BECOMING CHARLEY CHASE Review

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Richard M Roberts
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Re: BECOMING CHARLEY CHASE Review

Postby Richard M Roberts » Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:01 pm

Of course, though fascinating, early Keystones sans Arbuckle or Chaplin can be a bit challenging to truly "enjoy


Sez You Ruedel! I find Keystones with Ford Sterling, Mabel Normand, Charlie Murray, and even Charley Chase and Fritz Schade no challenge at all to enjoy.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Thomas Reeder
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Re: BECOMING CHARLEY CHASE Review

Postby Thomas Reeder » Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:02 am

I'm only part way through the first disc, but my immediate impression is that this is a wonderful compilation. Two things have struck me: Chase's comfort in front of the camera, where he progresses from the Sterling school of subtlety in "Peanuts and bullets" to the comparitive nuance of "The Rent Jumpers" where, with only a few slight changes of expression, he manages to clearly convey just how high the prices are on that menu; and on a non-film related note, the set's extremely clever yet minimalistic menu, with the flickering image of Chase as the "film" jumps in the gate - simplicity itself, but so very appropriate. Clearly a lot of thought has been given to this set, and a lot of love put into it. Congrats to all involved.

And now, back to the films, this time with commentary.

Tom R

Gary Johnson
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Re: BECOMING CHARLEY CHASE Review

Postby Gary Johnson » Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:31 pm

I tried commenting on Disc 1 a few months back but that thread went nowhere so I'll try again.

Chase’s Keystone years is important not for his starring films but that he was allowed to first step behind the camera as director. His acting in these shorts is not subtle. Charley is following the standard guidebook to Keystone performing – tell the audience what you are thinking, then perform that action, and then reiterate it to the audience that what they just saw did in fact happen. It would be exhausting if the Keystone stock company ever performed “Hamlet” on the screen. They would had ran out of film stock before Hamlet’s ghost ever appeared.

But putting aside silent film acting styles of a long gone era, the simple fact is that the leading man roles Chase is given are bland and nondescript and he is still to much of a novice to make anything special out these roles. He follows the standard template of the juvenile lead of the day and his roles could of been played by Bobby Vernon if they wanted a shorter version. When the action does pick up the writers tend to send Chase to the sidelines. “Peanuts and Bullets” - (15) culminates with a runaway peanut cart shooting up the neighbourhood. Although it does contain a lovely surreal image of a gaggle of eccentrics running in silhouette from the rampaging cart our hero is nowhere to be seen. Oh yes, there he is in the second story window with his girl observing the action. “Settled at the Seaside” - (15) concludes with rotund Fritz Schade showing off to Miss Busch his diving prowess – which consists mostly of belly flops. Charley is dry as a martini watching from a park bench. When he does partake in the action, as in “Love in Armor” – (15), he is totally obscured by us since he is in – as the title says - A SUIT OF ARMOR!! At least he does end up in the water, along with the Keystone cops and most of the cast, in “Love, Loot and Crash” – (15) but I find Charley more interesting at this stage when he was given more character roles. “A Versatile Villain” – (15) may cast Chase as the hero but since the film is a parody of current dramas he is allowed to play with the acting conventions more. His station agent is more of a simp. He wears an oversized cap that lies tilted on his head and he laughs at himself as he performs magic tricks for anyone passing by – channeling Stan Laurel years before Stan himself began channeling himself. His work gets even better in “He Wouldn’t Stay Down” – (15) when he is allowed to play the villain to Ford Sterling’s dumbbell. Here Chase acts unrestrained as he schemes, cajoles and even gets to manhandle the heroine in classic Keystone mode.

This disc ends not with a Keystone but with a Reelcraft and the film is a revelation. After years of cameo appearances in shorts he was directing, he steps in front of the camera in "Married To Order" - (18) as the leading man for a seminal Charley Chase film. Here he once again plays the callow young man trying to elope with his girl but we can see the advance from his Keystone appearances three years earlier. There are tinges of his Keystone overacting in the earlier scenes but he also is starting to underplay and adding comic wit and brevity to his facial expressions. His lifetime reputation of being generous to his co-stars is on full display throughout this film as Babe Hardy is given a juicy role as the blustery, nearsighted father. Laurel & Hardy buffs will spot a familiar scene when Hardy rejects Charley as his daughter’s suitor by looking at a photo of him – just as James Finlayson would react 13 years later to a photo of Oliver Hardy in “Our Wife” – (31).

Now what did I do with Disc 2?.....

Gary J.

Gary Johnson
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Re: BECOMING CHARLEY CHASE Review

Postby Gary Johnson » Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:55 pm

I hope this isn't too long winded but I've been mulling over the shorts on this disc for some time.

Disc 2
Roach needed a new series and Chase was ready to return in front of the camera. The Jimmy Jump series proves how ready he was. Chase is off and running with his character of a middle class suburbanite dealing with life and its many complexities and.....in Charley’s case....embarrassments. Some of these early shorts veer into Harold Lloyd territory, such as his playing a mama’s boy in “Fraidy Cat” (24) and “Young Oldfield” (24), but many are blueprints for his classic 2 reel shorts to come. The 1 reel format is such an odd duck – not long enough for dense storylines or multiple gag sequences but also too short to run out for popcorn and a beer. Snub Pollard made some of the funniest one-reelers I‘ve ever watched. His films are crammed with silly, cartoonish gags whose runtime ends just perfectly before things get too serious on screen. Chase helped create many of those films so it is interesting to see him take a totally different track when he got his chance. His plots and gags are rooted in every day happenings and then slightly twisted in an absurdly comic slant.

