A frantic farce involving a naked woman hidden in the back of a groom's car on his wedding day. The Transition to Talkies
Born Charles Parrott in Baltimore, Maryland, Charley Chase possessed a unique screen persona. Unlike Chaplin’s downtrodden vagrant or Keaton’s surreal survivor, Chase played the "dapper young man." He was the polite, well-dressed everyman who just wanted to make a good impression, get the girl, or keep his job.
In the late 1930s, Chase moved to Columbia Pictures, where he worked both in front of and behind the camera. The MegaPack preserves this final chapter of his career, during which he directed several classic short films for the Three Stooges (including Violent Is the Word for Curly ) while continuing to star in his own frantic comedies until his untimely death in 1940. The Anatomy of a Charley Chase Comedy Charley Chase MegaPack
, a pioneer of "comedy of embarrassment" and one of the most prolific figures in silent and early sound film history. Amazon.com Overview of the MegaPack
Chase gets trapped in a wedding limousine on a sweltering hot day. As the heat increases, the situation becomes more frantic. It is a masterclass in physical sweating (yes, sweat as a prop) and frustration. A frantic farce involving a naked woman hidden
Before we dive into the MegaPack’s contents, let’s set the stage. Born Charles Parrott in Baltimore in 1893, Charley Chase was the unsung genius of the Hal Roach Studios. While Roach was busy turning a kid named Harold Lloyd into a superstar, Chase was the director, writer, and medicine man keeping the lights on.
Widely considered one of his finest, it involves a husband and wife who unknowingly get cosmetic surgery and then try to hide their "new looks" from each other. In the late 1930s, Chase moved to Columbia
: Unlike the "clownish" contemporaries of his time, Chase played a "regular guy"—a dapper, pleasant young man in ordinary street clothes who frequently found himself in hilariously embarrassing situations. The "Director-General"
When film historians and classic movie enthusiasts discuss the titans of silent comedy, the same names inevitably rise to the top: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. These giants defined the era with their distinct personas—the Tramp, the Stone Face, and the Glass Character. However, lurking just behind this holy trinity is a comedian whose craftsmanship was so impeccable that even the great Chaplin referred to him as one of the finest comedians in the business.
The Charley Chase MegaPack is a massive digital archiving triumph. It brings together a vast definitive collection of his surviving short films, spanning his most prolific years at Hal Roach Studios and Columbia Pictures.
: Unlike many silent stars, Chase thrived in "talkies" because of his fine singing voice and talent for "mini-musicals". Directorial Legacy