Unemployed Charlie Chase is in love with a streetcar conductor's daughter (Gay Seabrook), but her mother prefers a security officer with the streetcar line for son-in-law material. Hilarious goings-on on the streetcar follow (driven by the girlfriend's father, James Finlayson) and the couple commit a `Hasty Marriage' when Charlie finds out that the job he is applying for is only open to married men.
3 Reviews
Charley has a rival...and a new wife.
planktonrules13 July 2020
This Charley Chase short features Chase along with two Hal Roach Studio standbys, James Finlayson and Billy Gilbert. Finlayson plays Charley's girlfriend's father and Gilbert an unbilled role as a passenger on a trolley.
When the story begins, you see that Charley's girlfriend's mother hates him, as he's unemployed (something common due to the Depression). So, she tries hard to get her daughter to date Eddie...who works for the trolley company, just like the girl's father. However, the father (Finlayson) prefers Charley...as does his daughter. But both are afraid to buck the domineering mother.
At one point, Charley is offered a job with the trolley company...provided he is married. Such things might sound silly, but back during the Depression jobs were hard to come by and companies would sometimes favor folks with families to support. He is able to get married on the sly but by the time he returns with the wife and marriage certificate, the job has been filled. Is there any hope for Charley?
This film is a bit more athletic than most of Chase's films...with some funny bits involving the trolley and a climactic fight as well. Overall, while not a hilarious film, it is very pleasing and ends quite well.
When the story begins, you see that Charley's girlfriend's mother hates him, as he's unemployed (something common due to the Depression). So, she tries hard to get her daughter to date Eddie...who works for the trolley company, just like the girl's father. However, the father (Finlayson) prefers Charley...as does his daughter. But both are afraid to buck the domineering mother.
At one point, Charley is offered a job with the trolley company...provided he is married. Such things might sound silly, but back during the Depression jobs were hard to come by and companies would sometimes favor folks with families to support. He is able to get married on the sly but by the time he returns with the wife and marriage certificate, the job has been filled. Is there any hope for Charley?
This film is a bit more athletic than most of Chase's films...with some funny bits involving the trolley and a climactic fight as well. Overall, while not a hilarious film, it is very pleasing and ends quite well.
Hasten to see it
hte-trasme20 January 2010
"Hasty Marriage" is another breezy, fun, and cheerful two-reeler from Charley Chase, with a couple of great twists on the comedy of frustration that he was a master of. It's also one of the funniest shorts from him that I've seen so far. Every gag works beautifully, they set each other up for extra humor, and Charley's at the top of his humiliated but determined-to-be-debonair game.
It's in three distinct segments, and each is beautifully choreographed. The first and probably best involves Charley, his girlfriend, and her father foolish her mother and the suitor she prefers into getting Charley into the house for dinner. It's beautifully choreographed, very, very funny, and full of vicarious satisfaction as Charley fools the streetcar conductor suitor into sitting and listening to a record on the phone.
In the later two segments, in which Charley must get married within minutes to get a job, and then tries to go on a picnic with his new family, are both also packed with laughs and timed with an almost musical brilliance. In the first there is a glorious sequence in which Charley peeks at his streetcar-conductor father from every angle of the moving car's window while the suitor, obsessed with his job of making sure conductors do not speak with passengers (a premise for a running gag that's sued in ways that make it funnier each time) insists on stopping them.
This sort also has the benefit of the very eccentric and comic performance of the false-mustachioed, bald-headed Scottish frequent Hal Roach foil James Finlayson. Above all it demonstrates Chase's hand for timing comedy beautifully and bringing back recognition of earlier gags for maximum effect. Did I mention it also made me laugh a lot?
It's in three distinct segments, and each is beautifully choreographed. The first and probably best involves Charley, his girlfriend, and her father foolish her mother and the suitor she prefers into getting Charley into the house for dinner. It's beautifully choreographed, very, very funny, and full of vicarious satisfaction as Charley fools the streetcar conductor suitor into sitting and listening to a record on the phone.
In the later two segments, in which Charley must get married within minutes to get a job, and then tries to go on a picnic with his new family, are both also packed with laughs and timed with an almost musical brilliance. In the first there is a glorious sequence in which Charley peeks at his streetcar-conductor father from every angle of the moving car's window while the suitor, obsessed with his job of making sure conductors do not speak with passengers (a premise for a running gag that's sued in ways that make it funnier each time) insists on stopping them.
This sort also has the benefit of the very eccentric and comic performance of the false-mustachioed, bald-headed Scottish frequent Hal Roach foil James Finlayson. Above all it demonstrates Chase's hand for timing comedy beautifully and bringing back recognition of earlier gags for maximum effect. Did I mention it also made me laugh a lot?
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