'Broad Minded' is an uneven comedy with a great performance from Bela Lugosi

Broad Minded (1931)
Starring: William Collier Jr., Joe E. Brown, Thelma Todd, Ona Munson, Bela Lugosi, Marjorie White,  Margaret Livingston, and Grayce Hampton
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

When Jack (Collier) is ordered by his father to give up his idle life of partying and womanizing, he drives cross-country with his cousin Ossie (Brown), from New York to California. Along the way, the two make an enemy (Lugosi), and find a pair of new girl friends (Munson and White). But then the life they knew in New York catches up with them in the form of an actress who is friends with Ozzie (Todd), and Jack's ex-fiancee, who was partly responsible for his exile (Livingston).

"Broad Minded" is an uneven comedy that features a talented cast who are doing their best with a sloppily written script. It's possible that some jokes made sense to audiences in 1931 have lost all context and meaning nearly 90 years later, but even allowing for that, more jokes fall flat in this film than not.

This is the first time I've come across Joe E. Brown in a film, although I have been vaguely aware of the name; he's one of those once-famous film stars that has since become all-but-forgotten. Although William Collier Jr. is arguably the main character of the story, this is very much Brown's picture, with much screentime devoted to him doing physical bits, being generally goofy, and showing off his unnaturally large mouth. Because of so much of the film's comedy revolves around Brown, his character is also the main victim of the sloppiness of the script. On the one hand, we a supposed to believe that Ossie has a wholesome image and is viewed by Jack's father and others as responsible and mature enough to be a role-model for the hardpartying Jack to follow onto the straight-and narrow. On the other hand, Ossie is a college dropout who parties even harder than Jack, is a bigger womanizer than Jack, and doesn't make any effort to hide what he is. The writers also couldn't seem to make up their minds whether Ossie is dumb as a post, or an intelligent guy who just doesn't care about anything but making life fun for himself and those around him. He's written as both ways as the film unfolds. Beyond this, I can't really judge Brown's performance, because I have nothing else to measure it against.

The rest of the film's characters recieve very little development, and they are pretty much the stock figures you'd expect to find in a comedy from this period. Ona Munson and Marjorie White are nothing more than pretty love interests for the two main characters (and they don't do much aside from looking pretty and to be there for Brown to bounce jokes off); Grayce Hampton is the old, bitter aunt standing in the way of the young couples having fun; and so on. Only William Collier Jr. breaks the mold a bit, as Jack is more interesting and charismatic than many romantic leads from movies of this type. I think it's more Collier's credit as an actor than it is to the writers; he gave his character more life than it probably deserved.


Meanwhile, Thelma Todd, who appears late in the film in a pivotal role, isn't as good here as she was in other films she made around the same time. She holds the screen like she always does, but she seems stiffer and less lively than I think I've ever seen her--and that includes films where her only function was to stand around and be pretty (the sort of roles performed here by Munson and White). Perhaps Todd was one of those performers who needed the right partner to play off (as seen in her excellent films co-starring with Charley Chase)

Among the cast laboring in this substandard movie, however, it is Bela Lugosi shines the brightest and puts forth the most effort. "Broad Minded" is among the best performances I've seen from Bela Lugosi--and may be the best. He, as the closest thing it has to a villain, gets to be menacing, funny, and even just plain emotional when he thinks his beloved Gerdie is cheating on him with Collier, Brown, or perhaps even both. Lugosi shows here that he had a much greater range than he was allowed to show in almost any other picture he appeared in. "Dracula" may have been his break-through role, but it also put him in a box that I think did his career a great deal of harm, and ultimately robbed audiences of what could have been many great performances.

In the final analysis, "Broad Minded" has enough entertaining bits--the opening debauched "baby party" held by Jacks soon-to-be ex-fiance and every scene featuring Bela Lugosi--to make it enjoyable, but it's not a movie that needs to be high on your list of priorities.




On a personal note that has very little to do with "Broad Minded", I found a bit of the "road-trip" portion of the film fascinating. When I was a kid in the 1980s, we traveled throughout the United States. One of the trips, I remember a couple kitchy Indian rest-stops/cafes like the one Jack and Ossie stop at in this movie. Part of me is now tempted to take a drive through Nevada and Arizona to see if any such places still exist, or if America has changed more in the past 30 years than it did in the 50 years between the release of "Broad Minded" and my childhood.

