In case you don't know the special lingo, at Sennett's lot the need for slapstick action and stunts was paramount. Some actors were just "stand-up actors," but the valuable ones could do things like "Brodies" (a particular kind of fall named for a man who leapt off the Brooklyn Bridge), or "108s" (a fall preceeded by a leap). Lloyd was a Brodie master and an adept 108-man, which made him especially useful.
Before long he would leave Sennett's employ to strike out on his own with Hal Roach, where his slapstick talents would catapult him to the forefront of American screen comedy, but in 1915 he got the rare chance to show his stuff in a Sennett film.
Court House Crooks concerns the villainous machinations of leading man Ford Sterling and his attempts to hide his affair with the judge's wife, Minta Durfee. Along the way, Lloyd gets framed for stealing a necklace. On the run for a crime he didn't commit, Lloyd takes flight in a chase scene that dominates the middle stretch of the film and shows what Lloyd would be capable of, as soon as he was in the starring role.
By David Kalat
