High C's

High C's (1930)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely weak short from Hal Roach has Charley Chase playing Sgt. Chase who really doesn't want to kill the enemies but instead put them in his choir. He's in the middle of WW1 and is on a mission to kill as many German's as possible but he hears that one has a great voice so he plans on kidnapping him for the band. I love Chase but every once in a while you'll come across one of his films that's pretty bad and this is certainly one of his worst. I think there could have been something decent done with the story but I found Chase's character to be very annoying here and the biggest issue I have is that I simply never laughed. The movie has very little going on in it as Chase keeps getting himself into trouble simply because he wants to find a group of men to sing with. A lot of the Chase shorts had him doing some type of singing but this thing here is pretty much all songs as there are at least four different ones sung. It's clear the music is the main focus while the comedy is put on the back burner but it just doesn't work. Thelma Todd appears in a quick scene and is certainly the highlight of the film as her flirtatious handling of Chase was charming.