Film #16 - Limousine Love (1928)

    

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!     

Review

"She's Stripped!"


    

With this review of "Limousine Love", we welcome Charley Chase to the blog! It's about time that Chase made an appearance on here. It's a pity to still write about Chase being underappreciated and underrated, but that's certainly the case here in the UK. I doubt we'll see a UK DVD/Blu-Ray release of anything Charley Chase related here on the island anytime in the next ten years.

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 

Film #3 - Why Girls Love Sailors (1927)

 

 

Starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

 

Featuring Viola Richard, Malcolm Waite, and Anita Garvin.

 

Directed by Fred Guiol.

 

Synopsis

"Show him your boat, Willie!"

 

 

 

 



The crew of the Merry Maiden have docked at the port of Sugar Bay. The first mate (Oliver Hardy) and the captain (Malcolm Waite) keep the rest of the crew on a tight leash - when they aren't too busy squabbling amongst themselves.

Nelly (Viola Richard) is in love with Willie Brisling (Stan Laurel). Goofy Willie gives little Nelly a necklace, and then plants a kiss on her cheek. Awwwwww.

Nelly is impressed by Little Willie's chain length.

   

Willie then gets really excited. So excited that he just has to roll around on the bed playing with his pillow and lick a lollipop (?!). Love makes us all do strange things.

The captain of the Merry Maiden peers through the window of Willie's house and spies Nelly inside. He barges in and grabs hold of Nelly, much to her disgust.

It seems as if the lecherous captain had taken a shine to Nelly the last time he was in town, and he isn't best pleased to find out that Willie, "the great periwinkle fisherman," is Nelly's fiancé.

Following Nelly's instructions, Willie shows the vulgar intruder the tattoo that he has on his chest of his boat.

The captain takes the opportunity to pour water down Willie's top.

A furious Nelly storms out of the house onto the porch, only for the big brute of a captain to lay his hands on her and drag her away to see his boat!

Willie makes a good attempt to rescue Nelly, but the captain gives him quite a beating and leaves him tangled in some fishing nets. Poor Nelly is then carried away by the captain.

Nelly is locked in a room on the ship, but not before Willie has managed to sneak aboard.

Rather scared aboard, Willie decides to pull his jumper over his head, thereby appearing headless. He successfully frightens one of the ship's crew who then complains to the first mate about the strange spectre.

Willie hides in a cabin and finds a chest full of costumes that once belonged to a theatre company. He decides that his best course of action is to dress up as a woman and get rid of the crew one-by-one!

In drag, Willie sets about seducing the crew of the Merry Maiden. He does so by luring the lustful sailors around a corner of the ship one at a time before knocking them out. Willie then leaves the sailors propped up near the first mate, who, after being antagonised by Willie, flings every one of the crew overboard.

Eventually, Willie is caught out by the first mate. The pair engage in some flirtatious behaviour, with Willie promising to give the first mate a big kiss if he will close his eyes.

Willie takes the opportunity to flee and discovers that the captain is trying forcefully to embrace Nelly.

Willie grabs the captain's attention by flirting with him through the porthole, and the salacious captain shoves Nelly in another apartment, apparently interested in a bit of...Stan Laurel's character.

But things take a turn for the worse when the captain's wife (Anita Garvin) appears on the ship, having finally caught up with her wayward husband.

She finds her husband canoodling in the cabin with Willie, and naturally, isn't best pleased.

 

Willie's plans to land the captain in hot water have worked, and he tells the wronged wife that the captain had reassured him that he was single.

The wife pulls a gun out on her husband, only for an elated Willie to be told that he's next on her hit list!

It's at this point that Willie takes off the wig and reveals that he is a man. He lies and tells the captain's wife that this was all a test to see if she really loved her husband.

The captain threatens Willie, so Willie is forced to take drastic action. Running to the apartment, he frees Nelly, telling the captain's wife that four other women were aboard earlier!

The incensed wife is handed a gun from Willie, and she approaches her husband. Nelly and Willie take the opportunity to escape.

Peering out of the porthole, the captain's wife fires her gun at the young couple, blowing off their clothes in the process and leaving them in their underwear!

 

Review

"So that's why you dumped your wife at the last port!"

 

"Why Girls Love Sailors" has the distinct privilege of being the first "Laurel and Hardy" film reviewed on this blog. You were probably expecting "Sons of the Desert" or "Way out West". Well, sorry to disappoint! I could have thrown you a bigger curveball and reviewed "A-Haunting We Will Go", but I didn't. But I will at some point. Maybe next time? Who knows?

But, seriously, I really like "Why Girls Love Sailors."

Just as girls don't really love sailors in this film, this silent but spirited short has probably been underappreciated by even the saltiest of sea-dogs (read: big fans) who have been a part of the good ship Laurel and Hardy since their maiden voyage onto VHS tape.

So why do I like the film so much?

I could lie and tell you that it's because the film stars that gorgeous silent siren Viola Richard, surely one of the greatest actresses to work in silent film. Ok, I admit it; I lied about lying. I do think that Viola Richard is an important part of contributing to the film's success, but there are many others reasons why I enjoy this nautical romp...

