Starring Charley Chase.
Featuring Viola Richard, Edna Marion, and Edgar Kennedy.
Directed by Fred L. Guiol.
Synopsis
"Get my clothes! - And I'll explain everything!"
"Limousine Love" begins with our old pal Charley Chase on his way to his own wedding. His chauffeur driven limousine is involved in an accident with another car. The driver of the other car gets out to remonstrate with Charley's chauffeur (Bull Montana), and not liking the look of the iron-jawed Bull, decides to lamp poor old Charley in the face instead!
The force of the punch sends Charley flying out the other side of the car. Charley chastises Bull for his poor driving which results in Bull quitting! Charley is left with no option but to drive to his own wedding.
Meanwhile, Mr Glanders (Edgar Kennedy) is teaching his wife (Viola Richard) to drive. We get the impression that Mrs Glanders is not the world's greatest driver!
Charley is making good progress with his driving, only to run out of fuel. This panics him, especially as his bride-to-be (Edna Marion) is waiting at the altar!
We cut back to Mr and Mrs Glanders. Hubby has had enough and will leave the little wife to teach herself to drive. He gets out of the car, only to step into a large puddle. Mrs Glanders, in a strop, drives away, sending more water over her hapless husband.
It isn't long before Mrs Glanders manages to roll the car! She ends up diving out of the rolling motor and into a large puddle, thoroughly drenched.
Luckily, she happens to be very close to Charley's parked up limousine. Since no one is around, she decides to sneak into the back of Charley's car and take off her wet clothes - pulling the blinds down first of all, of course! She hangs her clothes out to dry on a tree next to the parked car.
Charley hasn't had much luck getting any petrol. His best efforts are to steal some from a moving car by opening the fuel tank nozzle and letting petrol pour into his top hat.
Charley gets all the way back to his car, only to fall head-over-heels and spill all of the petrol out of his hat. As he sits up from the floor, he notices that his car had more fuel in the spare containers all along!
As he's pouring the fuel into the tank, Mrs Glanders opens the blind and spots Charley! Now she's in a compromising position, nude in the back of his limousine!
To make matters worse, as Charley drives away, her clothes fall down off the tree branch and into a little rivulet.
Actually, things get even worse: the blind pops up and Charley, looking in the rear view mirror, catches a glimpse of the naked woman in the back of his car!
Both are filled with shock and horror. Mrs Glanders begs him to retrieve her clothes. Charley fails to get them in time before they go down into a sewer.
Just as you thought things couldn't get any worse for poor old Charley, Mr Glanders turns up at the side of the road, begging for a lift!
Mrs Glanders is even more horrified to hear that her husband has just got into the car! She informs Charley that his male passenger is her husband! Charley isn't too thrilled to hear this news.
The next catastrophe to unfold is that the police start chasing Chase's car, believing that he is a liquor runner. Charley desperately tries to keep the cop from opening the rear door, which will reveal his nude passenger.
However, thanks to some quick thinking on Mrs Glanders' part, the situation is diffused and Chase can get on his way again!
Whilst all this is unfolding, poor Edna Marion is still waiting at the church for Charley. But Chase is getting closer. In the city, he spies a man carrying a basket which contains a white sheet. He makes a grab for it, gets it, and hastily passes it backwards to Mrs Glanders.
She wraps herself up completely in the sheet, so that when Mr Glanders peeps back at her, he doesn't recognise her.
Charley arrives at the church, much to Edna's relief. But there's a problem of course. Charley asks Mr Glanders to go and get some clothes which Viola can then hastily put on. In the meantime, Charley must keep circling the block and think of an excuse why he can't stop!
Each time he passes the wedding party, he informs them that something is wrong with the car. More and more of the male wedding party guests get on board the car - of course, knowing the "real" reason why Charley can't stop.
Eventually, after the fourth of fifth trip around the block, Edna asks her father (Lincoln Plumer) to go and stop the car. Charley confesses to him about Mrs Glanders in the back, and he agrees to help Charley out of the predicament.
Little Edna takes it upon herself to stop the car (much to Viola's horror). Edna switches the car off, and Charley gets out. Mr Glanders lurks in the background, carrying women's clothes. As Charley explains to his wife-to-be about the state of his own clothes, his father-in-law to be and the other male wedding guests smuggle the shrouded Viola out of the car.
