Laurel & Hardy Meet The Devil's Brother

The Devils' Brother (aka "Bogus Bandits") (1933)
Starring: Dennis King, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, Lucile Browne, and Arthur Pierson,
Directors: Hal Roach and Charley Rogers
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

After his men rob a pair of travelers (Laurel and Hardy) of their life's savings, the notorious bandit Fra Diavolo (King) forces them to help him rob a fabulously wealthy nobleman (Finlayson) and his slutty wife (Todd). Meanwhile a young army officer (Pierson) is on Fra Diavolo's trail, hoping to catch him and earn the reward money so he can marry his beloved (Browne).

Reportedly, "The Devil's Brother" was one of Laurel & Hardy's highest grossing movie. They may have been the names and faces on the poster that drew the crowds, but they were far from the best part of this film.

Since Laurel & Hardy are the clowns in this film adaptation of an operetta, it's to be expected that they are basically supporting characters in a film they're headlining, but Roach and his co-director could at least have made sure that when they do appear on-screen, they are in top form. Instead, almost ever bit they do drags on for too long and even their trademark character touches are overplayed here. The only exception to this are the goofy games/feats that Laurel's character comes up with, and which go viral among other characters who are unable to replicate them

It's a shame that Laurel & Hardy's bits were padded to the degree they were, because everything else about the film is entertaining, and the rest of the cast are good in their roles. Even Laurel & Hardy aren't bad per se... I just think they could have been better.

I had to do a bit of a mental adjustment as the film unfolded, because, when it comes to period pieces like this, I am used to the bandit posing as a nobleman to being of a heroic figure. Fra Diavalo, however, is a villain, through and through. It's somewhat satisfying that his plot ultimately fails due to his own cruelty and coldbloodness, but the ending isn't what I really wanted for the character. It's a testament to Dennis King's acting ability that I so disliked Fra Diavolo; his facial expressions change beautifully from when he's not being watched to when he's pretending to be the Marquis de San Marco. King was first and foremost a stage actor, but his performance here demonstrates that he could probably have been a  big movie star, too. He had a strong grasp of the differences between playing to the back rows of a theatre auditorium, and performing for film cameras.

Another standout cast member was James Finlayson. He had more to do in this film than was typical for his Laurel & Hardy appearances, and he's a lot of fun as the super-rich old guy with a slutty trophy wife. The bit where he's trying to catch his wife cheating on him is especially amusing.

Speaking of the slutty wife, she's portrayed by Thelma Todd with the zest she brought to almost every role she played. There's really not much for her to do here but to bat her eyes and respond coyly to the romantic overtures from Fra Diavalo in his guise as a traveling nobleman. (Todd would play the same kind of character again in the 1934 film "Cockeyed Cavaliers", but the part was meatier and she had more of an opportunity to show that she was a talented actress as well as good-looking.)

Since "The Devil's Brother" is an operetta, I should probably comment on the music and songs featured in it. I don't have much to say as only two songs stood out.. and they happen to be the two that were also central to moving the plot along. Even so, I didn't find them all that remarkable... but then I'm a Philistine.

First, there is Fra Diavolo's Theme Song, which he travels the countryside singing and striking terror in the hearts of all who hear it. Dennis King performs it several times during the film, and it's a nice little tune, even if the lyrics are a bit nonsensical. (I admit that a literal Singing Bandit is a bit silly for me to take, even in a comic operetta.)

Second, there's the song performed by Lucile Browne, who, stripped down to her underwear, admires herself in a mirror and sings about what a hottie she is. Although this comes across as just so much 1930s Fan Service, it actually ends up being crucial to the story... even if it's a highly ridiculous moment and the "I can't believe I'm hearing this" look on Ollie's face reflects exactly how I felt watching it.

Finally, Laurel & Hardy's unofficial theme "KuKu" is used to introduce them twice in the film. It seems very out of place, especially the second time it crops up. This may be an even worse choice than letting most of their routines go on for too long, as it's stylistically out of place with the rest of the music in the film.

"The Devil's Brother" is a fun, but flawed movie. Big-time fans of Laurel & Hardy might want to put it on their "To Be Watched" list... but I don't know that anyone else would want to go out of their way for it.

'Don't Shove' should be seen

Don't Shove (1919)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bud Jamison, Bebe Daniels, Lee Lampton, Noah Young, and Fred Newmeyer
Director: Alf Goulding
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

While trying to impress an eligible young lady (Daniels) at her birthday party, a young man (Lloyd) ends up fighting with rivals for her attention (Jamison and Lampton) and causing chaos at a roller rink.

With "Don't Shove", I'm starting to understand why Lloyd is remembered as largely playing charming characters who are looking for happiness and romance but who find trouble instead. I've previously commented on how I was put off by the "hero" he portrayed in a number of shorts I'm probably not going to bother write about, but here, he is generally reacting to provocations or trouble started by other characters; in seems that once he came up with his Glasses character, he increasingly left behind the obnoxious trickster character he typically portrayed in earlier films.

"Don't Shove" is a brief film, but it's jammed with action, gags, AND story from its opening moments. Highlights of the film include Bud Jamison angrily stalking Harold after he's gotten him ejected from a party they were both attending, and pretty much everything that follows after Harold exaggerates his rollerskating ability in a desire to impress  Bebe Daniels. And, this is another film where it's fun just to watch Bebe Daniels act--she'd been in front of movie cameras for more than a decade at this point and her experience shows.

I've embedded "Don't Shove" via YouTube below. Why don't you take a break, watch it, and spend a few minutes laughing?

'War Mamas' is mildly amusing

War Mamas (1931)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Guinn Williams, Alan Lane, Stuart Holmes, and Charles Judel
Director: Marshall Neilan
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A pair of WWI nurses (Pitts and Todd) take a wrong turn and end up behind the German lines together with their prank-playing US Army boyfriends (Alan Lane and Guinn Williams). After being sheltered by a sympathetic French noblewoman, the girls concoct a plan to get safely back to friendly territory.

"War Mamas" is a war-time comedy that is full of jokes and gags that were probably well-worn even in 1931. If you loved "Hogan's Heroes", you're bound to get a kick out of this film, even though the timeframe is WW1 rather than WW2: The German officers are the same loud, self-important dimwits, and the Americans are the same plucky tricksters who run circles around them.

