Although the two Chaplins, Syd and Charlie, are reported to be brothers on reasonably good authority, we have never attached much importance to that classification. It isn't a matter of looking up the records, for somebody else would surely have done it if we hadn't. But the mention of their relationship comes more by way of a passing observation than a significant thought, for the Chaplins have no connection whatsoever in the land of motion pictures, which is, after all, what we are dealing with.

Charlie is a finished director, a tragic, sympathetic, little actor, and a very great genius in his way. Syd is a funny man, and after you have said that you have said everything. Admittedly he has no further ambition than to make his public laugh. He is a gag man, a female impersonator, and somewhat of a slap-stick clown. In no wise does he resemble brother Charles.

"The Man on the Box" was originally dashed off in all seriousness by Harold MacGrath, who never wrote a funny thing in his life. Director Reisner has added certain obvious touches of humor, and Syd Chaplin's latest crop of gags has complete the remodelling. Why they over bothered about MacGrath's story in the first place one can scarcely say. It would have been much better to start clean; so to speak.

In its present form "The Man on the Box" is too long: It could have been about two reels shorter without anybody going home in disappointment. Then there is the helicopter invention which seeks to restrain the comedy from becoming entirely a slap-stick affair and succeeds only in worrying the audience all the way through.

Syd, having found that his female impersonation in "Charlie's Aunt" was good for a new swimming pool, has kept right at it here and turns himself into a serving maid, as well as a butler, a cabby, and an ordinary idiot. At times he is very, very funny. For particular commendation is his interpretation of the name Goldfish, done by signs and aerobatics.

We doubt whether this picture has the speed or the balance of "Charley's Aunt", but it is good for a great many laughs nevertheless.