The Thelma Todd Quarterly

Today, Thelma Todd demonstrates this blog's unifying theme.

'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.

'Cockeyed Cavaliers' has hits and misses

Cockeyed Cavaliers (1934)
Starring: Robert Woolsey, Bert Wheeler, Dorothy Lee, Thelma Todd, Noah Beery, and Robert Greig
Director: Mark Sandrich
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A pair of wandering rogues (Woolsey and Wheeler) pass themselves off as physicians from the King's Court and insinuate themselves into the household of the local lord (Greig). In between hitting on his sister (Todd) and trying to help a young woman who has disguised herself as a boy (Lee) in order to avoid a forced marriage to the lord, they are constantly struggling to avoid giving themselves away by being too stupid.

"Cockeyed Cavaliers" is a movie of highs and lows. When it is funny, it is very funny. When the jokes fail to land, they crash and leave big craters.

I can't decide if it's the style of the performances in the film, or the material that gets in the way when the movie starts sliding in the direction of crappy, so it may be a combination of both. And there's one area where the costume designers and make-up artists didn't go quite far enough to make an aspect of the film convincing.

First, let's start with the script, the songs, and the jokes.

Story-wise, the script is solid, nicely paced, and consisting of several intertwining plots that provide our heroes with plenty of challenges to overcome--including their own stupidity. The romantic subplot between Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee's characters--which starts when everyone believes Lee to be a boy--is interesting and ultimately leads straight into the film's conclusion and resolution of all the various problems; and the danger posed by Robert Woolsey's inability to not be randy around the wife of the very jealous and very violent baron (Thelma Todd and Noah Beery respectively) give rise to an equal amount of comedy and tension. The pieces are all very well arranged to maximize both the comedic and dramatic value of the plot elements and the characters in them.

Unfortunately, two out of the film's three major musical numbers aren't all that great. In fact, the song that opens the movie--performed by gossiping villagers and setting up a few major plot points--was so lame that if I wasn't watching this movie as part of the "Year of the Hot Toddy" project, I might have found something else to do with my time. The second song ("The Big Bad Wolf is Dead"), performed by our heroes, the films kinda-sorta villain, and the staff and guests at an inn, is better, but it goes on for entirely too long and the parts that are supposed to be funny mostly fail to launch or fail and crash. The third and final song ("Dilly Dally")--a combination song and dance number performed by Wheeler & Lee and Woolsey & Todd, in pars and together as a group--is, however, extremely entertaining on every level. It's well worth the wait. In some ways, this song even reflects the trajectory of the movie; it starts shaky, but firms up at about the halfway point, and really delivers during the third act. (This is of course better than the opposite.)

Despite the film getting better as it goes, the comedy remains uneven. It is not until we reach the climax--with a high society party, a wild boar hunt, and an even wilder chase scene--that every joke and physical comedy bit comes off well. Up to that point, some of the comedy routines fall flat because the jokes are weak and delivery feels like Wheeler and Woolsey (or whoever their "straight man" is) are performing a routine on stage. While other similar comedians--like the Marx Brothers and, later, Abbott & Costello, were literally taking routines perfected on stage and porting them into films, when watching them, I rarely have the feeling that a waiter is about to lean in and ask for my drink order the way I felt with nearly ever bit in this film. In fact, the scenes that worked the best were the ones where the comedy arose from the situation as much as it did from the back and forth between characters. For example, every scene Woolsey shares with Todd varies from chuckle-worthy to laugh-out-loud funny, especially when the action is revolving around Todd's cleavage.

In fact, I think the only thing that ruined this film for me more than the nightclub-style delivery of many of the jokes was the fact that I simple could not buy Dorothy Lee as a boy. Sure, she was in man's clothing, but the characters would have to be both blind and stupid to not recognize that she was female. This is a shame, because there are some funny jokes tied to the cross-dressing element which would have been even funnier if more of an effort had gone into making it work. I mean, would it really have been that hard to give Lee a hairstyle more in keeping with what her character was pretending to me? Or perhaps putting her in a shirt and vest that were even looser and a little longer?

