Charles Murray started off in vaudeville where he was part of a double-act called Murray and Mack which he gave up after he joined Biograph in 1912 but it is really in vaudeville that he belongs and, although he had a surprisingly long career i films as a third-string comedian, he remained to the end an uregenerate vaudevillian in his approach and style. 1914-1915 was his finest hour with a series of his own as a character, whose only distinguishing feature seems to be his floppy hat.
Avery who directed the films sems to have quite remarkable lack of inspiration. At one point in this film he uses the gag about tramp who steals a baby's bottle to drink the milk.
To give somehow idea how many whiskers there were already growing on this particular gag, Biographj, when they first filmed it in 1897 (still of course Mutoscope and Biograph in those days) described it as "an old favourite". When they next filmed it in 1902 (Edison and the British company Bamforth had also filmed it in the meantime), they referred to it as "an old and time-honored joke". This did not stop from remaking it yet again in 1904 (the British film-maker William Haggar had remade it in 1903). Time had evidently got fed up with honouring the gag by 1915 so Charles Avery evidently thought he would do the honouring instead.
