Thelma is even willing to indulge in straight slapstick, as in Whispering Whoopee, which winds up with a wild seltzer free-for-all. Her beauty, charm, and comedic savvy are a major asset and it’s a treat to watch the two stars play off each other. The brightest light in this array of comedies is Charley’s frequent leading lady, Thelma Todd. The ploy still works today it’s fun to spend time with Charley and the members of the Roach stock company like Edgar Kennedy (who also directed All Teed Up, one of the best shorts in this collection), James Finlayson, and Charlie Hall.
#LAUREL AND HARDY COLLECTION VOL. 2DVD REVIEW MOVIE#
Having him use his real name, as other Roach stars like Laurel and Hardy did, made audiences feel like he was a friendly visitor to their local movie house. Not every entry in this collection is a gem, but Charley had a quality that sustained even weak material: he is immensely likable. Charley does surprisingly well reading his lines in phonetic Español, while a fluent cast fills the supporting roles.Ĭharley poses on location for All Teed Up with Thelma Todd and the women who took her role in the Spanish and French versions of the short, Linda Loredo and Georgette Rhodes Roberts, and a bonus I’ve never seen before: the Spanish-language version of my favorite Chase talkie, The Pip from Pittsburg. For about a year, Hal Roach had all of his star comics (even the Our Gang kids) shoot foreign-language versions of their short subjects to export around the globe. It includes 17 shorts, a photo gallery, commentary by comedy historian Richard M. This two-disc set has been assembled with tender loving care. Enter veteran film distributor Kit Parker and his company The Sprocket Vault with Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies Volume One 1930-31. But I never dreamed that anyone would release his Hal Roach talkies, which have seemed destined for obscurity.
There is even a collection of the comedy shorts he made for Columbia Pictures toward the end of his life. A number of DVDs spotlight his silent two-reelers for Hal Roach, which are among the funniest ever made. There are several books about him and chapters in other surveys of vintage comedy devoted to him. Fortunately, that has changed in the intervening years. Finding copies of his films to screen was another challenge. When I set out to write a comprehensive article about underrated comedian Charley Chase decades ago for my magazine Film Fan Monthly there was virtually nothing in print about this talented comedian.
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