They all start walking back to the church, the male wedding guests strangely huddled together to hide Viola in the middle of them! Mr Glanders follows at the back, still carrying feminine attire. Edna starts to get a bit suspicious, so a creative Charley tells her that he and her father are members of the Order of Horsefeathers and the craziness is part of their ceremony.
The zany ceremony involves trying to get rid of Mrs Glanders! First in a hosiery shop, then down a manhole cover (!). The ruse is almost spoilt when half of the party get divided by a level crossing, but they manage to recover without Edna finding out.
Complications ensue when the walk over a grate in the sidewalk and the hot air gusting upwards blows the sheet off Viola completely! Luckily, Charley catches it. In the meantime, Mr Glanders has retrieved a car, and the party bundle Mrs Glanders discreetly into it.
Mr Glanders parks up, excited that he is left alone with the mysterious woman. He puts his arm around the shrouded woman, telling her that his wife doesn't understand him, even going so far as to say that she's an invalid!
This arouses the ire of Mrs Glanders, who flings off the part of the sheet covering her face. When Mr Glanders recognises who he has been flirting with, he cringes. Mrs Glanders starts assaulting him!
Charley and Edna are married, but a battered and bruised Mr Glanders has his revenge by throwing a pie in Charley's face!
The force of the punch sends Charley flying out the other side of the car. Charley chastises Bull for his poor driving which results in Bull quitting! Charley is left with no option but to drive to his own wedding.
Meanwhile, Mr Glanders (Edgar Kennedy) is teaching his wife (Viola Richard) to drive. We get the impression that Mrs Glanders is not the world's greatest driver!
Charley is making good progress with his driving, only to run out of fuel. This panics him, especially as his bride-to-be (Edna Marion) is waiting at the altar!
We cut back to Mr and Mrs Glanders. Hubby has had enough and will leave the little wife to teach herself to drive. He gets out of the car, only to step into a large puddle. Mrs Glanders, in a strop, drives away, sending more water over her hapless husband.
It isn't long before Mrs Glanders manages to roll the car! She ends up diving out of the rolling motor and into a large puddle, thoroughly drenched.
Luckily, she happens to be very close to Charley's parked up limousine. Since no one is around, she decides to sneak into the back of Charley's car and take off her wet clothes - pulling the blinds down first of all, of course! She hangs her clothes out to dry on a tree next to the parked car.
Charley hasn't had much luck getting any petrol. His best efforts are to steal some from a moving car by opening the fuel tank nozzle and letting petrol pour into his top hat.
Charley gets all the way back to his car, only to fall head-over-heels and spill all of the petrol out of his hat. As he sits up from the floor, he notices that his car had more fuel in the spare containers all along!
As he's pouring the fuel into the tank, Mrs Glanders opens the blind and spots Charley! Now she's in a compromising position, nude in the back of his limousine!
To make matters worse, as Charley drives away, her clothes fall down off the tree branch and into a little rivulet.
Actually, things get even worse: the blind pops up and Charley, looking in the rear view mirror, catches a glimpse of the naked woman in the back of his car!
Both are filled with shock and horror. Mrs Glanders begs him to retrieve her clothes. Charley fails to get them in time before they go down into a sewer.
Just as you thought things couldn't get any worse for poor old Charley, Mr Glanders turns up at the side of the road, begging for a lift!
Mrs Glanders is even more horrified to hear that her husband has just got into the car! She informs Charley that his male passenger is her husband! Charley isn't too thrilled to hear this news.
The next catastrophe to unfold is that the police start chasing Chase's car, believing that he is a liquor runner. Charley desperately tries to keep the cop from opening the rear door, which will reveal his nude passenger.
However, thanks to some quick thinking on Mrs Glanders' part, the situation is diffused and Chase can get on his way again!
Whilst all this is unfolding, poor Edna Marion is still waiting at the church for Charley. But Chase is getting closer. In the city, he spies a man carrying a basket which contains a white sheet. He makes a grab for it, gets it, and hastily passes it backwards to Mrs Glanders.
