Heroic Ambrose

Some pretty girls are cavorting by the rocky Pacific shore, diving into the waters, when up comes Mack Swain. He wants to play too, but even this most accomplished of comic scene stealers is going to have a hard time upstaging half a dozen pretty girls in bathing suits.

It's a pretty simple and primitive comedy for the period, and it's only one reel in length, but if you enjoy pretty girls and Mack Swain, you'll have a good few minutes. Swain had left Keystone by this time - heck! Mack Sennet had left Keystone the year before - but that didn't stop him from being a popular screen comic.

In the 1910s, Mack Swain appeared in a lot of films playing Ambrose at Keystone Pictures. However, by 1919, he was working with Frohman Amusement Corporation where he made two films. Fortunately, quite a few of the Swain comedies exist today...including "Heroic Ambrose".

This film clocks in at about 12 minutes and is available on YouTube. It also is in excellent chape for its age.

The beginning of the film is practically plotless. You see a lot of bathing beauties of the day doing high dives into the ocean. Eventually, Ambrose arrives with his firlfriend and her mother. However, he mostly hangs out with the beautiful ladies...who, for some odd reason, seem interested in him. However, soon they begin throwing rocks at each other for no apparent reason. One of these flies off and hits a row boat...sinking it. So, Ambrose goes into hero mode and tries to save the couple in the boat from drowning...and TRIES is the operative word.

While this is NOT all that funny a film, the quality is better than many of the Keysone Ambrose quality because it relies less on cheap violence and slapstick as opposed to the story. A pleasant little film.