The Heart Snatcher

In this rather chaotic comedy, Jack Cooper starts off as a burglar, trying to steal the gifts at Marvel Rea's birthday party. After that fails, he takes refuge at Kewpie Morgan's blacksmith/garage, where the rate of random gags does not slacken for a second.

Like others of the rarely surviving Fox Sunshine comedies, it's clear that no expense has been spared, from a large cast of skilled comics, to some elaborate mechanical gags. What I found most interesting was the camerawork. Cameraman K. C. MacLean has fallen in love with the use of door frames, window frames, and other techniques for changing the aspects of the camera frame. MacLean would soon shift to special effects photography.

"The Heart Snatcher" is a frenetically paced film from Fox Films with very little in the way of plot. Jack Cooper essentially goes through the film causing trouble and practically every slapstick gag you could imagine is heaped into the film. It has so many gags so often that after a while you don't mind how mindless it all is. You'll see lots of folks bonking each other on the head, explosions, police chases, the extensive use of Chloroform, and much more. You'll even see a bad cliche of the era...a person in black face. All in all, a fun film simply because of its pacing and HUGE number of gags....though you could do better.