She wraps herself up completely in the sheet, so that when Mr Glanders peeps back at her, he doesn't recognise her.
Charley arrives at the church, much to Edna's relief. But there's a problem of course. Charley asks Mr Glanders to go and get some clothes which Viola can then hastily put on. In the meantime, Charley must keep circling the block and think of an excuse why he can't stop!
Each time he passes the wedding party, he informs them that something is wrong with the car. More and more of the male wedding party guests get on board the car - of course, knowing the "real" reason why Charley can't stop.
Eventually, after the fourth of fifth trip around the block, Edna asks her father (Lincoln Plumer) to go and stop the car. Charley confesses to him about Mrs Glanders in the back, and he agrees to help Charley out of the predicament.
Little Edna takes it upon herself to stop the car (much to Viola's horror). Edna switches the car off, and Charley gets out. Mr Glanders lurks in the background, carrying women's clothes. As Charley explains to his wife-to-be about the state of his own clothes, his father-in-law to be and the other male wedding guests smuggle the shrouded Viola out of the car.
They all start walking back to the church, the male wedding guests strangely huddled together to hide Viola in the middle of them! Mr Glanders follows at the back, still carrying feminine attire. Edna starts to get a bit suspicious, so a creative Charley tells her that he and her father are members of the Order of Horsefeathers and the craziness is part of their ceremony.
The zany ceremony involves trying to get rid of Mrs Glanders! First in a hosiery shop, then down a manhole cover (!). The ruse is almost spoilt when half of the party get divided by a level crossing, but they manage to recover without Edna finding out.
Complications ensue when the walk over a grate in the sidewalk and the hot air gusting upwards blows the sheet off Viola completely! Luckily, Charley catches it. In the meantime, Mr Glanders has retrieved a car, and the party bundle Mrs Glanders discreetly into it.
Mr Glanders parks up, excited that he is left alone with the mysterious woman. He puts his arm around the shrouded woman, telling her that his wife doesn't understand him, even going so far as to say that she's an invalid!
This arouses the ire of Mrs Glanders, who flings off the part of the sheet covering her face. When Mr Glanders recognises who he has been flirting with, he cringes. Mrs Glanders starts assaulting him!
Charley and Edna are married, but a battered and bruised Mr Glanders has his revenge by throwing a pie in Charley's face!
Review
"She's Stripped!"
I hope I'm wrong, but I'm probably not. It's very difficult to obtain his films; a decent amount of the silents can be tracked down through various American DVD releases (but there are still a lot left unreleased), but as for the Chase Hal Roach talkies....pfffttt....will they ever be officially released?! Again, probably not.
In fact, I had incredible difficulties tracking down "Limousine Love". It sounds like the holy grail of a find; on a German edition of a Laurel and Hardy DVD (full details in the "Watch It" section below)! And I think it was a stroke of luck I found it, thanks to a Google search for "Limousine Love" eventually taking me to a German language review of the DVD on Amazon.de...
...Well, actually, I guess the holy grail of a find would be Hats Off or Harry Langdon's Heart Trouble, but you'll guess my excitement the moment I found out you could get "Limousine Love" - featuring some of my favourite Roach players - on an official DVD release. Yep, I was pretty excited. As excited as a blushing bride on her wedding day, perhaps...
Anyway, chasing Chase tribulations aside, what do I think of "Limousine Love"?
It's a great little short with a great cast and has some wonderfully creative moments. It epitomises the essence of a good Charley Chase short: a ridiculous situation is blown totally out of proportion with every moment that passes until the whole sequence of events seems utterly bonkers and you think that nothing else could go wrong or trouble Charley anymore - but it usually does.
The idea of a naked woman stuck in the back of your car as you are on your way to your own wedding is already utterly ridiculous (in a good way); it's even more ridiculous when you realise that Charley is entirely innocent, and the great laughs from this short come from the fact that even though Charley is an innocent, benevolent force, you know that his attempts to tell the truth of the situation to anybody would make him instantly guilty of wrongdoing. Nobody for one minute would believe him that he has a naked woman in the back of his limousine, by mistake.
So, some of my favourite moments then in "Limousine Love" involve the two stars of the show: Charley Chase and Viola Richard.