Although it might not have you laughing out loud, I think at the very least everyone will watch "War Mamas" with a smile on their faces. There's never a dull moment, and while none of the gags are innovative, they're all well-executed. The cast all do a great job in their parts, but everyone is pretty much also playing roles they've done numerous times before... and will play again in future productions from Hal Roach and other studios, big and small. The highlights of the film is the bit where Thelma Todd is standing between two bellowing Germans, a German officer is trying to seduce ZaSu Pitts,  is the strip poker game our heroines play with the German officers.


"War Mamas" is one of 17 short films that co-starred Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts. They are available in the Thelma Todd & ZaSu Pitts: The Hal Roach Collection, 1931 - 1933.

'The Pajama Party' was a bust

The Pajama Party (1931)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Eddie Dunn, Elizabeth Forrester, Donald Novis, and Charlie Hall
Directors: Marshall Neilan and Hal Roach
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

ZaSu and Thelma (Pitts and Todd) attend a decadent party after its hostess (Forrester) runs their car off the road and into a lake. Things go from strange to miserable when it turns out their boyfriends (Dunn and Novis) have been hired to provide musical entertainment, and the guys think they are being two-timed.

"The Pajama Party" runs 20 minutes, but it feels longer. Few of the jokes are funny, none of the gags come off quite right, and rather than feeling amused, you're probably going to feel embarrassed on behalf of ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd as they try to fit in among the childish, spoiled high society people they have been forced to spend time with. Further, while usually films of this type usually see the snobbish upper-crust get deflated, we don't even really get to enjoy that here.

The high points of the film (such as they are) involve Pitts and Todd interacting with the maids charged with cleaning them up after their water-logged traffic mishap, with Todd responding to the non-English speaking maid in Pig Latin being a cute bit. Charlie Hall is also amusing as he stumbles his way through the party as a drunk attracted to ZaSu... but Hall is only a bright spot because everything else is so weak.

"The Pajama Party" is one of 17 short films included in the two DVD set Thelma Todd & ZaSu Pitts: The Hal Roach Collection 1931 - 1933, and I hope it's the low point of those films. The commentary by Richard M. Roberts paints a picture of a troubled production, helmed by a director/producer whose personal and professional life was falling apart, and who was fired before the film was fully completed, so that could explain part of why this is such a weak effort. Even allowing for that, I am starting to fear that Hal Roach made a big mistake when he took Todd away from Charley Chases' production unit to have her anchor a series of her own. Her films with Chase were spectacular, and so far none of the Pitts/Todd series have been as good.

'Over the Fence' is silent near-perfection!

Over the Fence (1917)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Harry Pollard, and Bud Jamison
Directors: Harold Lloyd and J. Farrell MacDonald
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

When his coworker (Pollard) sneakily grabs both his tickets and date (Daniels) to the ballgame, Harold (Lloyd) ends up on the field and playing for the home team after he is mistaken for a late-arriving star player.

"Over the Fence" absolutely hilarious, both as a romantic comedy and a sports comedy. It is perfectly paced--there is literally not a second wasted in the film--and every joke and gag lands solidly. With this film, I think I finally see why Harold Lloyd has gained the reputation of portraying an Everyman sort of character in his films, as he doesn't go out of his way to be jerk, and I think everyone who's been on a date that goes sideways can relate to some of the goin-ons here. (I've seen a couple references that imply the version I watched is a shortened one. I don't know how accurate those comments are, but if I did view an edited version of the film, I want to praise the editor as strongly as the creators and actors in the original film.)

Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, and Harry Pollard are all great in the film, with Lloyd and Daniels giving especially good performances. Daniels, once again, impressed me with her range of acting ability. She seems to have been able to play any type of female character the script called for, unlike her male co-stars which mostly seemed to have a type that they stuck to.

That last statement above isn't entirely fair to Harold Lloyd. I have mentioned previously that there are a number of these Lloyd/Daniels/Pollard shorts that I haven't bothered writing about, because I so disliked the main character as portrayed by Lloyd. Reportedly, with this film, Lloyd reinvented his screen persona, leaving behind the rotten troublemaker that has so annoyed me and moving toward a more sympathetic figure. Looking back, I can see the change--the films I couldn't stand tend to be ones where he hasn't worn glasses but instead slightly exaggerated make-up and odd clothes, while the ones that I like he is wearing glasses. That was Lloyd's signal to himself and his audience that his screen character was not different.

The only, minor complaint I have with "Over the Fence" is that Harry Pollard is in exaggerated, clownish make-up. I realize that this film marks a transition from the earlier films, but it seems an odd choice that Pollard was the only character in the film with such clownish make-up on. It could also be that in the century that has passed since this film was released has made a significance to Pollard's exaggerated make-up fade to the point where I just don't understand it.

"Over the Fence" is just five minutes long, and I strongly encourage you to take the time to check it out; it could just be the most entertaining minutes of your day. I have even made it easy for you, by embedding it below--via YouTube and the Christopher Bird Collection.

'Hey There' is non-stop fun with great performances by all lead actors

Hey There (1918)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, William Blaisdell, and Harry Pollard
Director: Alfred J. Goulding
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A man (Lloyd) goes to great lengths to return a letter dropped by a beautiful actress (Daniels). His attempt at gallantry throws an entire movie studio into chaos.

There are few films where "action-packed" is a more apt discriptor than it is for "Hey There". From the first fade-in to the final image of Harold Lloyd's character in the street, there is not a second wasted. Even better, as tightly packed as the script is with non-stop gags, its so well crafted that it provides some very nice character-defining moments that greatly enhance the film and give Bebe Daniels, William Blaisdell, and Lloyd to engage in acting that goes beyond merely clowning around. The writer of the film is unknown, or I'd be praising him by name.

This is another one of those films where Lloyd plays a guy on the make, but he comes off as more likable than in some of the others, partly because he's trying to do a nice thing (even if his motivations aren't entirely pure), and he's not intentionally trying to be an ass.

While the storytelling and performances by the actors are excellent, the film is made even more worthwhile by the way it takes a couple of silent movie tropes and demolishes them. One of my favorite bits in the film revolves around the nearly obligatory scene where a character in a rediculously bad disgusie tries to bluff one of the other characters.

I think even if you don't usually like silent movies, you might enjoy this one, due to the non-stop comedy and solid acting by the performers. That is doubly-true if you enjoy "behind the scenes"-type fictionalizations of the movie business and the personalities who work in it. (If you're a lover of hashtag activism, the film might also hold appeal, because it shows that directors have been sexually harassing actresses since the dawn of filmmaking.

I've made it easy for you to watch "Hey There" by embedding it below, via YouTube. The last bit of the movie is in bad shape, and I think a small or two piece may be missing toward the end as well, but it won't detract much from your enjoyment..

