I had no idea Leon Errol made shorts with Columbia, I knew him from the RKO series that he starred in until his death. I like the unique take on domestic comedy this short does, usually it results from a misunderstanding where a woman's husband thinks a man is in love with her, with all sorts of coincidences not helping the case. In this short, however, Leon Errol actually was formerly married to the woman who's man is chasing him. The thought of Leon faking his death several times to get out of marriage sounds funny enough that it should be its own comedy film.
Being the fan of lowbrow physical humor I am, the two times I laughed the most in this short was when Leon Errol hit by the mouse trap, and later on when an attempt at a backflip results in crash through a bed. I'll always knew Columbia will give me a few laughs like that.
IMDB says Lucille Ball appeared in this short, it might be because of the awful film quality, because I didn't notice her appearing. Vivian Oakland has Mae Busch vives in this short, and that lead to me wondering if she ever appeared in any Columbia shorts and it turns out she did appear in at least one.
You need to get THE GREAT MOVIE SHORTS by Leonard Maltin, if you can find a copy. Great book, written in the early 70s. There's no way he could have seen all the shorts he lists in that book! He gives a one or 2 sentence synopisis in the lists, but in his essay for the comedian(s), he picks out a few shorts and talks about them -- presumably because he saw them! Of course he has a chapter on Leon Errol. That book lists Lucy in PERFECTLY MISMATED.
I knew about Errol at Columbia from that book as well as the lists of shorts on the back of Stooges boxes and catalogs for Super 8 film. The only one available with Errol from Columbia was HONEYMOON BRIDGE.
My favorite Leon Errol short is the one where he has a misunderstanding with his wife, and chaos ensues. Can't remember the title.
Notice how it says "unedited", but THREE SAPPY PEOPLE is edited.
I don't have a copy of HONEYMOON BRIDGE in Super 8.
BTW, the only Charley Chase Columbia shorts that Maltin singles out in his book are the 4 listed on that box -- probably because he owned copies himself in Super 8. The catalogs used to list his brief synopses of the Columbia films, so perhaps Columbia released them because Maltin singled them out. Who knows?
Even back then, the people in charge of releasing Columbia shorts for home viewing did not know what they were doing. They mispelled Chase's first name as Charlie, and they released HOT STUFF and CREEPS instead of FUELIN' AROUND and THE GHOST TALKS, respectively. They later released A BIRD IN THE HEAD, but that one was edited, too! (The box it came in said "unedited", too!)
