Charley Chase began his career as Charles Parrott (his real name) at Keystone in 1914 where he worked with Arbuckle, Normand, and Chaplin in small unbilled parts. He turned to direction at roughly the same time and eventually went to work for Hal Roach in the early 1920s where he met a young fellow named Leo McCarey. Together they made a 1924 short called SITTIN PRETTY which has an almost identical version of the mirror gag McCarey would later make famous in DUCK SOUP (It features Charley and his younger brother James Parrott who would also become a comedy director). This 4 DVD extravaganza clocks in at 450 minutes and covers his career as comedian and director from Keystone to the end of the Hal Roach era.
He became Charley Chase (hence the name of the set) to distinguish the comedian from the director. His onscreen character bears a remarkable resemblance to Dick Van Dyke who must have been familiar with Chase’s comedies. It was initially based on a once popular comedian named Lloyd Hamilton. He became Roach’s number one comedy headliner until he was eclipsed by Laurel & Hardy in the late 20s. He continued to act and direct (at Columbia including a few 3 Stooges shorts in the late 30s like VIOLENT IS THE WORD FOR CURLY) until his early death from a heart attack at the age of 46. That was in 1940. The various audio commentaries on the shorts and the brief bio THE PARROTT CHASE provide excellent background information.
This set has been years in the making as some of the early material was very hard to come by and there were a number of complications over who was going to release it. Thanks to Allday Entertainment and to VCI Entertainment for finally getting the job done. Chase had a significant influence on screen humor directing it away from outright slapstick and more into the situational comedy we know today. It’s astonishing how much of his late teens and early 20s stuff got recycled by others. My initial reaction is one of admiration tinged by a touch of sadness over how he has been forgotten. Hopefully this set will change that. The only thing that keeps it from being a perfect release is the lack of liner notes or at least a listing of what shorts are on which disc.
The Capsule Critic 