Leaping Love

Club singer Charley Chase goes with prospective fiancee Barbara Leonard to meet her mother, returning from a cruise. He expects to find an old woman. Instead he finds Isabelle Keith, with whom he flirts outrageously. Meanwhile, cigarette girl Dixie Gay, decides to play a joke on him.

Chase's second talkie is not a thing of great beauty, with a shaky plot, and some of the gags go on way too long, including one about his mouth puckering when he gets some alum in it, and a man he keeps running into at the San Pedro docks. Chase would need some time and work to get his sound work in order -- and also Thelma Todd. Still, it's of some interest for an early shot of Lionel Hampton when he was a lowly drummer for a well remembered musical group.

This is a very early sound film for Charley Chase. As such, you can forgive it for having poor sound. It is easily watchable...but turning on captions will help with the film. Not surprisingly, the film features Chase singing...something he did in a few of his shorts due to his very pleasant voice. And, being an early sound short, they made the most of sound...which would explain the alum bit...and boblipton is right...it goes on way too long. Had it been done a year or two later, it might have been a much briefer (and more effective) bit.

Charley is in love with a lady and has arranged to meet her and her mother. However, his mother is a pretty good looking woman, having just had very successful plastic surgery and being rather youthful. As a result of this and her flirty nature, Charley is stuck between two women...and you wonder which he'll choose and how they'll all react. And then there's the cigarette girl in the place where he works...she, too, is interested in studly Charley.

This is an okay short. It suffers from two problems. First, it's not all that funny. Second, and more importantly, the film couldn't decide WHICH plot to use...so it used several. The situation with the girlfriend and her mother was funny and had a lot of potential...but then it just disappeared! Not a terrible film but for Chase, a disappointing one.

By the way, the gag involving the bootleg liquor is in the film because this was made during the height of Prohibition...when selling alcohol was both illegal AND of questionable quality when you found it.