South of the Boudoir (1940) Review - Charley Chase Short

Charley Chase comedy short. Charley is offered a promotion, but in order to seal the deal his boss wants a home cooked meal - the same night as Charley's wedding anniversary, and the wife has already been told he's taking her to the Cocoanut Grove! When they are prepping the dinner in the kitchen, a fight breaks out as hubby breaks the dishes given to them by her mother - and wifey breaks the dishes given to them by his mother. She walks out and, while shopping, she runs into the boss and - unaware of who she is and obviously being some kind of a wolf - he invites her to dinner that night. Well, he ends up bringing her to her own home as his "date", and meanwhile Charley, in desperation to show his boss that he's a happily married man, has recruited a high-voiced gal he knows who works at some bar/cafe he frequents, to pose as his wife - and what do you think the wife thinks when she arrives to find a blonde wearing her dress?! Mix-ups and lots of slapstick to follow. Got some laughs out loud from this fun short - liked it lots. Charley Chase is great - by the way, if you like Charley, you might want to sign this online petition to release the Charley Chase Columbia shorts on DVD. (by the way, I signed this in June and haven't received any sort of junk emails or spam as a result, so it's safe.) Rating - 8.5/10 stars

The King of the Wild Horses (1924) Silent Film Review

Plot Summary - Hal Roach Presents - - Silent action western starring Rex the Wonder Horse as "The Black", king of the wild horses - he must fight to stay leader, and must also contend with that dreadful menace: man - his constant pursuer. In the far west, just north of the Mexican border, there's a Rancho where lives an older ill man and his two grown kids, Boyd (Charley Chase, billed as Charles Parrott) and Mary (Edna Murphy). Mary is being pursued by one Billy Blair (Leon Bary), cowboy, who seems to have something else he likes to pursue way more than Mary - he's determined to capture "The Black". Chase between man and horse, as Billy goes in relentless pursuit - trusty rope in hand - after the Black, through high-up rocky crevices and rugged crags - but our wild horse is just too smart (and nimble!). But then - a wild fire has horsie surrounded and Billy Blair helps save him - pals!! Meanwhile, back at the Rancho, the ranch foreman is a bad man who has been forcing son Boyd, who has become heavily in his debt, to steal from his own father to pay him back. Fast "Black" and Billy help save the day when bad man and Boyd head out one evening for one last "job".

Review - A pleasant little horse opera, titles by Roach Studios H.M. "Beanie" Walker. Rocky western landscape and pretty wild horses, beauties one and all, are nicely photographed - our Rex the Wonder Horse is a superstar! Some night scenes oddly look like bright daylight (!) - - a river rescue finale is well done. The DVD from Televista features a decent enough looking print (I've seen far worse!) with some deterioration here and there (and rolling in a few spots), but for the most part looked fairly good - - the music score is sort of sweet and old-fashioned, even catchy in places. Cute little silent, perhaps best if you like animal films. Rex the Wonder Horse was a 16 hands Morgan Stallion, according to the Wikipedia article on him - he's a beautiful animal. Rating - 7.5/10 stars

Modern Love (1929) Film Review - Cinecon 44 Screening

Plot Summary - Silent/part talkie romantic comedy starring Charley Chase as a man who wants to marry his girl Patricia (Kathryn Crawford), but she doesn't want to give up her career as a fashion designer (and he's the sort of guy who simply won't tolerate his wife working - "any career in my home will be held by me" says he). A weird plan - they make a deal to get married in secret and keep separate apartments so she can continue working (yeah, in those wacky and wild days when a gal had to quit her job immediately upon marriage). Okay - so he "sleeps over", then sneaks out before daybreak so none of the neighbors think that this "unmarried" woman slept with her man (I wonder, what they would have done if a "precious little bundle" was soon going to be part of the mix?). Well, Patricia impresses a famous Paris fashion designer (Jean Hersholt) with her evening gown designs, and he asks her to come and work with him in Paris for six months. He's also somewhat of a wolf, with other kinds of designs on her - thank goodness she's single (he thinks!). She throws a dinner party for this guy and some of his friends (including Anita Garvin) - and, um, makes her hubby pose as the butler, Higginbottom (?), and serve them dinner. Yikes, hubby creates an odd dining situation for them all, by giving signals to the Parisian mimicking fake table etiquette and demonstrating weird ways to eat his food - the poor man follows suit, and so does everyone else so as not to offend their guest-of-honor. When the "overall" company hubby works for is going bankrupt, he's let go - luckily his wife happens to have laying about the house some cool new designs for overalls for women, such as the "Garden Gad-Abouts".

Review - I quite liked this film, I found it to be an amusing, fun watch - and I am a fan of Charley Chase, so enjoyed seeing him in this. Okay, yeah it's a bit weird that this couple has to resort to all these shenanigans just so this gal can continue the job she loves - but hey, it's a sign of the times back then, and does make for a cute plot. When it came to the part with the live dialogue instead of title cards, I was so into the story I didn't even notice for awhile - so I'm not actually completely sure when the talkie part of this started! The silent part of the film has a synchronized soundtrack of catchy vintage tunes - nice. Pretty good. Rating - 8/10 stars