'Catch-As-Catch-Can' is a shaky start for the Todd/Pitts comedy series

Catch-As-Catch-Can (1931)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, Al Cooke, Eddie Dillon, and Reed Howes
Director: Marshall Neilan
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

When ZaSu (Pitts) and a professional wrestler (Williams) bond over their shared backgrounds as country folk, Thelma (Todd) and his manager (Howes) move to turn the bond into romance. When the ladies attend his big match to inspire him to fight, there's as much action in the audience as in the ring.

"Catch-As-Catch-Can" was the first true installment in the series of films that producer Hal Roach intended to use as a vehicle to create a female comedy team with the box-office might of Laurel & Hardy. While watching it, a thought kept popping into my head: There were better films later in the series, and Thelma Todd had enjoyed better vehicles in the Charley Chase films.

This isn't a bad film... but it's not exactly good either. It's nicely paced, all the actors do good jobs bringing to life a cast of pleasant and likable characters, but it's a little light on comedy. In fact, the first five-ten minutes of the film, which spends time setting up the two co-workers and roommates who are ostensibly the focus of the film, offer only a few mild chuckles... unless one thinks that a pair of home sick small-towners in the big city are funny just for being small-towners in the big city? The laughs don't even come from the main characters, but are instead generated by a drunk (Al Cooke) who first causes difficulties for Thelma and ZaSu at work, and then later at the wrestling match.

The fact the drunk is the source of comedy is sort of an early warning for what occurs in the second half of the movie, when the action movies to the sports arena. Technically, it's all extremely well-staged and filmed, and, as mentioned above, the actors are all great, but there are so many bit- and secondary players doing comedy routines that it feels like the main characters are almost being crowded out of their own picture. This sense is strengthened by the fact that those secondary players are also the ones who deliver most of the laughs.

Maybe my problem with the film is that the main characters get to mostly remain genteel and emerge from the evening's activities with their dignity mostly intact (even if poor ZaSu will need a hat)? This is not something I'm used to in these Hal Roach short films, especially when it comes to Thelma Todd. Todd usually manages to keep projecting poise and dignity even while her character is being subjected to, or taking part in, the most ridiculous slapstick situations. Even in the films where Todd is the "straight-woman", she usually gets to show off that remarkable ability to some degree.

"Catch-As-Catch Can" is a pleasant enough film, although it's an inauspicious beginning for Pitts' and Todd's run together. Since I intend to watch and review all of the films they were teamed for, I hope that this one is the exception rather than the rule. (I know that they made better films together than this one, since I've watched and reviewed a few of them already; this is the weakest of their 17 films together that I've seem so far.)

'The Flirt' will give you a few chuckles

The Flirt (1917)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, and Harry Pollard
Director: William Gilbert
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A man on the make (Lloyd) takes a job as a waiter so he can flirt with a pretty cashier (Daniels).

As I sample Harold Lloyd's short films, I am finding myself more annoyed than amused by them. So far, I haven't bothered writing up any that annoyed me, because the comments would basically be the same: "I barely made it through this film, because Lloyd's character was such an unpleasant jerk I had no reason stick with it."

"The Flirt" was, fortunately, not one those. Its a brief film (7 minutes long) that sees Lloyd play the sort of unpleasant character that was his stock and trade in his early pictures--a self-centered jerk who goes looking for trouble and causes chaos everywhere he goes through indifference to others and laziness. I found that character tolerable in this one, in part because he is set up from the beginning as a total heel, but also because his obnoxious behavior is very, very funny in this one.

The film opens with Harold in the park looking for a beautiful girl to hit on. He spots Bebe Daniels, follows her to work, and proceeds to wreak havoc in a retraunts dining room and kitchen as he tries to create a window of opportunity to flirt with her. The five minutes of the film where Harold "works" in the restaurant are a series of rapid-fire series of sight-gags and prat-falls that culminate in a patron becoming so frustrated that he goes on a shooting spree in an attempt to give Harold the sort of tip he so richly deserves. In addition to Lloyd's antics, there's a burly uncredited actor who plays the eatery's chef who also gets to be quite funny--and who at one point also nearly gives Harold what he deserves. This film also sits better with me than other Lloyd films I've seen, because of the ending. It's about as perfect and amusing as I could have wished for.

I've embedded "The Flirt" below, and I encourage you take a few minutes to watch it. If you like absurd physical comedy, I think you'll enjoy this one, even if the lead character is a bit unpleasant.

'The Pip from Pittsburg' deserves its reputation as a comedy classic

The Pip from Pittsburg (1931)
Starring: Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, Carleton Griffin, Dorothy Granger, and Kay Deslys
Director: James Parrott
Rating: Ten of Ten Stars

When Charley (Chase) thinks his buddy Griff (Griffn) is forcing him on another terrible blind date, he does everything he can to make himself unattractive--not shaving, dressing like a slob, and eating a fistful of garlic. When his date turns out to be the beautiful and charming Miss Todd (Todd), Charley tries to make himself presentable on the fly.

By the time "The Pip from Pittsburg" was made, Thelma Todd was about to be headlining her own series of comedies for Hal Roach, so this was the second-to-last film she'd make as Charley Chase's leading lady. However, the best was saved for last as his is unarguably the best picture they made together... and one of the best comedies either one of them appeared in.

The film hits the ground running with a gag within the first ten seconds and then keeps the laughs coming until Chase and Todd tumble from a balcony at a charity dance thrown into chaos. Like other great Chase comedies, this is a carefully orchestrated and tightly scripted affair. The pacing and comic timing are stop-on, with the plot setting up the gags, the gags unfolding with perfect precision while driving the story forward so the next gag can be set up.

All cast members give excellent performances. Unfortunately, the majority of the time Chase and Todd share the screen together is a comedic dance scene like "The Real McCoy" so we don't get any of that fantastic interplay between them that was in "Dollar Dizzy" and "Looser Than Loose". In fact, like in "The Real McCoy", Todd doesn't have much to do in this film except be pretty and charming, but since she excels at both of those, I can't complain too much. Further, the way Chase goes about cleaning up his appearance while a dance unfolds around him more than makes up for any nitpicking I feel inclined to do. Like the rest of the film, it's a multipart routine that's brilliantly and precisly executed. (It's such a well done and funny series of gags that I even forgive Chase's character for being something of an unpleasant jerk.)

"The Pip From Pittsburg" is genuine comedy classic, and it's one of the seventeen films included in the two-DVD set Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies 1930-1931. It's a must-see if you've enjoyed any comedies starring Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, and/or  Dorothy Granger. While Granger is still clearly learning the ropes at this point in her career, she does a nice job with a rather small part.