There are so many things I like about this film that I wish I could have liked the end result more. Aside from the stand-up feel of some of the delivery, every actor in the film is great in their parts. It's easy to see why Dorothy Lee played opposite Wheeler & Woolsey in just about every movie they made, because they make an excellent trio. And, although she had more than come into her own as a comedienne by the time she made this movie, Thelma Todd is mostly used here as the "straight man" for everyone else to play off... and she does that just as well here as she did when she filled that role in her earliest films with Charley Chase. Meanwhile, Noah Beery and Robert Greig are equal parts funny and melodramatically villainous as the film's corpulent bad guys. The production values in this period film are also top-notch, as are the special effects and stunts during the film's climax. And I adored every second of the aforementioned "Dilly Dally" routine. Still, I can't bring myself to give this film more than a high Six Rating.

"Cockeyed Cavaliers" is one of six films in the Wheeler & Woolsey RKO Comedy Classics Vol. 2 set, which features a mix of movies Wheeler & Woolsey made as a team and individually.

'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.

One film, three rising stars shining brightly

Nevada (1927)
Starring: Gary Cooper, Thelma Todd, William Powell, Ernie Adams, Ivan Christy, and Philip Strange
Director: John Waters
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A gunslinger, Nevada (Cooper), and his sidekick, Cash (Adams), take jobs as ranch hands in an effort to settle down and live the quiet life. Instead,  Nevada becomes entangled in a romantic triangle between the lovely Heddie (Todd) and her fiance Clan (Powell), as well as the hunt for a gang of cattle rustlers who have an uncanny ability to stay a step of head of all efforts to stop them.

If you like classic westerns, I think you'll like "Nevada" even if you aren't prone to watching silent movies. It's got all the elements you expect to find--which isn't surprising since its script was based on a novel by Zane Grey--as well as a fast-moving and multi-layered plot with a climax that remains in question almost up to the point of conclusion. There was also a nice balance between drama and humor, and the major characters were all given enough depth for the viewer to care about the danger they're in as the story unfolds

There aren't many full-length silent movies that I find I have the patience for, but this was one of them. The rich story helped, but the quality of the acting was even more important. There is very little of the overacting and mugging for the camera that was so common in silent movies, and even present in talkies for a number of years after they appeared. The leads all get the characters' moods and attitudes across with just the right amount of projection, and there is a naturalism to the performances that seems rare in silent films. Another high point of the film were the intertitle cards. All of them were pithy, and several were downright hilarious. They show what a great loss to both journalism and screenwriting when Jack Conway, the writer of the cards, died at the early age of 40.

Another presence in this film by someone who died very young is Thelma Todd. "Nevada" was Todd's first starring role, and she seems to have been a natural. She is so good in this film it's like she walked straight from her life as a school teacher in the New England to being a fullblown movie star in Hollywood. Although future superstars Gary Cooper and William Powell were also at the beginning of their careers, both were still far more experienced than Todd, and she holds her presence on the screen as effectively as they do in their shared scenes. After watching "Nevada," more than ever, I think Todd's early death--when she was just 29 years old--robbed the world of what could have been one of history's great film stars.

Speaking of Cooper and Powell, they are also excellent in this film. Both play the sorts of characters they will play throughout their careers--although there are a couple twists and reversals in that usual type here. Cooper seems especially good when playing off Todd or Ernie Adams. Powell is, as always, a great deal of fun to watch... and his character all but steals the movie's third act.

One problem with the film is that some of the actors are so similar in appearance and costuming that they're difficult to tell apart. Specifically, I thought Philip Strange was William Powell (and/or visa-versa), so I was very confused when he suddenly went from Thelma Todd's brother and owner of the ranch to her would-be husband and owner of the neighboring ranch. Checking the credits list dispelled the confusion, but someone in the casting department made an especially bad choice with that one. (Usually, when I can't tell one actor from another in films this old it's because the image is too degraded. While the version of "Nevada" I watched wasn't the best quality, that wasn't the reason I couldn't tell Strange and Powell apart. They really do look like twins in the picture.)

According to IMDB, there are only two intact copies of "Nevada" known to still exist, and both are in poor shape. Fortunately, at least one of them has been digitized and is available for everyone to enjoy on YouTube. You can watch the movie right here, right now, if you have the time.

