Four Parts

Four Parts (1934)

*** (out of 4)

Technically impressive short has Charley Chase playing quadruplets. The dentist brother ends up fighting in the street with a woman (Betty Mack) for a penny and later the woman begins to feel she's going crazy because she's seeing the guy everywhere, although she doesn't realize it's the man's brothers. That night she goes to his house for dinner where she meets them all and a few other surprises. This isn't anywhere near the funniest movie Chase made but it's perhaps the most technically impressive one I've seen. I think most people are going to remember Buster Keaton's THE PLAYHOUSE where he played more than a dozen musical parts to put on a show with only him in the cast. There's a nice musical number here where Charley is playing the four brothers all on a different instrument. We also get a funny sequence where Chase, minus his famous mustache, is playing a woman and I must admit that I found this to be the funniest part of the film. Chase almost appears to be having too much fun but it's a funny sequence. Another good one is the final sequence where yet another four more roles by Chase appear. He ends up playing nine different roles here and I thought he did a remarkable job at making the brothers so different and making sure each had their own personality. The main focus of the movie is on Mack and her reaction to the brothers and her comic timing is a tad bit off and I think this hurts the movie somewhat.

Wonderful, off-kilter late Chase effort has him playing the part of four brothers, with clearly distinct personalities, all of whom meet Betty Mack, causing her no end of confusion. He also sings in this one, a patter song with the refrain "Annie's Got Ants In Her Pantry." Look out for Stymie Beard in a small part.

Charley Chase plays FOUR PARTS. Will he at least land pretty Betty Mack while playing one of those roles?

Interestingly, this short breaks down neatly into three parts -- (i) a fairly boring intro where all four Charlie's are introduced being served a dose of milk of magnesia by Charlie's doting Mom (ii) a hilarious mid section, which begins with a cute meet between Charlie #1 and Ms. Mack over a dropped penny and escalates from there and (iii) a so-so finale, in which Miss Mack has to deal with all of the Charlies. It all feels rather improvised, which adds some to the charm of the midsection. But the short is padded out with two rather blah songs, which add nothing to the goings on. Chase sings quite well -- but unlike Hal Roach's other singing comic, Oliver Hardy -- he doesn't save it for just the occasions where the singing will move the plot along, rather than stop it in its tracks.

All in all, a clever idea, indifferently executed, which perhaps illustrates some of the reasons Chase's future was Columbia short subjects, rather than comedy features. Why Betty Mack's career did not go farther (she's cute, with a winning personality) is a mystery.

Charley Chase got to do a real bit of acting in Four Parts when he plays the part of four brothers, all sons of Florence Roberts and all in different walks of life.

That mere fact causes some major upset to poor Betty Mack who first runs into one of the Charleys and hits it off with him after they both fight over a street penny that was later claimed by Stymie Beard. Remember this was the Depression and pennies could and did actually buy things back then. You accumulate enough of them, they still do.

Anyway after that she starts seeing Charley Chases wherever she goes and I have to say that in this Hal Roach feature, her reactions to dealing with the Quadruplet Chases are as funny as Charley in his many guises. He's a dentist, a street car conductor, a taxi driver and a policeman. A poor man's Alec Guinness.

Anyway it's a pretty funny short maybe one of the best that came from the Roach studio that didn't star Stan and Ollie.

This was a difficult film to make and is certainly the most technically demanding film I've seen Charley Chase make. He stars as a set of quadruplets. Formally in the old days they'd use a simple split-screen process to insert the same person into a scene twice--but four times?! The only film I can recall from this era that went further was Keaton's "The Playhouse" where he played even more parts and the results, like this Chase film, are quite stunning even today.

Early in the film, one of the brothers (the dentist) sees a penny on the sidewalk and so does a nice lady (Betty Mack). It's an interesting testament to the times that they fought pretty hard for it--but ultimately, this argument brought them together. But, for the longest time, she doesn't know that he has three identicals out there as well--leading to some cute scenes. Overall, a very good Chase short--not among his very best but quite better than average.

By the way, the song Charley and his 'brothers' are rehearsing is "Honolulu Baby"--the same song that was the theme to Laurel & Hardy's best full-length film, "Sons of the Desert".