Usually Chase is very much his own man in his silent comedy shorts; he always had great supporting women in his silent films, but this is one of those rare occasions where his supporting woman is on a par with him for laughs, and arguably, the joint star of the show.
With very clever cinematography to suggest that Viola Richard is naked for about 90% of the film, the film manages to create great comedy without ever stooping to crassness or becoming dangerously risque.
Viola Richard really is a great actress, whether it's conveying moments of abject horror - such as the moment where her husband gets into Charley's car - or when she becomes empowered over her erring husband, teaching him a lesson about his straying affections at the end of the film, she's great to watch.
Her standout moments include dunking herself into that large muddy-looking puddle (yuk) as the car remains upside down at the side of the road, and spitting out a load of water (yuk), as well as the wonderfully conveyed facial expressions when she's panicking in the back of Charley's car.
Perhaps Viola Richard was picked specially for this role, because, like Clara Bow, she has a wonderful way with her eyes of "speaking" to the viewer; conveying emotion and feeling with every eye-movement. As the role requires a lot of extreme close-ups of the actress's face - after all, she's meant to be naked, so you can't have a lot of distant, full-body camera shots revealing the fact that she's not - perhaps the studio picked Viola knowing that she was one of their best silent actresses for telling a story through her facial expressions alone.
So that's quite a complement to Viola Richard as an actress in it's own right, but I also can't think of any other woman on the studio's books at that time who could have performed such a complicated role with such flair, can you?
Coupled to the fact that you've got Edgar Kennedy in it as the bungling, hen-pecked husband, and sweet Edna Marion as the patient (but also shrewish) wife-to-be, you have a recipe for a good short.
There are some really funny moments in "Limousine Love". One of them occurs right at the start of the film when Charley gets punched by the angry motorist with such force that he flies backwards out through the other side of his limousine and ends up half in the car and half on the floor.
Other brilliant Chase moments include his interactions with Edgar Kennedy in the limousine, especially after hearing Kennedy's explicit threats to murder his own wife and paramour should he ever find such a situation to arise.
I also love the creativity of "Limousine Love". One such moment is when the cops pull over Charley and demand to see what's in the back of his car. At that moment, you think, how on earth is he going to get out of this one without Kennedy finding out that his wife is in the back of the car. The first time you see the short you probably have no genuine idea how on earth Charley can get out of this mess. But then the camera cuts to Viola using a broadsheet newspaper to cover her body! What a clever moment.
The bits with the male wedding guests piling onto the outside of the car and learning of Charley's predicament are also very funny, especially because every remark they make to the gathered wedding party refers not only to an apparent problem with the car, but also directly to Viola in the back! Such comments as: "It's the pick-up!", "Something wrong with the body", "She won't stop, something's missing!", "She's stripped", and that there's a "bare possibility" they may find out the cause of the trouble are great.
Eventually it's down to pert little Edna Marion to suggest "the switch", which does in fact take place as the wedding guests bundle Viola out of the car, clad in her blanket.
Chase is also at his most zaniness with his bright idea about the Order of the Horsefeathers (although it looks as if Edna doesn't believe him for one moment!), and I enjoy seeing Chase prance around the sidewalks to get back to the church.
Of course, this is a Charley Chase short so there is a nice resolution, with Charley and Edna married, but not before Viola Richard almost steals the film with her ireful rage against her erring husband; roughing him up in the back of the car.
And of course, the short had to end with Charley Chase getting a pie in the face! How else could such a bonkers short have ended? In our day and age we might find a pie in the face as the ending gag quite unfulfilling, but going back to the 20s, it seems that a pie in the face was a staple part of many comedy shorts at this time, and perhaps audiences would have found the whole film even funnier that "Limousine Love" managed to get a pie gag into it at all, what with the other zany antics that had occurred prior to the ending.
What do you think of "Limousine Love"? Would you like to see more Charley Chase shorts reviewed on the blog soon?
Watch it
"You're sure flirtin' with death, son!"
"Limousine Love" is available on DVD in a nice print as part of Kinowelt's "Dick & Doof" series of releases: "Als Einbrecher & Als Polizisten u.a.".
Here's the link: Limousine Love DVD
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