'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.

'Take the Stand' is a fine Who-Dunnit

Take the Stand (1934)
Starring: Russell Hopton, Thelma Todd, Jack La Rue, Gail Patrick, Burton Churchill, Leslie Fenton, Shiela Terry, Jason Robards, Arnold Gray, Bradley Page, and DeWitt Jennings
Director: Phil Rosen
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A gossip columnist and radio host (La Rue) is murdered and the suspect list includes some of New York City's most celebrated, notorious, and dangerous figures from the pinnacle of high society to the deepest parts of the criminal underworld. Newly minted police detective Bill Hamilton (Hopton) has his work cut out for him, because he must identify a killer in a large group of suspects with air-tight alibis, and he is racing against his own department who wants to close the case by hanging the murder on whatever convienent target emerges first.

"Take the Stand" is a fast-moving film that unfolds like a condensed Agatha Christie novel. The murder and how it was executed was clever--so clever that I only had part of it worked out by the end which is a testament to the quality of the script (or the novel it was based on) since I've read so many mystery novels and seen so many movies of this type that. The murder weapon was also highly inventive, even if it seems less so with 85 years between its first release and it being used many times since in fiction, comic strips... and even a story that was proposed for an ill-fated Violet Strange project I once tried to pull together. (That said, even when the film was made there was a problem with the clues relating to the murder weapon, and they should have been addressed, because the movie otherwise mades attempts to incorporate forensics as the science existed in the 1930s.)

The casting in the film is perfect, with each actor and actress fitting their part, and everyone does a fine job with their characters. Oftentimes, there's one or two performers who either overact so severely or are otherwise just so bad they cast a pall upon the rest of the performances. Not so here.

Russell Hopton in particular does a standout job as the police detective who grows increasingly frustrated with his own colleagues, In a change of pace for films from this period, the cops are not all bigots and morons, but one who isn't--Hopton's character--has a hard time with the rest. Hopton's character is doubly interesting since he shares a secret with one of the suspects that may give him a blindspot in regards to identifying the murderer.

Thelma Todd is another cast member who turns in a remarkable performance, because it is so subdued. She plays the victim's personal assistant, and her role in the eventual solution to the mystery is perfectly believable because she is constantly hovering around the other characters, present but unnoticed except in the instances where she call s attention to herself, or is called upon by another character. In every other role I've seen Todd in, she has virtually leapt off the screen with her presense, so I was very impressed with what I saw happen in this movie.

One final touch in this film that modern viewers will find interesting is the theme of homophobia. One of the murder suspects is an opera singer who the gossip columnist keeps threatening to "out." I haven't seen the topic dealt with as straight forwardly and openly as it is in this film, nor have I seen a gay character played as free of simpering and mincing as this one. The character's sexuality seems to be an open secret in some circles, and the characters in the film don't really seem to care about it--but the gay character knows what will happen if the public were to hear about it on the radio, and he is panicked enough about it that he seems to be willing to resort to any means to prevent his career from being destroyed. These days, it seems many musicians would use their homosexuality as a selling point instead of viewing it as something that could destroy them.

All in all, while a key part of the mystery in "Take the Stand" has been copied to the point of becoming a cliche, there are still enough here to make it worth your time to check out.

'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.

The stars of 'Corsair' give strong performances, but are let down by a flawed script

Corsair (1931)
Starring: Chester Morris, Thelma Todd (as Alison Loyd), Frank McHugh, Mayo Methot, Fred Kholer, Ned Sparks, and Emmett Corrigan
Director: Roland West
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

It's Prohibition Era America. John Hawks (Morris), a one-time college football star grows angry and disgusted with the predatory business practises of his investment banker boss (Corrigan), and the way his boss's daughter, Alison (Todd), seems to treat him like her property and possible living sex doll, he decides to turn the tables on them by becoming a predator himself: Teaming up with the mistreated and disgruntled employees (Sparks and Methot) of bootlegger Big John (Kohler), with whom the banker is secretly in business, Hawks launches a pirating operation geared toward intercepting Big John's shipments and selling the stolen booze to the investment banker, thus making him pay for the same illicit goods twice.

