RE: Isn't Life Terrible? (Chase, 1925)

[David B Pearson]

Isn't that Farina?

[Gary Johnson]

I can't answer your question David although to me it always looked like a little girl playing that part.

But it is the appearance of the black child in this short that helped elevate this comedy in my eyes.
The family is in a rush to board their leaky sieve of a boat for a relaxing family outing and in their haste they grab the wrong child.
Our modern sensibilities wince because this is a silent comedy standby - mistaking a black person for a white person! Oh the horror of it ALL!!! So we wait for the moment of discovery and will howl in delight as the offended father chucks the little pickaninny overboard in comic retribution. But in the meantime we are offered a curious sight as the Chase family prominades the boat deck oblivious to the newest member of their family or of the surprised and scornful looks they are receiving from all of the passerbys concerning this integrated family. The gag is embellished by the wife making Charley wear a captain's cap so he will look more important and he is embarrassed by it until he notices all of the looks coming his way and then proudly accepts that he is, indeed, a man of stature.

When the moment of discovery finally does arrive it comes with the comic double take of Charley seeing his real daughter running along the pier waving to the outbound ship. Charley and his wife look down at the new replacement and do register comic shock but after a half-hearted attempt at ditching their new charge they take responsiblity and not only look after the young girl for the rest of trip but practically adopt her as part of the family. And it's that comic viewpoint that makes this comedy so refreshing. I'm not saying that this film should stand as a testament to race relations in the Twenties or that Chase and McCarey were so enlightened in their attitudes for that time because this is clearly a screwball family of eccentrics. The brother-in-law is the world's laziest lout and for some reason dresses as an overgrown Lord Fauntleroy. The wife is ditzy, the daughter (before we lose her) is obviously self-reliant and wise beyond her years while the father is not only eternally frusterated but very short tempered. This family is use to life's inequities and accepts whatever befalls them. When the wife asks Charley what they are going to do about their daughter being stranded on the dock he merely shrugs and takes the hand of their new child and moves on. When they enter their flooded stateroom Hardy's character doesn't even bother to ask what has become of his niece. And as the calamities strike at this families, from mistaking dinner bells for fire drills to life preservers that sink or walls and railings that break off dropping into the ocean the family perseveres as one - holding hands in unison as they run from one disaster after the other.

Gary J.

[David B Pearson]

Well Gary, that's nice. But I'm still wondering if it's Farina.

Farina's sex was an issue at the time. And as Mary Kornman is in this short, it would have been just as easy to pick up Allen Hoskins from across the lot.

[Joe Moore]

Ah Dave,

Cut Gary some slack. I enjoy these little well thought out dissertations of his.

To take a stab at your question though (without actually re-watching the film) I'll say that this Chase film was made about the same time as the Our Gang film BOYS WILL BE JOYS (both being shot in April of 1925) and that "Farina" was a good 40 or so films into his Our Gang career at this point and past the earlier "is he a boy or is he a girl?" stage of his career so I doubt that they'd be casting him as a girl.

His younger sister Jannie "Mango" Hoskins might be a candidate though.

Joe Moore

[Gary Johnson]

I'm going to see a doctor tomorrow about my dissertations.
I hope he gives me something for it.

Gary J.