Charley Chase was a genius for taking an wild, implausible premise, drawing out its real-world consequences for his character, and mining them for brilliant comedy. Here, he's a fellow who's slightly more forgetful than the world's most forgetful man... and it's his wedding anniversary. Columbia Pictures may have required a faster pace from Charley than his old bosses at Hal Roach Studios did, but he seems to have managed to fill that bill with rapid-fire hilarious comedy dialogue and sight gags which don;t hurt his films one-bit: that's what the opening scenes of "The Mind Needer" run on, and they're full of constant character-based laughs that build and hit home, plus simply excellent lines ("It can't be our wedding anniversary... that happened that year.") and visual humor (Charley can't find his pants because they're on under his pyjamas).
Of course, when plot develops in the second act and Charley's forgetfulness lands him an embarrassing situation with another woman, it hits home all the funnier because we are familiar with the new conceits to Charley's character from the first half. It's as funny and well written, structured, and performed as anything I've seen from Chase. It's said that he compensated for Columbia's smaller budgets and tighter production schedules by overworking to make comedies that were his best work, and here it paid off. Well worth finding if you like Charley Chase or classic comedies in general.
Of course, when plot develops in the second act and Charley's forgetfulness lands him an embarrassing situation with another woman, it hits home all the funnier because we are familiar with the new conceits to Charley's character from the first half. It's as funny and well written, structured, and performed as anything I've seen from Chase. It's said that he compensated for Columbia's smaller budgets and tighter production schedules by overworking to make comedies that were his best work, and here it paid off. Well worth finding if you like Charley Chase or classic comedies in general.