...which I'll get to in a while. For now, let me tell you about Viola Richard's performance as vivacious, nautical Nelly.

 

The chances are, if you're reading this, that you've seen a fair few Laurel and Hardy films, dear reader. I'll even go so far as to suggest, dear old reader, that you've seen a decent number, if not all of the Hal Roach Laurel and Hardy silent films.

The chances are, dear reader, dear reader, that you know of the terrific presence that Viola Richard commands on film. Despite the fact that you do know that fact, I'm going to reiterate that fact to you once again. Fact yourself lucky. 

In my opinion, of all the ladies working for Hal Roach during the silent era, few come close to the performances given by Viola. Hal Roach had some wonderful actresses working for him in the late 20s. Dorothy Coburn, Edna Marion - both good actresses. But Viola Richard is a great actress. I'm in no way qualified to write about the fundamentals of acting in silent films, but to me, watching Viola Richard in her work for Hal Roach is like watching a master class in how to perform a variety of emotions and passions without talking.

 

When you watch Viola Richard on screen, at any point in a silent film, you can tell exactly what emotions her character is experiencing. Her facial expressions are key for conveying such passions, with smiles, frowns, etc.

 

"Sure!" I hear you write - we're writing about a silent after all, so I can't hear you say the word aloud - "but surely any actor worth their salt can convey passions and emotions, otherwise they wouldn't be, well, acting".

 

True. But Viola had that great gift of talking through her eyes.

 

Do you know what I mean? Watch Dorothy Coburn and Edna Marion act. (I'll give you a minute or two, don't worry, I'll still be here). Then watch Viola act. Dorothy and Edna aren't acting with their eyes, are they?

 

There's something about Viola's eyes that makes her a terrific actor, isn't there?

 

 

Funnily enough, Anita Garvin also has the gift of conveying meaning through her eyes, as, of course, does the Queen of silent cinema, Clara Bow. But fast-forward to the Hal Roach talkies when you have great actresses like Thelma Todd and Mae Busch starring in films, and, I don't know, the eye magic that people like Viola had has gone. Perhaps because you don't need eye magic in talkies.

 

Cutting my gibberish short, watch Viola Richard in this film - just watch her, even when other characters are with her on screen - and hopefully you'll appreciate what I've taken a long time to say: She is a terrific silent film star.

 

So, yes. Viola Richard is a big part of why I love sailors (in the context of this film, of course).

 

As Willie's girlfriend, Nelly is sweet, beautiful and loving. But she's also not afraid to fight - she'll kick your ass, as I always say to my American chums. Just watch her take out the chump who tries to mess with her on board the Merry Maiden.

 

 

Anita Garvin is also brilliant as the wronged wife - feisty and with a ferocious temper, she clearly wears the pants in their relationship. Her no nonsense feistiness gets some good gags in "Why Girls Love Sailors", particularly when she lamps Oliver Hardy right on the chin! Ouch!

A pre-team film, Oliver Hardy has quite a minor role. Nevertheless, he takes numerous bumps to the head with his what would later become classic "Hardy" fashion, and the scenes where he throws most of the crew overboard are hilarious. Hardy is also in top form when he flirts with Stan in drag. Getting touchy feely with one another, the amorous first mate even slaps the backside of his would be paramour! The comedy is all the funnier when he believes that Stan-in-drag is coming back onto the ship, and strokes his idol's leg, only to find out it's the stern faced wife of the captain!

The film, essentially, is a wonderful showcase for Stan Laurel's talents. He is perfectly goofy as Willie Brisling in the early parts of the film; stupidly gawky, but loveable, nonetheless. He has the cheekiness to peck Viola Richard on the cheek after giving her a present, but also has the trademark Laurel silliness - try watching the scene where Laurel rolls around on his bed - that is hard to watch without laughing.

Laurel's the loveable hero in this film, and you feel pity for him as he gets bullied by the captain and is reduced to tears. He takes a beating, but picks himself up again, and sets off after Nelly. Watching Stan creep around the deck with his jumper pulled-up over his head is great fun.

And, come on! Stan does make a good woman! How can you not laugh at Laurel making a hash of being a femme fatale?! The way that Willie dispatches the amorous sailors is hilarious - including sticking his tongue out at the first mate - and flirting with the captain to rescue Nelly is a fine moment of comedy indeed.

And Stan's character in this film - Willie Brisling - genius! You got it, didn't you? Little Sprat? No, no, I'm not calling you a little sprat, a brisling is a sprat.

The icing on the cake is the surprise ending, with an angry Anita Garvin blowing the pants of Viola and Stan - I didn't see that coming the first time I watched the film!

All in all, this film probably won't be one of your contenders for the "best" Laurel and Hardy silent film. But it is a charming gag-filled romp that is eminently watchable, and like all good comedy, doesn't take itself too seriously.

What are your thoughts on "Why Girls Love Sailors" (as in the film, not actual sailors...)?

Are you as much of a fan of Viola Richard as I am, or is it just me?

 

Watch it

"The wretch! He told me he was practically single!"

 

"Why Girls Love Sailors" is available on DVD as part of Universal's Laurel and Hardy Collection. It is on Disc 16 - Maritime Adventures.

 

Here's the link: Laurel and Hardy Collection DVD