Film & Shorts Discussions > Random Comedy Reviews

Calling All Doctors (1937) - Charley Chase

(1/1)

Paul Pain:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028680/



Our interesting journey continues with this wacky little short entitled CALLING ALL DOCTORS.  This is one of the most layered and absurd plots I have ever seen in a Columbia short, mostly in the second half.

Charley is great in the opening scenes that establish his hypochondria... It's all so great, but wasted... such an amazing set with so many props and opportunity for jokes, and most of it relies on you just reading the bottle/pocket labels and being done with it.  A great scene, but it could have been greater.  Best part though was the plethora of perfectly executed sneeze jokes.

I must mention the cast: John T. Murray is amazing in this.  It's just astounding how well he pulls his character together.  Lon Poff, 67 at filming, is great as the undertaker.  We also see many familiar Columbia warhorses doing fine as usual.

The entire scene in Charley's house is amazing and surreal with the perfect comic timing and the bizarre gags on display.  We have jokes themed around adultery, homosexuality, death, mental illness, and all sorts of other topics jammed into about 9 minutes.  It's rapid and Charley does a great slow burn and explosion at the end, especially with the resulting fight.  The scene when he's jamming massive amounts of aspirin in his friend's mouth is a bit unnerving though.

And what a freaky and sudden ending... for someone like me, this, in spite of some missed opportunities, ranks up there among Columbia's finest shorts produced in this era.

10/10 [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke]

metaldams:

--- Quote from: Paul Pain on June 12, 2020, 09:04:07 PM ---https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028680/

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBFai6Lg_ew

Our interesting journey continues with this wacky little short entitled CALLING ALL DOCTORS.  This is one of the most layered and absurd plots I have ever seen in a Columbia short, mostly in the second half.

Charley is great in the opening scenes that establish his hypochondria... It's all so great, but wasted... such an amazing set with so many props and opportunity for jokes, and most of it relies on you just reading the bottle/pocket labels and being done with it.  A great scene, but it could have been greater.  Best part though was the plethora of perfectly executed sneeze jokes.

I must mention the cast: John T. Murray is amazing in this.  It's just astounding how well he pulls his character together.  Lon Poff, 67 at filming, is great as the undertaker.  We also see many familiar Columbia warhorses doing fine as usual.

The entire scene in Charley's house is amazing and surreal with the perfect comic timing and the bizarre gags on display.  We have jokes themed around adultery, homosexuality, death, mental illness, and all sorts of other topics jammed into about 9 minutes.  It's rapid and Charley does a great slow burn and explosion at the end, especially with the resulting fight.  The scene when he's jamming massive amounts of aspirin in his friend's mouth is a bit unnerving though.

And what a freaky and sudden ending... for someone like me, this, in spite of some missed opportunities, ranks up there among Columbia's finest shorts produced in this era.

10/10 [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke]

--- End quote ---

      I enjoy this short for the most part but have to say the first reel is especially great.  I really enjoy Charley in crazy hypochondriac mode and think he does a wonderful job acting high energy and paranoid.  Freaking out about germs, a face mask - some shorts just age better than others, I guess.  [pie]  Anywho, I love the way Charley pours a powder on the floor instead of in the water like intended without realizing it, drinks the water and mentions how he feels better.  I love the red ink gag, I love the way he has has his big box of various drugs labeled for each hour instead of days of the week like normal people, love the telephone gag with Vernon Dent, but really, it’s Charley Chases’s acting that really carries this reel.  He does an awesome job and this material wouldn’t be nearly as funny in less capable hands.

      I guess seeing Chase carry the beginning of this short is why the second reel doesn’t do as much for me.  The whole doctor thing just takes over Charley’s role and the plot is really ridiculous.  One of those let’s create a crazy situation to solve a problem without realizing the crazy situation will just create more problems.  Eh, I’m a simple guy, I just prefer Charley acting sick, he does such a great job at it. 

      Crazy seeing Fern Emmett here, never saw her with The Three Stooges.  Nice seeing Lucille Lund as the wife.

Paul Pain:

--- Quote from: metaldams on June 18, 2020, 06:24:30 PM ---      I enjoy this short for the most part but have to say the first reel is especially great.  I really enjoy Charley in crazy hypochondriac mode and think he does a wonderful job acting high energy and paranoid.  Freaking out about germs, a face mask - some shorts just age better than others, I guess.  [pie]  Anywho, I love the way Charley pours a powder on the floor instead of in the water like intended without realizing it, drinks the water and mentions how he feels better.  I love the red ink gag, I love the way he has has his big box of various drugs labeled for each hour instead of days of the week like normal people, love the telephone gag with Vernon Dent, but really, it’s Charley Chases’s acting that really carries this reel.  He does an awesome job and this material wouldn’t be nearly as funny in less capable hands.

      I guess seeing Chase carry the beginning of this short is why the second reel doesn’t do as much for me.  The whole doctor thing just takes over Charley’s role and the plot is really ridiculous.  One of those let’s create a crazy situation to solve a problem without realizing the crazy situation will just create more problems.  Eh, I’m a simple guy, I just prefer Charley acting sick, he does such a great job at it. 

      Crazy seeing Fern Emmett here, never saw her with The Three Stooges.  Nice seeing Lucille Lund as the wife.

--- End quote ---

We will agree to disagree about the second reel.  As for Fern Emmett, she looks familiar, but what would I have seen her in?

Never mind... She did Educational Pictures shorts with Buster Keaton... she was only 50 when she passed away in 1946.

metaldams:
Fern Emmett is in one of my favorite one reelers ever and I think it may be the next comedy film I review, now that I’m thinking of it.

Umbrella Sam:
As great as Chase is in this, especially during the office scenes, I find that the standout is John T. Murray as Mr. Cronkite. He pulls off the role really well, playing someone who is obviously crazy, yet also has such a calm demeanor when saying these crazy things that it’s both funny and actually kind of believable that Chase would initially think that he’s a doctor. His calm demeanor leads to some really funny line deliveries, especially when he casually tries suggesting they kill Chase. Almost everything he says in this is hilarious thanks to the way he delivers his lines.

The only problem I have with this short is towards the end when his wife and friends go through this convoluted scheme to cure Charley. It just seems a bit too over-the-top, which is saying something considering that I usually enjoy over-the-top comedic situations. Here, I think the issue is that they suddenly introduce all these random characters that have nothing to do with the rest of the short and they fly by so fast that it’s hard to really take in what the actual joke was supposed to be. It’s kind of like Abbott and Costello’s “Crazy House” in a way, which is a routine I like. However, in “Crazy House,” the routine consists entirely of random people Costello has never met, while the over-the-top people here are supposed to be associated with Chase on a regular basis. It’s just a bit too weird, and while I suppose it does wrap up the storyline, it just somehow feels really out of place.

That one issue aside, this is still a really funny short for most of it. Again, Chase is funny and works well off of John T. Murray, but it’s Murray himself who really steals the show. Definitely worth watching just for his performance alone.

9 out of 10

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