When grifters and con artists collide!

Are Crooks Dishonest? (1918)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Harry Pollard, Bebe Daniels, and William Blaisdell
Director: Gil Pratt
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Two grifters (Lloyd and Pollard) engage a pair of fake spiritualists (Blaisedell and Daniels) in a battle of wits. Unfortunately, the grifters came to the fight unarmed.

"Are Crooks Dishonest?" is a fast-paced and uncomplicated film with the characters breezing through the antics and action with barely a wasted moment. A small part of me is annoyed by the way the second (and best) half of the film is set up by a couple extreme conincidences, but the entire cast is so charming and the film so much fun that I can overlook it. 

The best parts of this 14-minute film take place in the secret-passage laden, gadget-festooned "mystic temple" of Professor Goulash where William Blaisedell and Bebe Daniels bilk the gullible with their fake spiritualism, and where Lloyd and Pollard try co-opt their scam. From Lloyd using the trick doors to evade the police and an angry Professor Goulash; to Daniels setting out to turn the tables on Lloyd and Pollard when they try to con her out of money she stole from them earlier in the film; to Lloyd and Pollard just generally clowning around, it's all expertely executed and extremely funny.

Pollard and Daniels in particular get to shine in this film, as they share one of the funniest moments in it. Daniels is an absolute joy to watch in this film, and it's great the way her character is also the most fun of the four leads in the story. (Her reactions to the clumsy cons of Lloyd and Pollard are priceless.)

This entire film is embedded via YouTube below, and I strongly recommend you check it out. The time you spend with the rogues "Are Crooks Dishonest?" may be the best quarter-of-an-hour of you day! Even better, either the film has been carefully restored, or this was digitized from an amazingly well preserved copy, because few films over 100 years old are as clear and crisp as this one. (The look of the intertitles make me think it's the latter.)

'Looser Than Loose' has a timeless quality, plus Charley Chase and Thelma Todd at their best

Looser Than Loose (1930)
Starring: Charley Chase. Thelma Todd, Dorothy Granger, and Dell Henderson
Director: James W. Horne
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Charley's quiet evening with his fiancé (Todd) is interrupted when his boss calls and orders him to round up a couple of escorts and entertain the firm's biggest client (Henderson) with a night of drinking and dancing. Charley (Chase) lies about the nature of the entertainment he's supposed to line up, and his fiancé insists on joining him as his date. Things go from awkward to awful when the client likes Charley's fiancé better than the escort (Granger) and insists they swap dates.

"Looser Than Loose" is another film that shows how wonderful Charley Chase and Thelma Todd were together on-screen. As I've stated in previous reviews, they seem to bring out the best performances in each other, and where they each occasionally overwhelm other actors they share scenes with, they don't do so to each other. I haven't seen all of the Chase/Todd pairings, but so far, this is the best one. They play off each other brilliantly in their first scene together--Todd in particular seems to be in fine form, with her

The way Chase and Todd balance each other out on screen is shown prominently in "Looser Than Loose". Here, we see Chase and Todd interacting extensively with each other, and then with other performers--Chase with Dorothy Granger, and Todd with Dell Henderson. Henderson is mostly passive in the scenes he shares with Todd, so it's hard to gauge how well they might play off each other, but Granger is absolutely overwhelmed in her scenes with Chase. She's emoting and gesturing and generally being very active, but she doesn't have the sort of magnetic screen presence that Chase has, so he ends up crowding her out by just being his usual on-screen self. This never happens when he is performing with Todd.

As for the story and comedy action of the film, it's a fast-paced affair that sees Chase yet again poking fun at middle class societal standards and hypocrisies of the "Jazz Age"--standards which don't seem to have shifted all that much when it comes right down to it. The script for "Looser Than Loose" could be reshot with a modern spin with very few changes. (The stunt-laden, car-crash filled, chaotic scene of prohibition-era booze-lovers fleeing what they think is a police raid would need a different motivation, but other than that I don't think any other changes would be needed.)

In fact, it is this timeless quality to many of Charley Chase's comedies that has me increasingly viewing him as one of the most underrated comedians and story-tellers of the early talkies era. (Chase may not have written the dialogue for his films, nor been the official director, but he was, by all accounts, very much in control of the subject matter and the general thrust of the scenes and gags in his films.

"Looser Than Loose" is one of 17 Charley Chase-starring short films in included in the Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies 1930-1931, and he shares the screen with Thelma Todd in most of them.

'Dollar Dizzy' showcases the great chemistry of Charley Chase and Thelma Todd

Dollar Dizzy (1930)
Starring: Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, and Dorothy Granger
Director: James W. Horne
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars


Two single millionaires (Chase and Todd) are booked into the same hotel suite by mistake. Each assumes the other is a gold digger trying to schmooze their way into getting access to their wealth, and each tries to throw the other out of the room. Meanwhile, a suspicious hotel detective (Finlayson) is complicating their situation even further by creeping around, looking through keyholes and peeping in windows.

"Dollar Dizzy" is another great pairing of Charley Chase and Thelma Todd. I have a couple issues with the script, but both stars give excellent performances, and I think this may be the earliest instance of Todd being a full-fledged co-star in a comedy while getting to use every arrow in her quiver. She shows impeccable timing while exchanging verbal jabs with Chase, shows her talent for physical comedy while running in and out of rooms and being tossed around by Chase... and she does it while looking absolutely gorgeous in a sheer Art Deco dressing gown.

Much of the appeal of this film grows from the on-screen chemistry of Chase and Todd. Todd is the only comedienne that I've seen who was Chase's equal in scenes; others who've enjoyed equally large parts as those played by Todd in Chase's films invariably end up seeming more like someone for him to play the scenes off rather than someone for him to play the scenes with. Chase and Todd play to each other's comedic strengths when appearing together, and thus they make each look better than they do when they are apart. (So far, the only person I've seem come close to matching Thelma Todd with Charley Chase is Lena Malena in "Thundering Tenors".)

While the scenes were Chase and Todd are fighting in the hotel suite are the highlights of the film, there are plenty of laughs up to that point, specifically those involving the three most aggressive gold-diggers trying to get their hooks into Chase. The only negative things I have to say about "Dollar Dizzy" is that its structure is a bit too straight-forward; it relies heavily on the tried and true Rule of Three over and over again, to the point where it become distracting. (Perhaps it's just distracting to writer types like me... but I can't recall any other time where I noticed the Rule of Three in effect to such a degree as I did here.) Also, the sequence where Chase and Todd struggle over a pistol, accidentally shooting the hotel detective twice and Chase once, put me in two minds. While the physical humor was great, and what was on display was cartoon violence where no one gets hurt, I am personally too sensitive to the sort of damage a gunshot can do to a human being that I felt the scene went on for too long... and that this one instance where the Rule of Three could have been dispensed with.

