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21 Mins.; One (5); Full Stage (16).
Robert E. O’Connor has sketch with crooked politicians and police graft collectors as the ground work. Three characters all men. The opening in “one” is the ordinary street drop of the house with a tramp carrying a sandwich sign. O’Connor as a crook meets him. and there is some cross fire principally touching panhandling operations and a general panning for organized charity. The two decide to turn a trick in a house close by. The full stage set is the interior of the home of the politician. Here they pack away the servant for safe keeping and O’Connor makes a quick change to a dinner coat in time to grab off the crooked collector of graft from the gamblers. He was really only after evidence against the politician who was the cause of his father being dismissed from the police force some years before. Of the graft money that is turned over to him he slips the tramp $2,700 to lift the mortgage on the old farm and with the checks he beats it to the office of his paper to write the expose. The comedy element is strong enough to overshadow the melodramatic quality and the playlet because of this is worth while for once around the big time at least.
Source:
Variety LVIII: 6 April 1920