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The Heckler (1940) - Charley Chase

(1/1)

Paul Pain:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031410/



Sorry for the poor video quality, but it's the best available.

THE HECKLER is a raucous short to say the least.  We get a fantastic delivery of a fun, sports-themed short.  There is something wonderfully nostalgic of seeing a stand full of people wearing suits and dresses to attend a baseball game.  This one is special for me because it's the first Charley Chase film I watched.

Charley Chase does a fantastic job at being obnoxious toward everyone around him, and Vernon Dent and Monte Collins were excellent choices to be the men on either side of him.  It doesn't seem possible for Charley to do this so well, but he's amazingly natural with it.  Adequate suspension of disbelief is needed to appreciate this fully, but the entire production is top-notch.

The doctor's office scene is typical Columbia fare, but the best part is the ending.  The ending to this one is a classic that I won't spoil.

9/10 [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke]

Dr. Mabuse:
Excellent review. Charley Chase's best work at Columbia — hands down! Were it not for Chase's untimely death, the Columbia series would have continued indefinitely.

9.5/10

Umbrella Sam:
This reminds me a bit of Chase’s 1930 short, ALL TEED UP, and that’s a good thing. Normally, I can’t stand watching obnoxious, loudmouth characters who take delight in seeing others miserable, but Charley Chase and Shemp Howard are the two actors I can think of who are able to pull it off. Both are just so lively when it comes to this that it’s so much fun to watch them, even if they are playing characters we’re not supposed to like. Personally, I slightly prefer ALL TEED UP, but THE HECKLER is also a great premise.

There’s a great supporting cast here too. Monte Collins is especially funny here; I love his reaction when the ice cream falls into his pipe. It’s surprising to learn that Chase died not too long after this, because his performance is so spirited that you can’t really tell how much worse his alcoholism had gotten. While this role did involve a lot of sitting, it still did require lots of energy in order to pull off the facial expressions and the constant screaming. Chase’s facial expressions are especially good here. The happy grins he makes whenever he yells “watch him miss it!” are just so funny that it’s honestly hard to hate his character, despite how annoying he would be in real life.

From what I’ve seen, Chase didn’t really play these types of roles often, but when he did, he took full advantage of the situation. I love the Shemp version, too, but if I had to pick between them, I probably would slightly lean towards this one.

10 out of 10

metaldams:
Yes, this is the type of thing Chase should have been doing more often at Columbia.  He was getting older and had he lived longer, he probably would have needed to reinvent his screen character.  There is only so long a guy can play roles engaged to young beauties while getting in confrontations with other guys.  None of that here, pure comic obnoxiousness and energy and Chase delivers in spades here.  A wonderful performance and a focused premise make this easily my favorite Chase Columbia short.  There are a handful of others that are good and even the lesser ones are at least watchable - but none reach this level.

A lot of fun scoping out all the Columbia players in the crowd.  Again, he’s a great screen match with Bess Flowers and I do wish those two did more together.  Vernon Dent is wonderful here as to be expected as he gets good screen time and interactions with Chase, but Monte Collins is a revelation for me.  He plays straight man here and I think I like him better in this kind of role.

Great short.

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