There Ain't No Santa Claus

This was the Christmas entry from Hal Roach Studios of their series of shorts during the 1926-27 season. It has Charley Chase trying to buy an expensive watch for his wife as a present at the same time he has to pay his landlord for the same amount of money. The two men also try to one-up each other when dressing as Santa Claus! I'll just now say this was quite a hilarious short from Chase. So on that note, I highly recommend There Ain't No Santa Claus.

In "There Ain't No Santa Claus", Charley Chase is directed by his brother, James Parrott (also known as Paul Parrott in his acting jobs). It's a sweet little comedy about Christmas...and it looks like it's going to be a lean one thanks to the landlord.

When the story begins, you learn that Charley is a nice guy who wants to give his family a great Christmas. But he's just about out of money....and his landlord is hounding him for rent. Now the landlord deserves to be paid...but this one (Noah Young) is a jerk and is pretty much the Grinch! This is because after Charley spends a lot of money on a lovely watch for his wife, the landlord's jerky son finds it and tells his father. The landlord then steals the watch and tells Charley that they are now even....and Charley's family is going to have a lousy holiday unless some sort of miracle happens.

This comedy is a bit sweeter than usual and seems to emphasis this over laughs...not that the film isn't funny. Overall, a very satisfying film...one that would be nice to watch during the Christmas season to get you in the mood.

This Charley Chase two-reel comedy from his peak period is a bit slow to get off the mark. Charley wants to buy wife Eugenia Gilbert an eighty-dollar watch for Christmas, but landlord Noah Young wants his $80 of rent money. The first half of the movie is taken up with those issues with some good but not amazing gags tossed in, along with Fred Kelsey as a store detective.

It's in the second reel, when Charley and Noah play dueling Santas, that this becomes a much better than average short comedy and that's just about right. You don't want the jokes and pace to peak too early.

This Christmas-themed comedy was released, unsurprisingly, on December 12, just in time to hit the first-run houses for the Christmas seasons. One can only hope the title didn't disillusion any moppets.