All in all, though, this is one of the best Charley Chase shorts I've seen yet. It's a shame he didn't get to work more with Thelma Todd, because this also ranks among the best performances I've seen from her yet. (But, things will only get better as the Year of the Hot Toddy continues, I'm sure!)

"Dollar Dizzy" is one of 17 short films starring Charlie Chase that are included in the two DVD set Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies 1930 - 1931. Many of them also feature or co-star Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, and other well-remembered regulars in Hal Roach productions.

'Off the Trolley' is a perfect title

Off the Trolley (1919)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Harry "Snub" Pollard, Sammy Brooks, and Bud Jamison
Director: Alf Goulding
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Unpleasant characters (Lloyd and Daniels) ride a streetcar with the world's most inept driver (Pollard).

Since it's a 100-year-old silent film, some are prone to dismiss "Off the Trolley" as not worth their time. Those people would be missing out on seven minutes of nearly non-stop amazement and laughter... because this one packs in more madness into its brief running time than many feature-length comedies do at ten times the length.

Harold Lloyd plays one of those trickster characters that are lots of fun in comedies and comic strips but you know would be in prison (or dead) if they existed in the real world... and he's in fine form in this picture. From his initial encounter with hotty ticket taker Bebe Daniels on their way to work, through his slapstick escape from an ever-growing crowd of cops, his conflicts with other passengers on the streetcar, and his dealing with would-be robbers, are all incredibly funny and spectacular examples of well-timed physical comedy.

Bebe Daniels is also lots of fun in this film. I'm usually annoyed by insta-romances, but here it seems clear that all she's looking for from Lloyd's character is a "bit of fun"... which is for the best, because even if she had something more in mind, it would end as soon as she discovered what he gets up to and does to her behind her back. (Although, frankly, based on their first interaction, part of me thinks the Daniels and Lloyd characters probably deserve each other.)

Since you're here already, why don't you take a view minutes to check out this great little film, embedded below via YouTube?

'All Teed Up' brings chaos to the golf course

All Teed Up (1930)
Starring: Charlie Chase, Thelma Todd, Dale Henderson, Carl Stockdale, and Tennen Holz
Director: James Horne
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A socially inept banker (Chase) decides to take up golf. A chance encounter, and romantic chemistry, with a young woman (Todd) gets him invited to play on the course of an exclusive private club.

"All Teed Up" is a social comedy that uses golf as its source of humor. When it was made, the sport of golf had transformed from something played by an elite few to a national craze, and everyone from the struggling middle class on up were picking up clubs and knocking balls around. Charley Chase's character seems to be conceived to be a caricature of an average white collar worker hoping to be part of the new Big Thing even if he knows nothing about it. The three men he plays against, and tries to befriend in his inept and highly annoying way, are also caricatures of typical golfers, and they grow so frustrated that this clueless newbie is beating them that they start cheating. Despite the chaos he ends up causing, Chase's character is so guileless that viewers can't help but always be on his side as the film unfolds. Although some of the sequences during the golf game go on for a little too long and become repetitive, they never get boring because Chase's character is so likable. Heck, he's so likeable that you'll find yourself saying "good job" as he finally snaps and throws a temper tantrum (and yes... he does swear to a degree that might give the film a PG rating!)

One of the things that made this film very interesting was the scenes featuring Thelma Todd at the beginning and the end. Although Todd doesn't do much other than react to Chase being goofy, it's a clear demonstration of how well the two played off each other. Her appearance in this film is also a clear example of how she could light up the screen by just being present.

"All Teed Up" is one of several films where Chase and Todd are teamed up. Producer Hal Roach was so pleased with Todd's performance that by 1931 he had given her a comedy series of her own where she was one-half of a female Laurel & Hardy or Wheeler & Woosley team, first with veteran comedienne Zasu Pitts and later Patsy Kelly as her co-stars. Most of Todd's appearances with Chase are included among the 17 films in the Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies, Volume One set. I'll be reviewing more of these shorts as The Year of the Hot Toddy continues! 

'Chickens Come Home' is top Laurel & Hardy

Chickens Come Home (1931)
Starring: Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, Mae Busch, Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, Norma Drew, and Patsy O'Byrne
Director: James W. Horne
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

When Oliver (Hardy) becomes a candidate for Mayor, an old lover (Busch) resurfaces to blackmail him with a compromising photo. Oliver refuses to pay her off, so his campaign manager (Laurel) tries to neutralize her through other means... which go horribly awry.

You can file this one under "timeless classics", because the storyline of "Chickens Come  Home" is funnier, yet feels just as topical, as whatever the most recent "edgy" and heavy-handed political skit  you might see on late-night television. I would love to see some enterprising filmmaker do a remake of this film with only some minor updates to bring it into modern times, but otherwise keep it as it is--even to the point where the performers' characters are named after them. Given the strong parallels there are between the events of this film and a certain situation with a stripper, a US presidential candidate, and his shady attorney, I think it would be add a lot to the fun of to the film to see the reaction of the obsessed and mentally deficient on both sides of the political spectrum.

As for the film, it's one of the best with Laurel & Hardy that I've seen. Both headliners get to play to their strengths and each major supporting cast member gets their turn at being funny, too. Hardy in particular gets to shine in this film. He has the best material to work with, and he plays nicely off Thelma Todd, who plays Hardy's wife with lots of charm and confused stares. In fact, this film would have been even stronger if Stan Laurel and Mae Busch's roles had been reduced mostly to the scenes they already share with Hardy; while the bit where Stan tries to keep Mae in her apartment is funny, I kept wanting to go back to the Hardy household. It's not that the scene was bad, it's just that the real story was unfolding elsewhere, and I the detour was not welcome.

Everything about this film is very funny. From the business our politically ambitious heroes--they manufacture fertilizer--through their last-ditch effort to hide their attempts to hide their efforts to attempt to hide Hardy's old relationship from their wives, every bit is perfectly performed by the highly talented cast. The one complaint I have about the film basically boils down to one sequence not being as good as the rest of the film (not to mention a little predictable)... so that's a weak complaint indeed.

Trivia: "Chickens Come Home" is a remake of a 1927 silent movie titled "Love 'Em and Weep." Many of the same cast members are featured in both films, with Stan Laurel and Mae Busch playing mostly the same roles, but Oliver Hardy had a bit part in the first version while James Finlayson was the one subjected to the blackmail, where here Hardy has the major role and Finlayson is a bit player.

