Rough Seas

Charley Chase stars in this silly little Hal Roach short from 1931. The director, James Parrott, is actually Charley's brother, as 'Charley Chase' was his stage name and he was actually Charles Parrott (and is billed that way when he directed many Roach films himself).

The setting for the film is just after the end of WWI and Charley is trying to sneak both his amazingly smart pet monkey AND a beautiful French girl aboard the transport ship home. While usually you'd think trying to just sneak either of them aboard would be the basis of a comedy short, this film packs in tons of story elements--perhaps too many. That's because in addition to smuggling them aboard, there are major plots involving the restoration of a man's singing voice through surgery, quite a few musical numbers and frequent run-ins with either the captain or Charley's commanding officers. There literally is enough plot for a full-length film--not a 27 minute short like ROUGH SEAS.

Now this isn't to say this is a bad film--just a very, very busy one that might have been a bit better had there been more chance to fully develop one or two of the plots alone. But despite this, there are a decent number of laughs (though not as many as you'd find in a Laurel and Hardy flick of the day) and it's worth watching for both Thelma Todd's excellent acting as a French woman (this surprised me) and to listen to Charley's lovely singing voice (though I think he was dubbed in when they had him singing bass in one number). This was one of quite a few films in which Chase sang, so it didn't surprise me to hear him croon several catchy tunes. While he could not have made a career of singing alone, his voice was pretty good and is unexpected when you first hear him sing--you just don't expect that from a movie comedian.

Charley Chase is best taken in small doses since his brand of comedy can lead you to push the fast forward button as you watch him on video. Still, this film shows him in one of his most representative roles.

Comic pratfalls, absurd situations, outrageous mugging, jokes relying on props (including a Capucine monkey), authority figures like a ship captain reduced to straight men. Yet, here you see his vaudeville side -- his comic singing, his "straight" musical numbers, his dealing with a younger and very pretty Thelma Todd (whose version of a French woman comes out of Broadway, not Paris), and, of course, his funny faces on a mug that looked like an accountant or a more mature Harold Lloyd.

Sometimes, he can be really funny; but normally you want to beg off watching him, because he grabs you by the arm like a high pressure salesman wanting you to appreciate a joke he just has to tell you.

A Hal Roach CHARLEY CHASE Comedy Short.

It's ROUGH SEAS ahead for Charley when he tries to sneak both his French girlfriend and pet monkey aboard the troop transport heading home.

The script writers let poor Charley down in this rather unfunny and very silly little film; his personal brand of humor has not weathered well here, but fortunately he gets to sing a few songs (including 'Asleep In The Deep') and that he does quite nicely. The lovely & vivacious Miss Thelma Todd, as Charley's sweetheart, fares even worse - she is given virtually no chance to wield her considerable talents.

Movie mavens should recognize an uncredited Charlie Hall as a doughboy on ship.

I really enjoyed this little film mostly because of the monkey. He was really cute and appeared to be extremely well trained!

I also enjoyed Charley Chase's facial expressions and the practical jokes they played on one another (dumping buckets of sudsy water onto people's heads).

I did laugh out loud in some parts; I have to disagree with another commenter on here about it not being funny. The part where the girlfriend's leg broke out of the sack as he was carrying her onto the ship was really well executed and I found it very funny.

All in all it was a nice film to watch, but the monkey stole the show.

Rough Seas (1931)

* (out of 4)

Really bad Charlie Chase short has him trying to sneak his French woman (Thelma Todd) and pet monkey onto a ship heading for America. There's not a single laugh to be found in this short, which runs 27-minutes and that seems to be at least twenty-minutes too long. Chase isn't acting as himself but as something I haven't seen before and Todd is wasted, although she gets a few unintentional laughs with her French accent, which goes back and forth with her American one.

As of now none of Chase's Columbia shorts are on DVD so if you want to see them then you'll have to keep an eye on TCM.