The Big Squirt

Charley is a drugstore soda jerk who passes the workday reading detective magazines. His 'natural instincts' naturally get him into trouble as he fingers everyday citizens as wanted criminals. When his mother-in-law identifies gangster Lucky Lapiddus, Charley becomes more determined to catch a crook. When Lapiddus is set free and vows vengeance on Charley's mother-in-law, Charley teams up with Murphy the beat cop to trap Lappidus. Needless to say, the plan backfires and Charley ends up running from the law himself!! Columbia stock player Bud Jamison has a very funny role as the cop who goes along with Charley's suspicions. All in all, another funny Chase two-reeler. Those with good eyes with notice a former OUR GANG member as one of the kids in the beginning.

Fans of the Hal Roach Charley Chase shorts will be pleased to see this, his fifth release for Columbia Pictures. As a drugstore soda jerk, Charley immediately warms up to the audience with his gentle good humor and expertise behind the fountain. His sequence with the two boys who argue over the flavor of which soda they will share is a lovely and nostalgic one. The role of the bully kid who wins the right to his flavor of choice via a sock to the eye of his counterpart is played by Georgie Billings. A constant in many films of the thirties, he vanished from the scene sometime around 1950. Billings was recently discovered and introduced to many fans on October 18th. 2008 in Los Angeles. He brought many pieces of memorabilia with him and recalled working with Charley Chase to me. In a moment, I told him of the name of the film and the scene he played in. His confirmation reaction when I told him of the two straws routine he did with one of the Kilbrick boys was fabulous. The fact that all twenty Chase Columbia shorts are being released in 2009 was a joy for him as he wants to see the film and finally show it to his wife. This film is a rare one as Charley gets to sing one of his original songs. A common sequence in his Hal Roach films, the Columbia shorts didn't give him this liberty. However, he gets to sing as he plays several instruments at one time. Attached all over his body, Charley sings and plays about being a daring drugstore desperado. Released in Super 8 in the 1970's , there were some prints in 16mm that played on television. With the DVD release, everyone can see the entire output and that's reason to celebrate.

Some of Charley's later shorts don't hold up well, but this one has a nice mix if physical and verbal comedy AND he gets to sing! The bit with the obsession over finding criminals is funniest when the mother-in-law takes over! I hope this comes out on video or plays at a festival soon! We need to see more of Charley Chase!

This is a very funny and well put-together entry from Charley Chase's series of later shorts from Columbia Pictures, and good demonstration once again of his constant production of consistently original and creative comedy. This is one of those Chase comedies that proceed semi-logically but from a from a single bizarre premise, and in this case it's that Charley is a soda jerk who is obsessed with crime magazines. This kind of development means the short can proceed at a leisurely pace and explore all the gags that arise naturally from this -- such an in the opening scenes some funny stuff with a couple of kids trying to cheat each other out of soda, and Charley's distraction causing him to spill all over a customer -- while still proceeding at a fine pace into the humiliating situation Charley usually ends up in.

This too means a good variety of types of gags coming from Charley's singular comedy mind, including some clever visual stuff (watch him avoiding the angry policeman who is after him) and some great domestic scenes as Charley plays off his intolerable mother in law, who then becomes as obsessed as him when she wins the reward he wanted.

The comic coup-de-grace comes at the end, as Charley disguises himself as a blind one-man-band in order to catch the crook. This gives him a chance to sing one of his delightful songs -- which is a rarity in his Columbia shorts -- and to engage in a great comedy sequence in which is impression of a blind person proves somewhat inadequate. This incorporates some memorable one-liners as well ("You've got such an honest face... won;t you help the blind man?"), typical of the verbal humor that Charley seemed to be working very effectively into his comedy once he came to Columbia, perhaps as a counterpoint to the increased knockabout slapstick that went with the territory around les White's department.

Charley plays a soda jerk who spends all of his time reading detective stories in magazines. He's done so much reading that he even thinks he knows more than the cops. In particular, he behaves like a fat-head and insists he could catch the crook, Lucky Lapitas, if he tried. Naturally, Lapitas himself comes into the pharmacy soon after and Charley has absolutely no idea who he is. Heck, he even helps Lapitas by helping him find an apartment and later by getting the Chief of Police arrested when Charley tells a cop that the guy is Lapitas--and the real one is standing right by him.

This first portion of the film is very good. However, after Lapitas is caught and then escapes, the film slows down considerably. Charley soon is posing as a blind man (????) and the story loses traction. Still, the first half is so strong that it is well worth seeing despite the lull.