As the summary above might indicate, "Corsair" is a complicated story. It is full of twists and turns and reversals. Some of these are surprisingly tragic. It's also a story that's populated with great characters... but, unfortunately, the most important of these characters are not developed to their full potential--the two main characters, John Hawks and Alison Corning.

Thelma Todd is best remembered today for her roles in comedies, but she proves in "Corsair" that she could tackle dramatic roles with just as much effectiveness. Her man-eating character in this film is so cold and self-assured that she doesn't even try to hide her dark heart and lusts. While watching the film, I had the sense that Todd's character was more than just a spoiled rich girl with a wild and independent streak, but was actually a sociopath or perhaps even a psychopath.

Unfortunately, we never see enough of Todd interacting with other characters to really know if my interpretation of her is right or wrong. She comes onto Hawks, who sees her for what and who she is and rebuffs her advances again and again. This only makes her come at him harder, and it's what eventually puts her in the middle of Hawks piracy operation, and everyone in danger (including herself and her feckless fiance).

Speaking of John Hawks, as mentioned, his character is woefully underdeveloped. We know he's an ex-football star, we know he's a man of high morals and is willing to stand by those morals... but it's never made obvious why he goes to the extremes he does, becoming a pirate with the express purpose of robbing a powerful and dangerous bootlegger just so he can stick it to a rich banker who happens to have a sociopathic daughter who set her sights on him. Maybe something happened between  Alison and John during the months he worked for her father that we aren't privy to, or maybe John saw more dirty dealings on the part of his employer beyond hard-selling little old ladies on risky investments that made more money for the firm than for them? Who can say, because there's nothing in the film to give a clearer reason for why John does what he does.

This lack of depth to John and Alison, or any dimension to their relationship with each other, makes them boring lead characters, and it causes them to be overshadowed by John's "insiders" in the bootlegger's operation--a couple, Sophie and Slim (played by Mayo Methot and Ned Sparks), who help John rob their boss because their cut will allow them to escape the yoke of crime they are laboring under. Methot, for example, has a couple of really effective scenes that deftly define her character's motivation, her relationship with Sparks, as well as inspire a great deal of sympathy from the viewers. If only Todd or Morris had been given such well-crafted scenes to perform.

Aside from the underdeveloped main characters, "Corsair" is mostly an excellent film. It's a different sort of gangster movie that's beautifully and creatively filmed--with some surprisingly modern-seeming techniques given that this is a film from 1931, from a director whose career was over at this point--and it delivers tension and suspense found all-too-rarely in the B-pictures of this period.

I say "mostly excellent" because the great parts of the film are sandwiched between absolute dreck. The opening scene is dragged out and annoying because the filmmakers obviously and clumsily try to conceal Thelma Todd's identity for as long as they could--she made this film under what was supposed to be her "new stage name", so I suspect they were going for a Big Reveal and failed. And the film's finish is absolutely awful and out of step with the rest of the movie. I won't say anything more, for risk of spoiling it, but Morris and Todd's final scene together is perhaps one of the worst bits of cinema the public has ever been subjected to.

All in all, the good in "Corsair" outweighs the bad, and I think it's worth checking out for anyone who likes 1930s crime dramas. It's also worth watching for the performances given by Ned Sparks and Mayo Methot, as well as those of Chester Morris and Thelma Todd. In each case, we get to see them play types of roles that they were rarely seen in... and they get to show that they were actors with greater range than their professional pigeon-holes allowed them to show. (One can only imagine how great Morris and Todd could have been if they had been graced with the sort of material that Sparks and Methot had to work with.)




Trivia
Alison Loyd is better known as Thelma Todd. This was the one and only time she used that "stage name", reportedly at the urging of her boyfriend, director Roland West, and a numerologist who claimed it would help her career.

Also, this was the first film role for Mayo Methot. She would go onto have a minor film career that would be over by 1940, thanks to her alcoholism and bad temper. (Once, in a drunken rage during her short marriage to Humphrey Bogart, she threatened him and dinner guests with a loaded gun.)

Finally, "Corsair" was director Roland West's last movie. His career had been waning since silent movies fell out of favor, and in 1934 he went into business with Thelma Todd as co-owner of a cafe. Following her death in 1935, he broke for good with everything Hollywood related. 

