Charley Taking A Trip

Charley Chase Asks, Isn't Life Terrible? (1925)

Can go-getting Charley Chase sell enough fountain pens to win a sea voyage abroad? The question might be as easily put to Harold Lloyd back when he was doing shorts, but now it's Charley as Harold's heir apparent, and also at Hal Roach, where another Lloyd was what they very much needed. But Chase was his own personality, distinct from Lloyd, and overlapped the latter seldom, so it's novelty and some fun to see him at hijinx reminiscent of Harold's then-recent Hot Water, a feature with less story than two-reeling Isn't Life Terrible?. There's indolent brother-in-law Babe Hardy as bane to Charley here, and one of those fountain pen customers is ingénue lovely Fay Wray, finding out that picture-work can be messy business (she gets a black ink facial). Shipboard scenes of a second half impress for being set aboard a real vessel, sunlight and wide skies adding to pleasure (LA outdoors always good for we-are-there that modern-day location detectives continue to track down). Isn't Life Terrible? gained further for partnering of Chase and director Leo McCarey, their accumulation of silent comedy among the era's best. Included on Milestone's Cut To The Chase! DVD collection.