Hash House Mashers

Charley Chase and Virginia Chester are in love. Who can blame them? In a boarding house where everyone else dresses to worst advantage and behaves like a maniac -- in Keystone's universe, that's everyone else -- they are young and good looking. In order to be accepted as a fitting bridegroom, Charley dresses is an ill-fitting suit and sticks a ridiculous beard on his face. This appeases the would-be in-laws.

Keystone had had young lovers before -- Mabel Normand wound up married in the movies to every major comic at the studio, most charmingly to Roscoe Arbuckle in a popular series that featured both their names.

Charley Chase would go on to the best career in comedy shorts that you never heard of, working steadily in front of and behind the camera with an amazing array of talent, from Keystone through the Three Stooges, and pull off the best performances from every one of them. Miss Chester started in movies in 1910 and vanished about 1919 -- I hope she had a good life. Nice to see them here.

Mack Sennett's Hash House Mashers is a remake of an earlier short of Sennett's by the name of Helen's Marriage, which was filmed back in 1912. Like that short, this one concerns a young man (Charley Chase), who attempts to marry another young woman (Virginia Chester) despite the disapproval of her domineering father (Frank Opperman). The way he goes about finally sealing the deal with the love of his life is probably one of the most elaborate and deceptive acts of trickery I've yet to see, and goes far beyond the classic cliché of eloping to Las Vegas.

Hash House Mashers continues to toy with relatable ideas such as marriage, eloping, and relationships, such as a great deal of these early Keystone/Mack Sennett-produced shorts do. They're blink-and-you-miss-it efforts that were churned out so quickly in their day it's the old equivalent of a Youtube sketch comedy show churning out several shows a week: some hit, some miss, some land comfortably in the middle, some go on to endure obscurity, and some go on to achieve success.

Hash House Mashers finds itself lodged into obscurity, but with an early performance of Charley Chase under its belt, on top of a wry premise, it claims more than several other silent films of the era could. It's a zippy little effort that capitalizes on the uniform talent of everyone involved, particularly Chase, who gives a taste of what he'd become throughout this film with his quick-witted comedy and zealous performing skills.

Starring: Charley Chase, Virginia Chester, and Frank Opperman. Directed by: Mack Sennett.

Hash House Mashers (1915)

** (out of 4)

A rather unfunny comedy from Keystone has Charley Chase wanting to marry the woman of his dreams but her father (Chester Conklin) objects because he's already picked out someone else for her to marry. Chase and the girl decide to run off but when this plan doesn't work out perhaps a movie crew could help. HASH HOUSE MASHERS has a pretty good cast but they've got very little to work with and in the end there's not nearly enough laughs here to make this thing worth sitting through unless you're some major film buff who just watches everything they can. It was fun seeing such a young looking Chase here but I really didn't think he got much to work with. From a performance stand point there really isn't much the film lets him do but I still think fans will enjoy seeing him here clean shaved and really slicked back. Even Conklin as the father doesn't get much to do except for constantly objecting to everything going on. I was really surprised but there wasn't any real scenes where it seemed like they were even trying to do anything funny. At just 11-minutes the film isn't hard to sit through but it's too bad more wasn't done.

A family takes in a new border (a very young Charley Chase). He soon falls in love with their daughter but the parents aren't at all pleased--Dad's already picked out a man for the girl to marry. What is the young couple to do? Yes, elope. However, Dad (Chester Conklin) isn't about to let this happen and he stops them in their tracks. What is Charley to do? Well, tune in to this one and see for yourself.

Aside from seeing an early Charley Chase film, this is an otherwise adequate early Mack Sennett film. While it has a few funny moments, it's not exactly a standout film one way or the other. My recommendation is that if you are a die-hard silent fan, give it a try--otherwise there are better films from this same era that are more entertaining.