Peanuts and Bullets

Peanuts and Bullets (1915)

*** (out of 4)

Charley Chase plays a starving artist who gets into with a fruit vendor (Harry McCoy) after trying to steal some food. Chase returns to his apartment where his landlady bugs him for the rent and then the day gets worse by running into his weight-lifting neighbor (Fritz Schade). After a day full of bad things Charley gets to see the woman everyone's crazy about as well as plan revenge on the vendor. This Keystone short is actually a pretty good little film that offers up quite a few laughs and memorable moments. Even at this early stage in his career Chase manages to be very charming and that devilish side lurking beneath that smile is on full display. I really enjoyed the physical style of humor he brought to the film including a funny sequence with him running up the stairs trying to avoid the landlady. He also has nice timing with McCoy who plays the fruit vendor and their scenes together manage a few laughs as well. Future director Edward F. Cline plays a cop here who keeps harassing the vendor and manages even more laughs. Being Keystone, the film ends with a wild chase and crash, which is what we expect and it's pretty exciting as well.

While "Peanuts and Bullets" is no great comedy, compared to the typical slapstick film of the time being produced by Keystone, this one is a bit better than average. It still has a lot of the usual mindless slapstick and violence of such a film but it also features Charley Chase in one of his earliest leading roles--well before he became famous.

Charley is broke and hungry. Much of the film consists of him devising various ways to steal fruit from a vendor operating his cart outside his apartment. In addition, he's smitten with a girl (Mae Busch) but so is everyone. So how can he get food and the girl? I must admit this is not the most sophisticated comedy--but frankly, for 1915, that's pretty typical. Bonking, exploding bullets and the like are pretty much what you'd find in any comedy then--and this is no different than the norm. Not bad, not great but still funny today.

By the way, you might be shocked to see it, but it was NOT unusual to see black characters played by white folks in makeup like you see in this film. Pretty weird but at least the black character was not played in an overtly offensive manner.

There is not much of a plot to this film. A very young Charley Chase is a starving artist. He does not have much luck stealing fruit from a food vendor's cart. He cannot escape from his landlady, who wants the overdue rent. When a pretty girl shows up, Charley and his downstairs neighbor, who is a weightlifter, compete for her affections.

The title refers to Charley's revenge on the food vendor. Rather than shooting the poor guy with a gun, Charley empties the bullets into the roasting peanuts! The bullets start flying, and the whole cast runs for cover.

Since there are not that many real gags, and the characters are standard Sennett types who mostly run around and act silly, the film is not that funny. On the other hand, if you are a Charly Chase fan, you should catch this one just to appreciate his development as a comedian.

This very early Charley Chase (or rather, at this point, Charles Parrott) film sees him performing in probably the largest role of this Keystone comedy as a very poor boarder who can't pay his rent and has to steal food in order to eat. At this stage in his career he is overplaying a lot of moments very dramatically. It looks a little absurd, especially when he is alone. There are a few moments that hint of his later characteristic fussiness, especially with the girl. This film relies on a climax of typical Keystone-style slapstick at the end, but it nice in that we get the opportunity to become familiar with a few different characters around the boardinghouse over the course of the reel. However, before the climax there are really only a couple of significant comedy moments -- the gag (quite clever) in which the boarder devises a trick to steal fruit from upstairs, and the totally bizarre title gag which leads into the finale. It's a pleasant little one-reeler, but could have used a little more definite comedy content. It's most interesting now for its view of the very early comic development of the great Charley Chase.