Although Charley Chase's Columbia shorts lack the polish of his work at Roach -- there is a lot more process photography here than in his heyday -- his collaborations with Del Lord were evolving towards their own particular pacing.
In this one they do a Del Lord specialty: Lord had stated out as a stunt driver for Keystone and stepped up to directing automobile comedies for Sennett, including a Taxi series, which he replicated briefly at Roach for the Taxi Boys. Following a brief retirement -- during which, believe it or not, he sold cars -- he wound up in the Columbia shorts department.
In this one, Charley has bought a junker of a car, which continually falls to pieces, in order to impress Ann Doran. The gags are well executed and actually work as punctuation to each sequence. It's a little too emphatic, but by the time the two did SOUTH OF THE BOUDOIR with its plate-crashing sequence, they had managed to finesse the pacing into something excellent.
Perhaps this might have gone some place, but Chase's health was in decline and he would be dead within a year of this short. We will never know.
The net result is a good comedy -- Chase seems to have been incapable of turning out a bad one -- but nothing that would impress anyone not already familiar with his work
In this one they do a Del Lord specialty: Lord had stated out as a stunt driver for Keystone and stepped up to directing automobile comedies for Sennett, including a Taxi series, which he replicated briefly at Roach for the Taxi Boys. Following a brief retirement -- during which, believe it or not, he sold cars -- he wound up in the Columbia shorts department.
In this one, Charley has bought a junker of a car, which continually falls to pieces, in order to impress Ann Doran. The gags are well executed and actually work as punctuation to each sequence. It's a little too emphatic, but by the time the two did SOUTH OF THE BOUDOIR with its plate-crashing sequence, they had managed to finesse the pacing into something excellent.
Perhaps this might have gone some place, but Chase's health was in decline and he would be dead within a year of this short. We will never know.
The net result is a good comedy -- Chase seems to have been incapable of turning out a bad one -- but nothing that would impress anyone not already familiar with his work