'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.

Read the Review, Watch the Movie: 'Seven Footprints to Satan'

The subject of the following review was released to movie theaters exactly 90 years ago today! (The Year of the Hot Toddy is truly a year of happy coincidences. When I initially chose this movie from among the many Thelma Todd-featuring films I'll be writing about during 2019, to watch at this point, I didn't realize I would have the opportunity to post the review to coincide with such an anniversary!)


Seven Footprints to Satan (aka "Satan's Stairwell") (1929)
Starring: Creighton Hale, Thelma Todd, Laska Winter,  Sheldon Lewis, Sojin Kamiyama, William V. Mong, Angelo Rossitto, Nora Cecil, Dewitt Jennings, Loretta Young, and Charles Gemora
Director: Benjamin Christensen
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

While he is deep in the throes of a midlife crisis (Hale) and his girlfriend (Todd) are find themselves victims of a kidnapping during an elaborate heist at an exclusive  art auction... and then things go from bad to nightmarish.

"Seven Footsteps to Satan" is one of those films that's hard to review without spoiling it. I think it really works best if you come to it cold, not knowing really what to expect... because the impact of the film revealing what it's really about and begins to spiral into fantastic and creepy weirdness is all the greater. (You THINK you're watching a crime drama, but then....)

With that in mind, all I can say about the film is that in addition to an impressive, fast-moving and twist-laden storyline, the film sports creative camera work and editing (I especially like the way wipes are used), spectacularly elaborate sets, elegant costumes (mostly evening gowns and tuxes but the other outfits that show up are really neat), excellent monster make-up jobs, and some really fine acting from the principals in the cast.

I thought the performance by star Creighton Hale, who, once again, is a bespecled and unlikely hero, was excellent. Unlike the comedic character he played in "The Cat and the Canary", here he's quite competent and extremely brave at every turn. Actress Thelma Todd, also impresses, showing that she was as good a dramatic actress as she was a comedienne.

By the way, The film has a very large supporting cast (so large, in fact, that it sometimes feels like costar Todd is just another face in the  crowd), but among them we have Loretta Young standing out with a memorable performance in one of the film's most intense and frightening scenes, and an honest-to-god Asian actor playing a sinister Oriental Mystice, Sojin Kamiyama. (Maybe someone forgot to tell the Danish director that he should use white guys in make-up for the Asian characters.)

"Seven Footprints to Satan" was one of three silent thrillers/horror films directed by Benjamin Christensen for American studios, and until just a few years ago, it was believed to be lost. Now, however, several versions are available to watch online. None are of stellar quality, but given how many of these great old movies are gone forever (or hard to access because they've not yet been digitized and released online or on DVD), lovers of this sort of material are lucky we're getting this much.

If you like silent movies, especially ones of the more "trippy" variety, you need to watch "Seven Footprints to Satan". I highly recommend the version I've embedded below: It's the complete film, it's it was digitized from filmstock that was in relatively good shape, and it features an all-new, modern musical score that adds greatly to the experience.



By the way, if there's a film that could do with a remake, it's this one. It's got all KINDS of elements that would appeal to modern audiences, especially lovers of horror films. (Hell, I think this film may even be an ancient ancestor of the Torture Porn subgenre!)

The heroes and villains of "Seven Footprints to Satan"

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.

The Thelma Todd Quarterly

Ladies and Gentleman: We present to you the MAGIC OF THELMA TODD!

She'll be appearing weekly here at Shades of Gray for all of 2019. Thanks for coming and don't forget to tip your waiter!

Keaton and Todd are absolute greatness in 'Speak Easily'

Speak Easily (1932)
Starring: Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, Thelma Todd, Ruth Selwyn, Sydney Toler, and Henry Arnetta
Director: Edward Sedgewick
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A bookish professor (Keaton) gets news that he has inherited $700,000, and he decides it's time to live his life to its fullest. While on his way to New York, he encounters a struggling theatre troupe with more heart than talent. He become smitten with Pansy, the lead dancer (Selwyn), and he decides to be their financial backer for a Broadway show.

