"Long Fliv the King" is fairly funny, and has a more coherent plot than usual for a Charley Chase movie, so it's unfortunate that this 1926 comedy has a title that so thoroughly dates it. The word "fliv" is short for "flivver", which was 1920s American slang for a light automobile. The title "Long Fliv the King" is irrelevant until the film's climactic Chase scene (no pun intended), when Charley and Martha Sleeper escape in a roadster.
The plot is implausible: Sleeper is a Graustarkian princess who succeeds to her nation's throne if she marries a man, any man ... so she marries American commoner Charley, who thereby becomes king. Since he's not of royal blood, surely he would be at most the prince consort ... but don't mind me, scriptwriter. I was intrigued by Chase's first scene in this movie, in which he's shown only in three-quarter rear view, his face concealed from the camera. I was expecting some payoff for this -- perhaps his character would have some facial defect -- but apparently it was done solely to give Chase an opportunity to emote with his back to the camera. Martha Sleeper does some good acting here, too.
Oliver Hardy shows up briefly, behind an elaborate moustache, as the main villain's chief henchman. Hardy's character is clever enough to use a burning-glass to harm Chase at a distance. Max Davidson, with his usual Jewish mannerisms, has a funny line here (in a title card) when he claims to be 'the Pope of Palestine'. A duelling sequence is quite funny.
I'm not really a fan of Charley Chase, but I enjoyed this as one of his less typical offerings, with much higher production values than usual for a Chase vehicle. My rating: 6 out of 10.
