Hoping to cash in on the popularity of his former employee Charlie Chaplin, producer Mack Sennett hired Charlie's half-brother Sydney Chaplin, an excellent farceur in his own right, to star in series of Keystone comedies. Syd's best-remembered effort from this era was the 4-reel "special" A Submarine Pirate, a spoof of contemporary war melodramas. Cast in his familiar "Gussle" characterization (wing-tipped moustache, baggy pants and all), Chaplin plays a clumsy waiter who happens to overhear a band of pirates who plan to seize control of a submarine. Armed primarily with kitchen utensils and an excess of nerve, our hero boards the captured sub, rounds up the villains, and blows up the vessel, all in record time. Sydney Chaplin served as co-director of A Submarine Pirate, while future director Wesley Ruggles essayed a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi