagons. The rudimentary plots that culminate in this frantic activity usually involve adultery (suspected or genuine), impersonation and/or mistaken identity, larceny, and sometimes terrorism, which in those simpler days meant crooks or "anarchists" who would hurl bombs that looked like bowling balls with smoky fuses. Most Keystone comedies appear to have been improvised from scene to scene with only a loose sense of plot, and much of the humor stems from slapstick violence, dangerous-looking falls, occasional satirical touches, and broad mugging by the actors. Only rarely do we find the methodical, carefully prepared gag sequences that distinguish the later work of Keaton, Lloyd, or Laurel & Hardy.
Our Dare-Devil Chief is a prime Keystone comedy that relies on some, though not all, of the ingredients cited above. Our star is Ford Sterling, recalled primarily as Chief of the Keystone Cops (or "Kops" if you prefer), the role he plays here. Sterling was a former circus clown and it shows in his work: subtlety was not in his repertoire, at least in these early appearances. He mugs outrageously, flings his arms about, and indicates surprise by hopping in the air. Ordinarily this sort of thing gets old fast, but I have to confess I find the guy fun to watch, at least in small doses. Sterling's repertoire was frankly rather limited, but he had an undeniable flair for comic overacting, and in later years he also demonstrated that he could underplay -- comparatively speaking, that is -- and still be amusing in such films as the 1919 Sennett short Hearts and Flowers, or the 1926 feature The Show Off, in which he played opposite the young Louise Brooks.
Meanwhile, however, the 1915 Model-A Ford is the one on display in the title role of Our Dare-Devil Chief, back when it was believed that underplaying in the name of subtlety was no virtue, and overplaying in the name of comedy was no vice. In the opening scene we meet the Mayor (Harry Bernard) and his wife (Minta Durfee), and learn that she is apparently in love with the Police Chief; or at any rate that she possesses a framed photo of him and likes to gaze upon it fondly. A title card tells us that the Mayor is widely regarded with respect, which proves to be an ironic set-up for the central plot: a criminal gang is determined to assassinate him with dynamite, apparently because he's a "meddling boob." First however, just to demonstrate their esteem for him, the gang's leader picks the Mayor's pocket on a public street. Subsequently the Mayor arrives at his office to find the Chief of Police asleep at his desk; Ford's strenuous gyrations indicating embarrassment set the tone for the rest of his performance. After the criminal gang thoughtfully sends their intended victim a note warning that they're going to murder him, the Mayor sees Ford in conversation with the gang's leader and begins to suspect they're in cahoots. It wouldn't be a Keystone comedy if people didn't jump to conclusions on scant evidence.
Soon afterward the Chief is sent to deliver a package to the Mayor's wife, and she seizes the opportunity to make time with him, challenging him to a spirited game of hide-and-go-seek (?!?!). While they're engaged in this merry activity a gang member (played by Al St. John) breaks into the house, locks the pair of them in a closet together, and proceeds to burglarize the place; amusingly, he takes the cheapest and least desirable items in the household. The Chief and the Mayor's wife manage to escape from the closet, but Ford gets himself in hot water again later when a bomb is delivered to the Mayor disguised as a gift from the grateful townspeople, and Ford, hoping to re-establish himself with his boss, alters the tag to suggest that he sent the "gift" himself. The bomb goes off, but fortunately packs no more wallop than an explosion in a Tex Avery cartoon, leaving its recipient disheveled and angry but otherwise intact. The Mayor demands that Ford retrieve his household goods from the crooks, so the Chief heads to their hideout for a confrontation. The fight with the crooks serves as the film's finale, as our hero somehow ends up tied to a rope connected to a pulley, getting flung out the second-floor window and then yanked back into the room again. It's hard to describe, but funny to watch.
The only thing this comedy lacks to make it a total Keystone experience is a chase involving cars or other vehicles. All the chasing at the finale occurs on foot, but otherwise Our Dare-Devil Chief is about as Keystone as it gets. Watch it in the right frame of mind and you'll laugh, which was the whole idea in the first place.
