Luncheon at Twelve

This is another good, solid entry from that master of the two-reel comedy short, Charley Chase. This one isn't the number-on best constructed comedy in the series, but it is pure good-mood-generating fun from start to finish, and that's good enough for me! It starts with some very funny scenes involving Charley trying fool a principled English ash-collector into taking his ashes late, then stumbling into a job as an "interior decorator" and overdressing for the paint-intensive work. It's classic Chase comedy of errors and embarrassment.

Billy Gilbert gets a larger role here and he makes a good impression as his German "Mr Schmaltz" persona. Gilbert was a perfect supporting player to enhance a short, but was always too hammy to have much success starring in one. He's got a fake Oliver Hardy-style moustache on here, and in the second reel he and Charley get to engage in the sort of deliberate, measured slapstick that Laurel and Hardy specialized in around the business of painting a table, and it works very well. Charley also doesn't resist throwing in his very good Billy Gilbert impression! Charley Chase's comedies -- the sound ones especially -- were always very musical, and "Luncheon at Twelve" is a good example, with the clever business of Charley's distracted painting matching the rhythm of the music from the other room. He also sings a very fun blackface-style song (supplied with white-lips makeup by a mishap with the paint), which provides the enjoyable if abrupt ending. This is a good one, lacking none of the infectious fun that the Charley Chase talkies are so memorable for.

Betty Mack gets Charley a job with her father, Billy Gilbert (mit ein Cherman Accent). Charley thinks it's as an interior decorator. Actually it's as a painter. It seems that Gale Henry is just back from ... well, someplace else, and she wants the kitchen table painted white, while she entertains her snooty guests outside.

So Charley, Billy, and Billy Franey are in the kitchen painting the table white. Except they keep getting paint on each other, resulting in Charley winding up in Whiteface.

There's a nice number of variations on how the three inept painters get paint on each other, and how Charley comes to eat a paintbrush, all leading into Charley singing a hot number. It's not one of Charley's best short comedies, but it's got a lot of well-run gags.

"Luncheon at Twelve" is a film that not only stars Charley Chase, but it's directed by him as well. Some might not notice this, as Charley uses his real name for his directing jobs (Charles Parrott). He also directed many other shorts for Hal Roach...especially the Little Rascals shorts.

The story starts off well enough. It's trash day and Charley rushes out with his small pail of garbage...and the trash collectors won't take it. However, the film QUICKLY goes downhill when Charley is offered a job. He thinks it's to be an interior decorator, but it turns out to be a job as a painter. What follows are some awful gags (especially the MANY which occur when the painters are painting a table) and you also get to see the painters splash paint all over each other...which isn't especially funny either.

Overall, the film has a few funny bits but the rest of it simply isn't funny and the film is flat. Watchable but not particularly funny for a comedy.

Luncheon at Twelve (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent two-reeler finds an unemployed Charlie Chase getting a job with the father (Billy Gilbert) of a girl (Betty Mack) that he's fallen for. At first Chase thinks he's gotten a job at an interior decorator but it turns out he's just a painter and not a very good one. LUNCHEON AT TWELVE is one of the many shorts that Chase made with Hal Roach at MGM. While this film certainly isn't a classic, it at least has enough laughs to make it worth sitting through if you're a fan of the underrated star. I think the first half of the picture is the best as it mainly deals with Chase trying to get the ash collector to take his bucket of ashes. This leads to Chase trying to dump his bucket on various other lawns hoping that the collector will take it and this here gets the majority of the jokes. The second half of the picture isn't nearly as good as we get into some rather routine comedy bits. The most annoying is a rich woman trying to get everyone to be quiet so that a violinist can play his music. The "comedy" from the painting comes from Chase simply not being very good at it and not paying attention to what he's painting. Again, this here is far from a classic but fans of Chase should find enough humor to make it worth viewing.