Long Awaited Comedies Arrive On DVD

The Sprocket Vault Releases 18 Charley Chase Talkies

Back in footie pajamas and recount of rose-hued collecting youth when I got first look at a talking Charley Chase. The short was Hasty Marriage, an 8mm print acquired from Blackhawk for $16.98 in 1971. This is still my favorite Chase, a choice driven by sentiment, but how resistible is any comedy shot on then-Culver City streets and revolved around street cars long lost to history? So has been sound-era Charley unfortunately, other than glimpses where TCM used him for a filler. We've had the silents, plenty as tendered by several DVD labels, but all that he did after was buried deep, excepting those for Columbiatoward the end of Chase's life. Now comes rescue from want via The Sprocket Vault, that laughing place a recent source of When Comedy Was King, The Mysterious Airman, and Go Johnny Go!, each a winner in terms of quality and content. Charley Chase: At Hal Roach: The Talkies Volume One 1930-31 is a two-disc collection of eighteen subjects, hand-picked to represent Chase at his talkie best. I've not seen much of what is here, or it's been so long that I've forgotten. In any case, there is sense of watching all for a first time, thanks to clarity an improvement on prints past, the whole of 18 featuring audio commentary by historian Richard M. Roberts and extras by way of poster and still galleries. There is even a Spanish-language version of The Pip From Pittsburg called La Senorita De Chicago which I didn't know existed, let alone ever saw a frame of.

Here's a distinct advantage of the 1930-31 group: They are for most part heavily scored with those delightful Hal Roach themes that are music heritage of all us who came up with Our Gang and Laurel-Hardy. I could watch, more so listen, to these films over and again even if casts stood stock still and said nothing. Of all things to cherish about Roach comedies, it is tune accompany I love best. Their music is overlay of joy to the lot. Charley Chase enhanced that by adding song to many of his shorts, and these are sprinkled through the discs' eighteen. Added value to the Chase Collection is fact that it is as much a Thelma Todd Collection, for she is in many of selections here. Thelma still works a magic after eighty years gone, a beauty for which we need make no allowance for time or fashions changed. Having her along is like getting double value from each of these comedies. We've seen a lot of gold veins tapped from humor's past, most thanks to effort of fans who were raised on vintage stuff. Those of us on receiving ends of these labors of love should support this stuff and share it. Continued release of the Chase group (and there are many more CC comedies) will be determined by response to this first DVD. Let's get behind the Sprocket Vault's worthy work and make a long-run series of Charley Chase with talk (and music).