'Whispering Whoopee' is lots of fun

Whispering Whoopee (1930)
Starring: Charlie Chase, Dolores Brinkman, Anita Garvin, Thelma Todd, Eddie Dunn, Carl Stockdale, Dale Henderson, and Tennen Holz
Director: James Horne
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Charley (Chase) hires three escorts (Brinkman, Garvin, and Todd) to service three members of the Rockaway Chamber of Commerce (Henderson, Holz, and Stockdale) to help him close a land sale. After it initially seems his plan is doomed to failure, the party gets wilder than Charley anticipated.

"Whispering Whoopee" is a straight-forward comedy with a simple plot and mostly straight-forward, simple jokes, but every one of those jokes lands perfectly, and every cast member is great in their parts. The picture was written and filmed on a very tight schedule, as it was conceived in order to keep cast and crew working, and the Hal Roach Studio's release schedule on track, when bad weather delayed filming of the many outdoor scenes in the golfing-based comedy "All Teed Up". Given the circumstances under which it was created and filmed, it's really impressive how perfect everything seems. The pinnacle of the film is a scene where all the characters are spraying each other with seltzer water, and there's a bit in there that makes fun of synchronized swimming/ice dancing that underscores the simplicity of the movie's humor but also that the exactness in its delivery makes it exceptional. 

While Charley Chase is the lead in the film, it is also very much an ensemble comedy. Each actor gets to do their own bits, or a bit with a partner. Among Chase's co-stars, Dolores Brinkman gets some of the best lines, and she shows herself to have plenty of screen presence and comedic timing. It's a shame that she never managed to propel her acting career above the level of bit parts, because, based on what I see her, she had plenty of talent. She also plays the role in this film that I would assume would have been filled by Todd if this film had not been inserted into the production schedule the way it was; Todd is seen in fewer shots than other cast members, and of the ladies in the film she has has the fewest lines; I assume she may have been going to other sets even while working on "Making Whoopee".

Getting back to Brinkman for a moment: As things would turn out, her role in "Making Whoopee" would be her final screen appearance. Interestingly, Chase's co-star in "One of the Smiths", Peggy Howard, was also a pretty actress who never "made it", and who's last credit was in a Charley Chase film. I wonder if I will find this to be pattern as I watch more of Chase's films from the early 1930s. Together with Hal Roach, Chase was in the process of turning Thelma Todd into a hugely popular comedienne... perhaps they were trying to capture that same magic with another actress? This seems like a reasonable idea to me, since, mere months after this film was made, Todd would be headlining her own series of comedic shorts. Perhaps Chase and Roach were perhaps looking ahead to fill Todd's role in the line-up of performers working with Chase? Perhaps they were looking for someone to team with Todd in the series of films that Roach was already considering--films starring the "Female Laurel & Hardy"?

I confess that I have neither the historical knowledge, nor the drive to do the research, to elevate anything in the previous paragraph past the level of speculation. Over the next few months, however, as I watch more Charley Chase and Thelma Todd films, as well as a smattering of Laurel & Hardy and other Hal Roach productions, and do my usual superficial research into the actors appearing in them, maybe I'll find something to either prove or disprove the speculation above.

All that is tangential to "Whispering Whoopee", which is a hilarious comedy that makes it easy to see why Charley Chase was second only in popularity to Laurel & Hardy when it came to Hal Roach's galaxy of stars. It's a shame that he and his work is mostly forgotten, but it's also easy to see why: His films are more rooted in the culture of the time within which they were made than the Laurel & Hardy pictures were. Comedies driven by Chase were focused more around social situations, while those with Stan Laurel's brain behind them were more about the human condition, so the latter have stood the test of time better. Nonetheless, a 90-year-old Charley Chase film is more finely crafted and funnier than many modern comedies, and I'll take a quickie production like "Whispering Whoopee" over almost any modern sit-com I've sampled in recent years.

"Whispering Whoopee" is one of 17 short films starring Charlie Chase that are included in the two DVD set Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies 1930 - 1931. Many of them also feature or co-star Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, and other popular Roach regulars.

A Forgotten King of Comedy (and a Queen)

During the early 1920s, comedian Harry Langdon was a star on the magnitude of Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. As sound films became the Thing, bad project choices and worse business decisions had put his career on a disastrously downward trajectory.  In 1929, he joined the Hal Roach studios with a contract to star in and supervise a series of short films.

The video embedded below is reportedly the first time Langdon's voice was heard by movie-viewing audiences. This untitled short film made to announce Roach's new star to MGM's marketing department (which distributed Roach's pictures). In addition to Langdon, the film (which is really nothing more than a skit) also features Thelma Todd and Eddie Dunn.



According to comedian Joe Libby, this short film was made to announce Roach's newest star to the marketing department of MGM, which distributed Roach's productions. I had assumed was some form of preview or trailer that Roach made to be shown in theaters featuring his short films, but now I am wondering what the reaction of the salespeople was. To me, this skit should have been about half as long as it is, and even then it might have seemed to drag. I have a sense that it was ad-libbed, and the fact that you can hear Todd laughing off camera at one point may bear this out, and perhaps it was funnier if you were there at the time. Still, if this was my introduction to the "all-new, all-talking Harry Langdon", and it was my job to make his work product commercial successes, I would be wondering how I would go about doing that. And if I were to go what is in this skit alone, I am not surprised by Harry Langdon, despite being a massive star at one point, is all but forgotten today.

Langdon's employment with Hal Roach lasted eight films, none of which were, according to film historians and other commentators, very successful, commercially or as entertainment. I read that they got better as Langdon and the Roach team--specifically many of the same talents who were part of Charley Chase's unit--got used to each other, so I chose to hunt down and watch the last one made before he was shown the door. (Since Thelma Todd co-starred in it, it was also perfect review fodder during this, The Year of the Hot Toddy.)




The King (1930)
Starring: Harry Langdon, Thelma Todd, and Dorothy Granger
Directors: James W. Horne and Charles Rogers
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When the frivolous-minded and childish King (Langdon) is seduced by his advisor's slutty wife (Granger), the Queen (Todd) takes extreme measures to stop the extra-marital shenanigans before they fully start. Naturally, her plan backfires spectacularly.

