This "Jimmy Jump" one-reel comedy from Charley Chase, the fourth in the series, was a big departure from the first three. Charley's character, though now not wearing his usual moustache, remains the same person, but now he's no longer in a realistic situation -- or the realistic result of an unrealistic situation.
Charley plays a traveling salesman of collapsible lightning rods in the old west (a fun joke that not much more comes from) in the wild West. Most of the film plays out as an amped-up parody of Western action films. There are some funny scenes here, as Charley keeps blundering into the middle of a raid and getting stuck with the wad of money that the bandits are after, but nothing really works as well as when the humor comes organically from the situation in a typical Charley Chase comedy.
There was nothing particularly original about satirizing Westerns, and Charley's role here could have been taken by most any other comedian; it doesn't really suit his personal comic talents except in a few scenes. The funniest of these is where he and another man secretly pass off the dangerous money to each other. Mainly though, another comedian could have taken Chase's place here without too much damage.
This short definitely has some funny moments, but it's not up to the quality of what Chase was producing when he was developing his personal style of comedy; I'm glad he saw that too and got back to it!
