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This comedy short, Cupid's Rival, was the next-to-last one featured on disc one of the "American Slapstick" DVD collection. In this one, Charlie Chaplin impersonator Billy West is a porter at a hotel who brings his boss, a successful painter, breakfast. Across the hall, another painter-a struggling one-is barely living on enough to eat. That painter is played by Babe Hardy who would later go professionally by his real name of Oliver Hardy of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team. Oh, and there's a girlfriend of Hardy's who causes jealousy when she poses for the other painter. Like many of Chaplin's shorts he made for Mack Sennett, West here causes lots of chaos-accidental or otherwise-and there's plenty of punches-missed or otherwise, and, oh, Babe dresses as a woman at one point to keep on eye on his girlfriend. That he actually looked pretty convincing as such made me laugh heartily during those scenes. Overall, Cupid's Rival was quite funny throughout thanks to both West and Hardy.
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