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ANOTHER WILD IDEA (1934) Charley Chase

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Offline NoahYoung

I'll do more of a review later, but note the similarity:

Go to 8:02


George Costanza: go to 2:07
« Last Edit: February 11, 2025, 07:36:15 PM by NoahYoung »
Burt Lancaster was too short!
- The Birdman of Alcatraz


Offline metaldams


Offline NoahYoung

My copy's on Super 8.
Burt Lancaster was too short!
- The Birdman of Alcatraz


Offline NoahYoung

Note: I've updated the link to the short, since the old link to it on archive.org is now dead.

BTW, using the search function for "ANOTHER WILD IDEA" didn't show this thread as a result, but it showed others. I'm assuming this sub-forum is not indexed.

Edit: Ah, I see -- now it shows up but the others don't. So the search only searches in the sub-forum you're on at the time.
Burt Lancaster was too short!
- The Birdman of Alcatraz


Offline Umbrella Sam

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This was a very funny short, and perfectly suited for Charley Chase. Funnily enough, one of the early comic highlights is actually a reworking of a classic Keaton train gag from ONE WEEK. But, would you believe it? I actually think Chase does it better than Keaton, and even stranger, the incredibly dark lighting making it hard to see actually makes it better because you can’t actually see what Charley parked the car on.

Where the short is at its best, though, is when Frank Austin starts using his contraption on Charley. Absolutely loved when Charley casually pushed the two guys into the fountain without a second thought, calling to mind a similar scene in Chase’s later Columbia short, THE WRONG MISS WRIGHT. Billy Gilbert also has a very funny bit as a radio announcer doing an overly serious reading of Peter Rabbit that offends Chase so much, he destroys the radio. A funny enough gag on its own, but what really sells it is Gilbert’s reading; it’s so ridiculous that you basically would have the same reaction Charley and Betty had the moment they heard it.

The whole courtroom proceeding kind of has a zany, Looney Tunes like feel to it, especially when the jury starts singing. Speaking of singing, we get a nice number by Charley and Betty at the end. With most comedians, this would be a very questionable way to end a short, but I think Charley is the one person who could pull it off, thanks to his natural charisma and the fact that the song is just the right blend between silly and actually being a good performance.

I bought the first three volumes of the Chase Hal Roach DVD sets a few years back, and while I’ve watched some of them, I still haven’t watched all of them. This short serves as a reminder that I should finally get to that.
“I’ll take a milkshake...with sour milk!” -Shemp (Punchy Cowpunchers, 1950)

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