Crazy Like a Fox

This hilarious Charley Chase two-reeler is probably, alongside Safety Last, or The General, among the best of American silent comedies; forget the fact that it's only 25 minutes long, it is constantly brilliant, from the sheer simplicity of the construction(Charley decides to pass as an extreme mental patient to escape a marriage arrangement until he realizes the bride is the woman of his dreams)to the clarity of the gags involved, notwithstanding the contribution of Chase as an actor, who is of course so dignified, so dapper at the beginning that he falls deep into his pretense of madness, and seems to really enjoy the trip all along. Add to this the wonderful, brilliant and lovely Martha Sleeper, who was always Chase's equal in the films they made together, the presence of Oliver Hardy in an interesting departure from his usually 'heavy' roles, the impeccable direction by Leo McCarey, and you have a little masterpiece of invention that stands repeated viewings, like most of, say, Laurel and Hardy's masterpieces of the late twenties.