After Charley abandons his decrepit jalopy to a used car lot, he then convinces the gangster to buy the car, which promptly falls to pieces. Charley finds himself in even deeper hot water when he helps out his boss (William J. Kelly) who has been flirting with the gangster's wife (Symona Boniface) by whisking her away to a remote mountain cabin to hide. The gun-man is soon on her trail and an ongoing roundelay of hijinks ensue as the wife and Charley both disguised as the lodge's caretaker (James Parrott, Charley Chase's brother) hide from her husband, with Charley's own jealous wife soon joining the comic melee.
The silent cinema has its share of legends: Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd. The lesser known Charley Chase should also be added to this list.
The older brother of fellow silent comedian James Parrott, Charley Chase was born in 1893 Maryland as Charlie Parrott, a man who would come to make a definitive mark in the silent film of the early teens. While other silent comedians were drawn to slapstick, Chase more often dealt in situation comedy and farce. His comic persona was that of a well-dressed and amiable young man without the exaggerated make-up or persona of some of his comic peers.
Chase entered film in 1912, though his most important tenure would come at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios where he also directed, under the name Charlie Parrott. After directing stints at Fox Film Corporation and Paramount, Chase found his greatest success while working at Hal Roach studios, where he made almost 100 short films. Though he would go on to have parts in features, it was in the short film most of them directed by Leo McCarey that Chase had his greatest acting success.
Chase made his talkie debut on a loan-out to Universal for the feature Modern Love (1929). With the arrival of sound, he continued to appear regularly in short films and also to occasionally direct, including the celebrated Thelma Todd comedy The Pip from Pittsburgh (1931). He also appeared along with Laurel and Hardy in their feature film Sons of the Desert (1933) as a conventioneer with a taste for practical jokes.
Chase's failure to truly excel in sound film features meant he was eventually dropped by Hal Roach studios so in 1937 he joined Columbia Pictures where he directed films by The Three Stooges and Andy Clyde.
As the decade wore on, Chase's health declined due to the alcoholism which also killed his father and his brother James in 1939. In 1940 Chase died of a heart attack at the age of 46. He earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In recent years Chase's films have experienced something of a revival and the comedian has become something of a rediscovered treasure of silent screen comedy.
Director: Leo McCarey Producer: Hal Roach Screenplay: H.M. Walker Cinematography: Glen R. Carrier Cast: Charley Chase (Charley), Katherine Grant (Charley's Wife), George Siegmann (Gunman), James Parrott (The Caretaker), James Finlayson (The Prohibition Sleuth), Symona Boniface (The Gunman's Wife), William J. Kelly (Charley's Boss).
BW-20m.
by Felicia Feaster
