This 21-minute short begins as a slapstick farce, and degenerates into a musical variety show, at about the point when newbie painter Charley Chase is brushed by his coworkers with "White Face," and starts wailing in a Jolson-like voice to echo THE JAZZ SINGER. It is never explained WHY a high society lady would summon a Three Stooges-like crew to whitewash her dining table while her luncheon party is in progress. However, since all the palm trees in the background indicate this story is set in Hollywood, where citizens are dumber than cacti, I suppose anything goes. Charley Chase wears glasses here, apparently hoping to evoke Harold Lloyd's wimpy-looking "Glasses" character, which was all the rage a decade earlier. Unfortunately for the viewer, Chase lacks Lloyd's charisma, daring-do, and smarts, if LUNCHEON AT TWELVE is a representative sample of his work.
Review of Luncheon at Twelve