   Thelma Todd in costume (but definitely not in character) while filming "The King" 

"The King" leads me to believe that either Harry Langdon's short films for Hal Roach have an undeservedly bad reputation, or his final film for Hal Roach is a masterpiece when compared to the rest. It's not perfect, but there's never a dull moment. Even the several gags that don't quite work are not dragged out to the point where they become tedious, which is more than I can say for many comedies that I've watched.

That said, one thing that really stood out about this picture is that it didn't seem to have what I think of as the "Hal Roach Style." There's a certain similarity between the way stories unfold and the way the actors perform in the Laurel & Hardy-led shorts, the Charley Chase-led shorts, and the Thelma Todd-led shorts I've watched that isn't present here. This is probably a result of Langdon having his own style and working habits that didn't fit the "Hal Roach Style", and this may been why Langdon's films didn't go over well with audiences back then, why Roach cancelled Langdon's contract, and why these films are held in such low regard today: Harry Langdon was a square peg that Hal Roach tried--and failed--to fit into a round hole.

Maybe, Hal Roach pulled the plug on Harry Langdon's films too soon, because some of the funniest bits in the film are a melding of the Roach Style with the general feel of the rest of "The King." One of these scenes--both of which take place in the royal bedchamber--may be the first time that Thelma Todd got to show how adept she was at doing physical comedy while still managing to remain poised. During the time this film was made, Todd was being allowed to fully spread her wings as a comedienne for the first time. She had already held her own in films shared with Charley Chase, and here she shows that she could shine just as brightly along side the very different performance style of Harry Langdon. If Langdon's other Roach films are as bad as I've been led to believe, maybe this one shows that he was finally figuring out how to work with Roach's other talents. Or maybe the others he did weren't as bad as is claimed; I will have to seek out and watch one or two of them to see for myself.

But--back to "The King". Aside from the fast pace and the non-stop wackiness, this is also one of those comedies that adults and children can enjoy equally but walk away with different impressions of the story and the characters.

For adults, Harry Langdon's impish character is both funny and infuriating, and even while we're laughing at his antics, most adult viewers will be able to understand why the Queen is so agitated. I've seen her referred to as shrewish, but that's not how she comes across to me. I get the sense that she's fed up with her husband's crap and is trying to keep him from embarrassing her, himself, and the high position he occupies. Little kids, on the other hand, will most certainly identify with the King and view the Queen as the parent getting in the way of his fun.

"The King" is not a perfect film, but it's full of laughs and never dull. If you like off-the-wall comedies, I think you'll enjoy this one. I really recommend you check it out if you've heard some of those blanket statements about how awful Harry Langdon talkies are. And to make it easy, I am providing you with the opportunity to watch it right here via YouTube. (As of this writing, none of Langdon's films for Hal Roach are available on DVD.)

Hillbilly Comedy Double Bill!

Early in his career, during the Silent Film Days, Charley Chase made a comedy or two where he was a city slicker trying to get by in hillbilly country. He must have found something appealing and/or inherently funny about backwoods, rural culture, because he returned to that well at least twice more during his career. I cover those films today.

One interesting similarity between the two films I comment on in this post (in addition to the hillbilly settings) is that each features a dance number where Chase does a gag involving a disability. In both films, the cast performs a Virginia Reel, with Chase clowning around while dancing with his leading lady. Chase also performs a folk song in each film; in "The Real McCoy" he also plays half a dozen or so instruments--ranging from a fiddle to a mouth-harp--and in "One of the Smiths" he harmonizes with himself thanks to a drunken hallucination by one of the characters, and, of course special effects. (And on a complete side-note, a film where everything is set up for Chase to perform a song--without being roped into it like he is in both of these--is "Thundering Tenors", but he DOESN'T perform a song in that one.


The Real McCoy (1930)
Starring: Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, Edgar Kennedy, and Eddie Dunn
Director: Warren Doane
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Charley, a speed-loving driver from the big city (Chase), and a Highway Patrol Officer Cicero (Kennedy) are stuck in a remote mountain village after their chase leads them to a crash. They declare a tempoary truce, because Charley falls in love with a local girl, Thelma (Todd), and sets about pretending to be a mountain man so he can woo her.

I loved how tightly scripted this film was. Each gag is meticulously set up through something a character says or does, and often-times a gag is the set-up for an even bigger gag that follows. What's more, almost every joke and gag actively furthers the plot in some way. There is literally not a second of screen time that's wasted in this film. For example, a scene that developes the romantic relationship between Charley and Thelma also sets up the circumstances under which he is eventually unmasked as an interloper in the mountain community.

Not only is the script tight, but it gives each significant cast member something to do that plays to their strengths. This generally means that they are "straight-men" to Chase's antics, but their parts allow them to shine to the point where his main supporting players--Edgar Kennedy and Thelma Todd--feel like they are co-stars. Chase was the first filmmaker to fully use Todd's comedic abilities, and in every film they made together, she gets to do some schtick... and do it while looking pretty. Here, she takes part in a bit involving a skin cap and a skunk, and later in a sequence where the two of them must escape from angry townsfolk. She is mostly reacting to Chase in the scenes, but she hams it up in a most amusing fashion while doing it. Chase is the star of the film, but his best scenes are shared with Todd.

(Todd would be Chase's primary leading lady during 1930 and 1931, after which studio boss Hal Roach gave her a comedy series of her own. Todd headlined nearly 40 films in this series between 1931 and her untimely death in 1935, and she proved herself a master of every type of comedy, proving that Chase's eye for talent was a sharp one.)


One of the Smiths (1931)
Starring: Charley Chase, Peggy Howard, Leo Willis, Eddie Baker, and James Finlayson
Director: James Parrott
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

An employee of a company that manufactures trumpets and other brass musician instruments (Chase) is dispatched to the remote mountain town of Beaver's Dam to locate and repossess dozens of instruments that have been delivered there and not paid for. Upon arriving in the town, he finds the citizens to be musically inclined, but none are playing the missing brass instruments. A local girl (Howard) warns him of the dangers of investigating this matter, but when he persists, she helps by vouching for him as being one of the Smith Boys from a neighboring town. Will the mystery of the missing instruments be solved... and will our hero escape from hillbilly country alive?

"One of the Smiths" breaks into two distinct parts--Charley's journey to the town of Beaver's Dam, followed by adventure in the town itself, with some bridging business in between. The first section is mostly made up of a hilarious bit where Chase tries to fit himself and his luggage (which includes a tuba, because his intended cover is as a traveling salesman of musical instruments) into a small upper berth in a train's sleeper car. It only gets funnier once he manages to get situated and falls asleep, inadvertently causing even more chaos. This part of the film is mostly prop humor, and it's very well done.

