Monty Banks plays a romantic florist in this comedy short. Unfortunately, his girl (Ena Gregory) has a father who would rather see her married to a manly sea captain (William Blaisdell). The captain is determined to get the girl by any means possible and forges a "Dear John" letter for Banks to find. Heartbroken, he tries to drown himself at the pier but instead winds up on the captain's ship as it's about to take off. This is potentially even more fatal, since the captain has him thrown into an angry gorilla's cage. But Banks makes friends with the beast by teaching it to play craps. Eventually the ship returns to port and Banks gets a note from his sweetie -- her father is going to see her married to the captain unless Banks can make it to the ceremony before two o' clock. The captain locks him up, but with the gorilla's help, he makes it to his girl just in the nick of time. This short is a good example of why Monty Banks is little remembered today -- while some of his gags are no less funny than those of other, more famous silent clowns, he lacks a memorable screen presence and just barely carries the two reels it takes to tell this story.
by Janiss Garza
synopsis
