The Caretaker's Daughter (Chase 1925)

Everything I see of Chase in his prime convinces me he was one of the greatest of the lot. He plays opposite his brother here in a really strong, and really outlandish, old-fashioned farce. It reminds me of nothing so much as an episode of Frasier at its most farcical. There's that ski lodge episode actually- maybe I'm just seeing the connection there. There isn't really a weak link in here- this is good ensemble playing. Parrott (J) plays a limping oriental lodge caretaker- when various farcical complications arise at the lodge between various couples, detectives and cons, everyone takes their turn trying on the limping oriental disguise. Tremendously silly, yeah of course, but adorably done.
Adorabe too is Grant as Chase's wife- she has some lovely bits early on when the two of them have some business with an old dilapidated car. The plot is one of those plots where you can't quite pin it all together afterwards, but it works just fine while it's going on. As good as 'Mighty Like a Moose'? No, nowhere near. But this bunch of players is fun to watch, and they seem to be enjoying themselves, especially with the disguise stuff.

Sons Of The Desert (Laurel & Hardy 1933)

We could be venturing into heresey territory here, but for a big chunk of its duration I don't think 'Sons of the Desert' is very good. I mean, it is good, and it is certainly one of the better Laurel and Hardy features, but anyone talking about it as one of their best films? No sir. I take exception to that kind of talk. But you can see why its reputation is as high as it is- the ending is so good that you just come away from the film on a high, and tend to forget some of the less successful stuff that has gone before. Such as: Charley Chase. The stuff with Charley Chase just isn't funny. Now I love Charley Chase. And I can accept that he's playing a whole different kind of character here, and I'm happy with that- go for it, see if it works. But it plainly doesn't. There's nothing wrong in principle with having a hugely irritating, obnoxious character in a comedy film- it just doesn't work here. There's nothing funny in what he says or what he does- it isn't Charley's fault, this just really isn't particularly funny material.
Let's move on to the business with the front doors. Stan and Ollie live next door to each other, and there's a huge, elaborate sequence of them geting confused and entering each other's houses, getting locked out, trying again etc. This would have been, should have been, a nice little gag, but it is blown up into being a showcase scene, with all the different possibilities explored. And it is tiresome. Really it is. There I've said it.
You know what, let's just stick my neck right out while I'm getting carried away and say one more thing. I don't really care for Mae Busch. She may be great in films I haven't seen her in, but in the films I have seen her in I don't really care for her. I find her irritating. I've said it, move on, move on.
There is, of course, some wonderful, wonderful stuff here. The final few minutes- the confessions to the wives certainly, but also the scenes before the confessions, with the boys hiding in the attic- are some of the sweetest, and funniest, that Laurel and Hardy every filmed. Every nuance of the relationship between the two comedians is so perfect here. Hell, even Mae Busch's contribution is worthwhile. Stan is absolutely adorable, and you cheer him on as he gets his drink and cigarette from sweet but rather scary Dorothy Christy.
Aside from this final volley of genius though, my favourite moment in the film is a strange little nothing of a moment- Stan and Ollie take a cab back home after the convention. Once they exit the cab, the poor driver is first hit in the face by Stan's door, and then trips over Stan's bag. I don't even know who the cab driver is- it's over in a flash, but is just a perfect, superbly executed moment.

Mighty Like A Moose (Chase 1926)

My God, to go from that pair of Ambrose films to this. This is the story of Mr and Mrs Moose, a couple of 'homely people'- he is buck-toothed, she has a bulbous nose. Without consulting each other, they have their hideous deformities fixed- afterwards, not only do they not recognize each other but they fall in love all over again. That central conceit- that after such minor operations they no longer have a clue who the other one is- is so gloriously and knowingly absurd that you just cheer it on.
To all extents and purposes this is a pantomime two-hander- you expect Chase to be great because he always is, he's dependable, but so is Vivien Oakland. Not only does she look stunning with her fashionable blonde short hair, but she plays it superbly- they work together so well in this film. It's all put together brilliantly as well- enormously well crafted with some great directorial touches. The polka scene in particular is perhaps the greatest piece of ensemble leg acting in cinema history. (Gale Henry is the polka dancer, and she's very good in this one short scene.) Leo McCarey directed this, and you can tell from every shot that this is a guy who really knew what he was doing. Silent slapstick shorts need great directors just like everyone else does. Don't neglect them: they need your support.
The film's climax is an extended fight scene between Chase and... himself. With teeth and without, as it were, and he pulls it off fantastically- he really is one of the greats and I'm admiring him so much in the films of his I'm seeing. If there's another Charley Chase film out there somewhere as good as this, bring it on- this was wonderful, and if there's a hall of fame for silent comedy this needs to be in it.

Fluttering Hearts (Chase 1927)

Chase is surely one of the most amiable of silent comedians (and one of the few that you could never refer to as a silent clown- he's just too suave and dashing for that)- here he is a self-made young millionaire who has to pretend, for predictably convoluted reasons, to be a chauffeur, in order to win the approval of a young charmer's father. It flits by like an innocent breeze, and Charley reeks of charisma even now. You do feel he could play well to modern audiences, certainly every bit as much as, say, Harold Lloyd, whose character seems more firmly rooted in the ambitions and hang-ups of the period.
The opening half drags rather, despite benefiting hugely from a turn as a good-natured cop by the irresistible Eugene Pallette. The silent movie policeman is a maligned and rarely well-represented character, but Pallette's cop is great, and he plays a lovely part in getting the two lovebirds together. The key scene early on though is a rather overblown drapery store scene, full of squabbling women and scenes of ass-kickin' 20s ultraviolence (well, to a degree...)- this may well have worked okay in cinemas with the laughter of a room full of people to sustain it, but it really drags now and doesn't even work towards any great pay-off. Fortunately the stuff to come, especially Charley's dance with the mannequin, and the rosy-faced Oliver Hardy flirting with the mannequin, more than compensate.
The score on the DVD I've seen was really lovely, but spoilt but a bunch of hugely annoying sound effects- who could possibly have thought these were a good idea?

Fatty's Suitless Day (Fatty's Magic Pants) (Arbuckle 1914)

Having just noticed on IMDB that that's Charley Chase- Charley Chase!- playing Fatty's romantic rival here, there's a temptation, I've got to be honest with you, to go back and watch it again. I never would have known- passed me by completely. I'm going to have to start studying these cast lists before I watch the films, because I'm obviously still out of my depth here.
This is also the first truly silent film I've seen- whether the DVD had no sound to start with or I've just ended up with a dodgy copy I couldn't say, but I had to hum to myself to keep my ears busy. The lack of music makes a huge difference actually, especially as my bulging CD collection doesn't really throw up anything that would fit the piece.
Fatty wants to take his girl to a charity ball- it's an evening dress affair though, and evening dress he does not have. Fortunately his rival for the girl's affections- Charley Chase!- is over-endowed in the evening dress department, and so Fatty hatches his plan. The upshot of it all is that Fatty ends up mid-ball sans trousers, and what's interesting is that Fatty well and truly gets his comeuppance here- this surely isn't what we, the discriminating viewer, want though is it? Of the two lovers he's the one with wit and grace- he's the chap we want to see come out on top. Admittedly no-one involved really had an honest idea how to end this though, because the whole conclusion is the work of a tired, harrassed hack.
Some good bits in here- there's a good comical fight scene between the suitors, and Fatty has a jaunty trick of throwing a top hat onto his head that is worth pausing the DVD and re-viewing. He makes a first rate toff as well does Fatty- he is always so watchable, and as much of a ballet dancer as Chaplin ever was.