After a stunt involving the moving train (which I won't go into details about because it'll ruin some of the fun), and Charley's meeting with the cute country girl Sally (Peggy Howard), the rest of the action takes place in Beaver's Dam. The humor here is varied, and Chase gets to show that he's equally adept at verbal humor, prop humor, and physical gags. He also gets to showcase his talent as a singer when he has to prove his his identity by performing a song to the assembled townsfolk, since his assumed identity comes from a musical family. Eventually, his cover is blown, and he has to flee to stay alive... but not before finding out what happened to those musical instruments.

As mentioned above, this film was one of several trips that Charley Chase took to hillbilly country in the service of comedy. "One of the Smiths" has numerous similarities to the film he made just a year prior--folk music, folk dancing, clannish locals out the lookout for Revenuers, just to name a few--but unlike "The Real McCoy" which felt like an ensemble piece, this is very much Chase's film, with him standing as its single and clear star. The most surprising appearance is that by James Finlayson, who has perhaps the smallest role I've ever seen him in (he still plays it to the hilt and is very funny), but even Chase's leading lady in this picture does little more than look pretty.

Even though "One of the Smiths" is pretty much the Charley Chase Show, or maybe BECAUSE it's the Charley Chase Show, it's still a fast-moving, very funny, and well-constructed comedy. When I realized it was so severely divided into two halves, I was expecting to be irritated by dangling plot threads and unresolved character issues by the end, but I was instead pleasantly surprised. Chase had a reputation for his films being carefully plotted and precisely executed, and he lives up to that reputation even here, as the final scene brings both halves together neatly.


Trivia: Peggy Howard (who plays country girl Sally in "One of the Smiths") makes her final screen appearance in this movie. Her screen career was short--she only has three Hollywood credits listed at IMDB--and her role here was the most significant. Thelma Todd was in those other two films, so it's possible that Howard and Todd were friends, or that Todd thought she was the right actress to replace her as Charley Chase's leading lady and recommended her to him. However Howard came to appear in this film, it was the end of her Hollywood aspirations.

Thelma is a Bombshell for the Defense

Sneak Easily (1932)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, James C. Morton, Bobby Burns, and Billy Gilbert
Director: Gus Meins
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Attorney Thelma Tood (Todd) is defending a mad scientist (Burns) who has been accused of murdering is wife when juror ZaSu (Pitts) accidentally swallows a piece of evidence--which just happens to be a sample of the time-released high explosive of the madman's creation. Will ZaSu develop a case of terminal indigestion, or will the Thelma and the rest of the officers of the court find a way to save her before it's too late?

When I read a logline for this film--"Juror Zasu accidentally swallows a piece of evidence which just happens to be a time bomb."--it moved to the top of the list of things to watch. However, while amusing, this outing for these great comediennes is deeply flawed in several ways, almost all of them originating with the script.

The problems start almost immediately. Three minutes in, I felt like I had missed the beginning of the film, because so many questions are raised by the way Thelma Todd's attorney character is introduced. She is clearly an inexperienced attorney trying to inflate her image, but why? And how did she end up defending the mad scientist? Perhaps her apparent inexperience with court procedures is an indication that she isn't an attorney at all but is some sort of fraud? The sense of having missed out on a chunk of the story only deepened when an exchange between ZaSu makes comments to Thelma that not only establishes that they are closely acquainted but that they may even be roommates like they are in other entries in the series; how could ZaSu be on the jury in a murder trial if she has close ties to the defense attorney? It makes sense if Thelma is some sort of fraud and somehow managed to get ZaSu on the jury as a "ringer"... but, again, that means there's a chunk of story missing. I don't mind joining a story in progress when it comes to short films like these, but I do mind when it feels like I came in late.

Another problem is a bizarre repeat of footage during a high-speed driving sequence when ZaSu is being rushed to hopeful salvation in an ambulence. I thought maybe the DVD had skipped, but, no. For whatever reason, the filmmakers decided to insert the same few seconds of external footage of cars on a road twice in the same sequence, with only a short scene of the actors mugging it up in the ambulance in between. It's unncessarily distracting and looks sloppy and cheap. If it was done for comedy, I'm missing the joke.

Despite the flawed beginning, once ZaSu swallows the trial evidence, the film is utterly hilarious and top-notch. While Todd doesn't get to show off her flair for physical comedy, Pitts gets to do plenty of pratfalls. In fact, it many ways, Todd serves as the eye of a storm of craziness, as she is the only actor who isn't hamming it up... at least not until the explosive prelude to the film's twist ending.
"Sneak Easily" is one of 17 short films included on the two-DVD set containing

'Thundering Tenors' sees a party ruined

Thundering Tenors (1931)
Starring: Charley Chase, Lena Malena, Lillian Elliot, Dorothy Granger, Elizabeth Forrester, and Edward Dillon
Director: James W. Horne
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A socially inept radio star (Chase) causes chaos while trying to fit in at a high society dinner party hosted by his girlfriend's parents (Dillon and Elliot)

"Thundering Tenors" gets off to a slow start, but when it kicks into gear about five minutes in, it speeds ever-quicker down a path of growing craziness. The film is at its funniest and wildest when Chase gets into a running fight and wrestling match with a doctor played by Lena Malena in one of the biggest roles of her short career. She is called after Chase gets a fishbone stuck in his throat and the party's host calls for a doctor who lives nearby to come to his aid. The doctor, though, is a chiropractor who tries to use spinal and neck adjustments to get the bone loose, Chase doesn't appreciate her application of "medicine" and the hilarious fight mentioned above breaks out. (Interestingly, another Hal Roach-produced short released later the same year featured a similarly comic chiropractor--the inaugural teaming of Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts, "Let's Do Things". Either the screenwriter involved with both, H.M. Walker, found chiropractors and their "adjustments" funny, or chiropractic quackery was a common target of pop cultural mockery.)

The actors are all perfect in their parts, with Charley Chase being particularly charming and funny, with Lena Malena being hilariously physical in her fight with him. Unfortunately, those performances are undermined by inexplicable and unnecessary sound effects that someone must have thought were funny (like musical notes underscoring pratfalls, or the sound of tearing cloth as Chase undresses for "treatment" by the doctor); they don't ruin the movie, but they do make it less enjoyable. Another curious element of the film is that, despite the title, the presence of a band, and the fact that Chase is playing a supposedly famous singer, there isn't really a musical number in the film.


"Thundering Tenors" is one of 17 short films included in the two DVD set Charley Chase at Hal Roach: 1930 - 1931. It promises to be the first installment in a comprehensive collection of Chase's talkies.