Her Torpedoed Love

Her Torpedoed Love (1917)

** (out of 4)

A worthless butler (Ford Sterling) learns that the boss he hates has left everything to the cook (Louise Fazenda) so he plans on killing of that boss as well as the cook's husband so that he can marry her and get all the money. HER TORPEDOED LOVE features a pretty wild story, which could have only come from Keystone during this period. Again, it's rather amazing to watch these films today and wonder why the moral police of 1917 weren't more upset over some of the plots to these films. This one here deals with various stages of murder, stealing a woman and countless other acts yet I'm sure people loved this back in the day. With that said, my love for it wasn't all that strong as I felt that once again we have a film that just doesn't contain enough laughs to make it worth viewing. The film clocks in at 20-minutes, which certainly seems to drag at times and it certainly doesn't help that not too much happens during the first ten minutes or so. The second half finally picks up as we get some action of a boat being hit by the "torpedo pirates" and this leads to a chase at the end once everyone realizes what's going on. Sterling is certainly the highlight of the film as he chews scenery like no other villain could. I really didn't care too much Fazenda as she was a bit too bland for my liking.

Louise Fazenda and Ford Sterling (evil butler) Charley Chase and Edgar Kennedy in small roles submarine pirates?

Ford Sterling played in a ton of films for Mack Sennett. He played a variety of roles--including heroes, the leader of the Keystone Kops as well as villains. In "Her Torpedoed Love" he's in the role of a slimy villain--a butler who wants to kill off his boss and marry the boss' cook--who is already married! Now here comes the ODD part of the plot--the plot to kill the boss. His boss has been sent a letter from a shipping company warning him about 'submarine pirates'(what's a submarine pirate???) and Ford alters the letter to make it sound like there are NO submarine pirates. And, so, the boss and the cook's husband head off to their probable demise. What's next? See the film to find out for yourself.

The film doesn't have a lot of laughs but it does have an engaging little plot. It also has Charley Chase and Edgar Kennedy in small supporting roles. Worth seeing if you are a huge fan of the genre--but a film that probably won't impress others.

By the way, one reason the film might mention 'submarine pirates' instead of German subs (which were a serious threat at the time) is that the US was not yet at war with Germany and I assume Keystone didn't want to alienate its audience by making the subs German. However, by the time the film came out in May, the US was officially at war with the Central Powers (including Germany) and I am surprised that they didn't go back and change the intertitle cards to make them the now dreaded Germans.