A Bird's a Bird

With some eliminations which will doubtless be made before the picture reaches the public this comedy which has no special value in any case will at least be received without adverse criticism. - The Moving Picture World, February 20, 1915

Chester Conklin's in-laws are coming over for dinner, and there's nothing to feed them.... or is there? Neighbor Slim Summerville has just cooked a turkey ....

Conklin was one of the mainstays of Sennett's operations and later played bit parts, the last more than half a century later in A BIG HAND FOR THE LITTLE LADY. He was as close to a utility comic as they came at Keystone and was often cast against some other, larger character, often Mack Swain, with whom he was the aggressive little guy.

Here it's Summerville, who had a far more distinguished career until his death in 1946. Summerville played a major supporting role in ALL'S QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, was a frequent co-star of Zasu Pitts and the year he died had a major supporting role in THE HOODLUM SAINT -- in which Conklin had a minor supporting role. The two get into a series of escalating tiffs and the supporting players, including Al Saint John in a heavy beard and Minta Durfee are the unwitting bystanders.

It's pretty much a standard Keystone for the era, but certainly competently done.

A Bird's a Bird (1915)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Keystone short has Mr. Walrus (Chester Conklin) coming home and learning that his in-laws are coming over for dinner. He doesn't have anything to serve them so he steals Mr. Spegle's (Slim Summerville) turkey not knowing that he's going to be joining them for dinner. A BIRD'S A BIRD was actually a lot better than I was expecting it to be, although it's certainly far from a classic. I thought the film being two-reels dragged in certain spots and especially early on and it seems each scene just kept going and going. Things started to pick up as it went along and starting with a pretty funny sequence where Mr. Walrus thinks about serving them his parrot or perhaps the cat. The highlight of the film deals with the father (Al St. John) and his extremely long beard. I won't ruin what happens but it was without question one of the funnier moments from any Keystone film I've seen. Both Conklin and Summerville have a nice chemistry in the scenes they share together and they certainly make the material much better than it actually is.