I'm not a golf player and don't really have much of a familiarity with the game, but that's no handicap in enjoying this Charley Chase golf comedy since in it neither does his character. "All Teed Up" reminded me of a much later and better-known Chase short, "The Heckler," in which he's the world's most annoying baseball fan.
Here, of course, he's the world's most annoying golf player, and though the gags aren't as unified around a single trait and targeted as in the baseball short -- Charley finds a myriad of ways to infuriate his fellow player-- they are no less funny in a different way, with humor arising too from the random chance of new ways that Charley's presence causes chaos. He arrives at the club in the first place through a typical mistaken identity, then proceeds to do maddeningly well despite confessing never to have played golf, forgets the names of all his VIP new acquaintances, breaks everybody's concentration in about 17 different ways, and even ends up basically destroying the course.
It's a great example of how Charley could take a simple concept -- such as "annoying golfer" and spin it into a seemingly endless series of inspired gags. The film is bookended by two delightful scenes with Thelma Todd, who is lovely as always and has stellar chemistry with the star, as they turn a scene that is little more than the two of them flirting and which could have been nothing into gold. We also get a very pleasant performance of a song over the opening credits by the musically gifted Chase. Edgar Kennedy, who has a funny cameo at the end, closing the short on a funny but unexpected topical one-liner about the depression, directs and certainly brings his own honed sense of comic timing to endeavor.