The Jimmy Jumps are filled with comic conventions that Chase would return to continually and hone to perfection. “At First Sight” (24) travels into mistaken identity territory – which Chase would practically make a career out of. The difference here is that everything is quickly sorted out by fade without the escalating mayhem that his 2-reelers would pile on. “One of the Family” (24) is two movies in one. The first half involves marital misunderstandings while the second half delves into social conventions as the girl’s family of hicks thinks that Charley is a top-hatted swell and copies his every move while eating dinner. “Hard Knocks” (24) has Charley trying to impress his girl at her high society party, which would happen frequently in his career, as in “One-Mama Man” (27). Charley’s brother, James Parrott, came on board early in the series to help direct these shorts but it seems clear that Charley had the firm hand in the direction. There is a moment in “Powder and Smoke” (24) that contains a sly, subtle piece of direction that always makes me laugh. Set out West a new ranch owner is preparing to pay off the mortgage when bandits burst into the house with their guns drawn. Charley appears as a lightning rod salesman (don’t ask) and the girl slips him the money. The bandits give chase along with the ranchhands and the arrival of the posse, who scares off the bandits. Charley returns the money to the girl and goes on his way. The ranchers return to their spread relieved that the money is safe and as they enter inside they stop and the camera quickly pans to the right to reveal the bandits sitting on the desk with their guns drawn once again. We’ve gone full circle and haven’t gotten anywhere. It’s a funny shot and it doesn’t even involve our hero.

The series really begins to pick up with the arrival of Leo McCarey. Their first collaboration together, “Publicity Pays” (24), contains a funny hook that I don’t think most comedians would had arrived at. Charley and his wife are actors performing in a local amateur production when a talent scout is so taken with the wife’s abilities that he promises to make her a star. The next shot shows the Chases riding in a big limousine and wearing expensive clothes. If this was a Lloyd comedy Harold would had been indignant at being in his wife’s shadow and living off of her. Charley is more practical. He is happy for his wife’s success and enjoys living the good life. It’s a refreshing outlook. The only conflict in the marriage is that Charley is embarrassed by the constant crass publicity campaigns they have to endure. The latest caper is being seen with exotic animals – in this case a monkey. No reality star worth their salt didn’t own a monkey during the Roaring 20’s. In fact, the rest of the short abandons the plotline and instead concentrates on Charley’s attempts to sneak the monkey into Noah Young’s high class apartment complex. Charley spends a lot of time dashing in and out of strangers rooms and the farce element that Chase and McCarey would raise to high art is already apparent here.

The surviving footage from “Seeing Nellie Home” (24) is pure Keystone farce elevated by the newly emerging Roach style of sophisticated/slapstick comedy. “Outdoor Pajamas” (24) is a real gem as Charley finds himself caught out in public wearing just his p.j.’s. There is a marvellous tracking shot as Charley tries to nonchalantly walk the streets as a growing crowd gathers behind him to snicker and jeer. A series of sight gags ensue as Charley attempts to disguise the pajamas from a nosy cop (shades of “Liberty” (28)) and wraps the whole story up by re-introducing the wedding party that had opened the film. It was getting hard to believe that these densely plotted gag films were only 10 minutes in length. “Sittin’ Pretty” (24) flows beautifully from one incident to another. Charley starts the day driving over to see his girl and ends up disguised as a cop trying to capture an escaped lunatic – and yet it is all perfectly logical when it plays itself out. The highlight is the mirror sequence when Charley enacts a new disguise – that of the lunatic – in order to confuse and baffle the madman. That this scene is an exact blueprint for the Marx Bros. more famous version in McCarey’s “Duck Soup” (33) is an understatement. James Parrot, playing the maniac, gets the same exact close-ups as he tries to outsmart his mirror image (Charley) as Groucho gets 9 years later. But again it is the directorial touches that catch my eye. Charley pulls up to his girl’s house only to have his car hijacked by Leo Willis the moment he exits it. I mean the very, exact moment he steps away from it. It’s almost as if Leo were riding along on the running board waiting for his chance. It’s all very eccentric.

The disc finishes up with a bona fide farce classic, “Too Many Mamas” (24). Here we have Chase and McCarey clicking on all cylinders as Charley sets out to do his boss a good deed but suffers pain and indignities in their stead. The boss is stepping out on his wife and brings Charley along as the beard. No sooner does the trio arrive at the assignation, a noted dive of ill repute, when everyone’s significant others begin descending upon the joint in a cascading torrent of farce proportions. The gags all grow organically from the situation. Every comedian has mistaken a performance of the apache dance as a cruel assault upon a women and Charley is no different. After he quickly knocks out the offending male we wait for the comeuppance, which is usually retaliation from the female. In this case Charley has upset the patrons for interrupting their entertainment and they ascend upon him in hordes and beat him to a bloody pulp. From there on the dancer (Martha Sleeper) is an intricate part of the plot as she keeps coming to his aid for being so gallant earlier. But like a never ending rubik’s cube each turn creates another calamity as various loves appear just as Charley is covering up one suspected tryst after another. This short can leave one breathless and once again it’s hard to believe it was all crammed into just 1 reel.

It’s interesting to compare this short with its bookend companion that opens this disc, “At First Sight” (24), to see just how far Charley Chase has come in less than a year. In both shorts he is involved with his boss and their various loves and both have farce elements and amusing set pieces but the first short is rather subdued and genteel compared to the raucous, scintillating, intricately layered comedy that is “Too Many Mamas” (24).

Gary J.

Rob Farr
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Re: BECOMING CHARLEY CHASE Review

Postby Rob Farr » Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:07 pm

Great stuff Gary. Keep 'em coming.
Rob Farr
"If it's not comedy, I fall asleep" - Harpo Marx

David B Pearson
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Re: BECOMING CHARLEY CHASE Review

Postby David B Pearson » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:35 am

HOLY CRAP, this set is good!


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