All of MODERN LOVE has been rediscovered and restored, and it is a delight. Universal assigned this film to very second-tier technical personnel - Arch Heath's career was mostly directing shorts, this was cinematographer Jerome Ash's second "A" feature after William Wyler's excellent THE SHAKEDOWN (1929), and the sometimes crude synchronized score was by Bert Fiske, musical director for Universal's first all-talkie, the flop MELODY OF LOVE (1928) - so it's likely that Heath gave Chase his head and let him assume most of the direction. (This hypothesis is reinforced by including fellow Roach comedienne Anita Garvin in the cast.) For the most part it is a typical Chase situation comedy of embarassment, but it builds gag by gag to a hilarious sequence where Chase deliberately sabotages a dinner party featuring Jean Hersholt as the guest of honor who is unfamiliar with American dining "customs".
When Chase finally speaks (quite late in the film) and sings what must have been the film's theme song, "You Can't Buy Love", his dialogue is slightly stilted at first, but he delivers it quite naturally and in the characteristic way of his later films for Roach; in fact, some of it is quite funny. (Oddly, "You Can't Buy Love", which is attractive and beautifully sung by Chase, was never published.) The confrontational role-play dialogue between Chase and Katherine Grant concerning their respective careers and "traditional" marriage values is believable and amusing, but the film ends in a surprising but wonderfully ambiguous way that respects both characters.
It is a terrible shame that this was Chase's only true starring feature, because it shows he really could carry feature films with ease; it's even more impressive that the film works so well in its difficult part-talkie hybrid form, as many similar films of its time are not very effective today. In many ways it's a tighter and lighter-feeling film than most of Laurel & Hardy's features (save SONS OF THE DESERT) as Chase has a little more time to give more dimension to his character beyond that in his usual two-reel comedies. MODERN LOVE is still a pleasing and funny film to watch even with its technical sound limitations, which is a marked achievement.