"Speak Easily" is a very uneven comedy that is dragged down by long stretches of unfunny or repetitive gags separated by some excellent bits. It's got a solid and talented cast that deserved better than the material they have to work with.

For example, poor Buster Keaton is the star of the film, but he still has very little do. He is more frequently than not relegated to the role of straight man to Jimmy Durante, and most of the bits he has of his own are dragged out past the point of being funny. As for Durante, he, too has to struggle with routines that drag on; there's a bit involving luggage that starts out amusing and grows tiresome and annoying by the time the film finally moves on.

The one performer in the film who gets to appear in all the films best scenes is Thelma Todd, and it's in these scenes were Keaton gets to shine his brightest, too. Todd shows up in the second act, and she is the closest thing this genial story has to a villain. Her character, Elanor, is a burlesque dancer who is willing to do almost anything to get a part in a Broadway play, from stripping down to her underwear at the slightest suggestion--which immediately convinces Durante's character, James, that she has what it takes to be in the show--to setting up Keaton's Professor Post to be blackmailed for sexual indiscretions. Unfortunately, the good professor is simply too oblivious to even realize that Elanor is trying to seduce him, and her big scheme backfires when her efforts end up with both of them so blindingly drunk the couldn't be "indiscreet" if they wanted to.

This drunken scene, and its aftermath, with Keaton and Todd features a hilarious mix of spoken and physical humor and it is the highlight of the movie. In fact, the story-thread that starts with Elanor showing up in the Professor's office, through her attempts to seduce him and blackmail him, through the steps that James takes to extract him from any possibility of scandal, is so sharp and so well-done that it feels like it belongs in a much better movie. These scenes show that it wasn't that the famed silent movie star Keaton was getting old and had lost his edge (as some claimed at the time... and perhaps even today); it was that he didn't have anything good to work with. With quality material, and partner that can give as well as she got--which he had in Todd in these scenes they did together--Keaton could still deliver the physical humor that had made him famous, as well as deliver spoken jokes with perfect timing and the driest of dry wit.

While Keaton also has a few great moments toward the end of the film--during a Broadway opening  that's bound to be a disaster unless some miracle happens--the scenes he shares with Todd really are the film's high point. It's really a shame that the rest of the cast is stuck with mostly sub-par material,. because there are several instances where they show that they are all quite talented. Nowhere is this more clear that the scene where Professor Post decides to bring the troupe to Broadway. The performance they put on is such a wretched display of hammish acting, lousy singing, and bad choreography that leaves viewers in awe at how bad it is... which is proof that we are watching performers of the highest caliber. It takes a lot of skill, and even more practice and rehearsal, to be as bad as they are in that scene.

It's at once heart-breaking and touching that Professor Post is so smitten with the troupe's leading later that he can't see how bad Pansy and her fellow performers are... and it also gives Jimmy Durante's character a likable dimension to what otherwise comes across as a fairly wretched human being: James truly believes that he and his troupe could be the next big thing if only they could get a break. When the Professor offers to fund their show, James isn't motivated by greed, but rather by the excitement of making his (and his fellow actors) dreams come true and to get them the recognition he believes they so richly deserve. At no point does James's faith in his troupe waver, even when the experienced Broadway director that Professor Post hires (played by Sydney Toler, who is best known as Charlie Chan) accurately and truthfully describes the level of talent the performers have. As annoying as I find Durante as an actor, I really liked his character of James... and I really wished he'd been given  better material to work with.

(Of course, here I am laying blame on the scriptwriters and the director for the movie being  mostly weak when maybe I should be giving credit to Buster Keaton and Thelma Todd for making the scenes they have together so sparklingly brilliant. After all, they are the common denominator for the movie's best parts... and their hilarious scenes together are plenty reward for sticking around through the rest of the film.


One odd bit of trivia: When she appeared in this film, Thelma Todd was co-starring in her own series of comedy short films with ZaSu Pitts that was being produced by Hal Roach and released through MGM. One of these was titled "Sneak Easily", released in December of 1932 (and I actually posted a review of it last week). "Speak Easily" was released in August of that same year. That these titles are so similar can't be an accident--especially since the title of the short film makes little sense given its subject matter--but I can't figure out what the reason for it would be. Anyone out there have a thought about it?