Topic: At First Sight (1924) - Charley Chase

[HomokHarcos]

The link will not work on this site, but you can watch it if you go onto the YouTube video.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299493/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4

Charley Chase, along with Wheeler and Woolsey are the classic film comedians whose filmographies I am most eager to watch through, and after almost two years I am finally getting to one of them. Here we are with the beginning of Charley Chase series at Hal Roach. He had been a prominent man behind the scenes at the Hal Roach studio for the Snub Pollard and Jimmy Parrott series, and in 1924 he was given his own series. Technically, he's going by Jimmy Jump at this time, but I will refer to him as Charley Chase.

What I've heard is that the Chase comedies are well plotted sitcoms, and this one gets it right off the bat. There are good gags such as Charley's hat getting set on fire, but the main film is about mistaken identity. Charley and leading lady Blanche Mehaffey both lie about their positions and to make themselves feel more important than they are and are worried that their love interest won't like them if they find out the truth. Of course this gets them into trouble with their bosses who falsely assume somebody is trying to take their partner.

Good start, and I heard it gets even better.

[Umbrella Sam]

Already a good start to the Chase series. Yeah, I know he did have experience long before working at Roach, but even then you’d expect him to still be trying to find his footing in a new series. But here, even though his character’s name is “Jimmy Jump”, Charley Chase legitimately feels like Charley Chase all the way through. He’s got that jolly but somewhat clumsy personality and the romance, as brief as it is, is still kind of sweet from a story perspective. Most of the gags work: Chase’s hat setting on fire, him mistakenly hitting the bell at the office, and his constantly frustrating the shoeshiner by getting his shoes even dirtier are all highlights. If the Roach silents do indeed get better from here, then that’s a good sign since it’s already started off on the right foot.

[metaldams]

Though it may cost you, if possible, get the 4 DVD set BECOMING CHARLEY CHASE, which has all these early shorts with commentaries.

Chase actually was with Roach a few years prior to this as a director, mainly for the Snub Pollard series.  According to the commentary from Richard Roberts, that series didn’t do well commercially and Chase wanted to go back in front of the camera.

Yeah, agreed, it’s amazing.  Short one and already it’s Charley Chase.  No growing pains here. A romantic comedy with slapstick thrown in.  I personally like the first half a little better.  The hat on fire gag is clever and the way he goes out in the rain in various ways to help the girl in the car is excellent.  It establishes their relationship while at the same time milking a nice comic bit of Charley getting his shoes cleaned only to make them muddy again.  This gets annoyed reactions from the shoe shiner.  This part ends with Chase standing in mud, and I love Hal Roach films with mud, even if this is a miniature version.  The second half is mistaken identity comedy because of the character’s dishonesty.  Milked over two reels this kind of thing can get old, but resolved quickly over half a reel, it works better.

Good start to the series.

[Paul Pain]

Charley sure is Charley right from the starting gun in this short.  A nice little fun short on the ploy of false identity, but because it's a half (single?) reeler we get the kind of simple resolution that Columbia shorts detested so much.

Charley really was a talented actor.  He probably could have pulled off doing a little straight dramatic romance in the occasional B-picture and done all right.

The build-up to the mud puddle was fantastic, and it gives us some of that physical comedy the silent stars did so well. 

[Umbrella Sam]

Charley sure is Charley right from the starting gun in this short.  A nice little fun short on the ploy of false identity, but because it's a half (single?) reeler we get the kind of simple resolution that Columbia shorts detested so much.

Charley really was a talented actor.  He probably could have pulled off doing a little straight dramatic romance in the occasional B-picture and done all right.

The build-up to the mud puddle was fantastic, and it gives us some of that physical comedy the silent stars did so well.

I feel like Chase could have made for a great character actor had he chosen to go down that route later on (he had supporting roles in SONS OF THE DESERT and KELLY THE SECOND and was up for a part in an Astaire and Rogers film but had to drop out).