Modern Love

At present only about two reels of this late-silent Universal comedy survive, enough to give you an idea of the plot -- Kathryn Crawford, a dress designer, is married to Charley Chase, which must be kept secret for some reason, and Parisian couturier Jean Hersholt wants to take her to Paris to study under him -- euphemisms, always euphemisms. The current surviving sections start with Charley in a very funny gag, follow through for a bit, and then jump to the predictable ending.

As Universal dumped almost all its silent footage in 1948, it seemed for a long time that this was all that survived -- a terrible fate for Charley Chase fans. However, the word at Slapsticon '07 is that there are private collectors out there with enough footage to just about make up the entire movie and Universal is interested..... so stay tuned.

July 14, 2008: I have just heard that this movie has been restored and will be exhibited in Syracuse this summer. I look forward to hearing impressions of it and hope to see the restoration for myself some time.

July 17, 2010

Well, three years have passed and I have finally seen the restored version -- Universal spent the money for no good reason except that it pleases film fans to have their films. Bravo!

The first two thirds of this part-talkie are very good. Like most part-talkies, the first half is a silent, and the second half is a talkie. And for two thirds of the movie, through the end of the party scene -- watch out for Anita Garvin, Roach's go-to gal for sexy shrews and a great series of reaction shots -- this is a great picture. I would guess that Chase directed his comedy gags and the dinner scene which is great comedy as Chase makes a fool of Jean Hersholt and the diners. But afterwards, it turns serious and rather dull -- Kathryn Crawford is awful in her line readings and Chase is dull and slow. As with far too many comedies, the plot interferes with the fun.

Still, I am vastly pleased that Universal spent the money. If they ever decide to release this on DVD for the nine copies they think the can sell, I'll make it ten.

All of MODERN LOVE has been rediscovered and restored, and it is a delight. Universal assigned this film to very second-tier technical personnel - Arch Heath's career was mostly directing shorts, this was cinematographer Jerome Ash's second "A" feature after William Wyler's excellent THE SHAKEDOWN (1929), and the sometimes crude synchronized score was by Bert Fiske, musical director for Universal's first all-talkie, the flop MELODY OF LOVE (1928) - so it's likely that Heath gave Chase his head and let him assume most of the direction. (This hypothesis is reinforced by including fellow Roach comedienne Anita Garvin in the cast.) For the most part it is a typical Chase situation comedy of embarassment, but it builds gag by gag to a hilarious sequence where Chase deliberately sabotages a dinner party featuring Jean Hersholt as the guest of honor who is unfamiliar with American dining "customs".

When Chase finally speaks (quite late in the film) and sings what must have been the film's theme song, "You Can't Buy Love", his dialogue is slightly stilted at first, but he delivers it quite naturally and in the characteristic way of his later films for Roach; in fact, some of it is quite funny. (Oddly, "You Can't Buy Love", which is attractive and beautifully sung by Chase, was never published.) The confrontational role-play dialogue between Chase and Katherine Grant concerning their respective careers and "traditional" marriage values is believable and amusing, but the film ends in a surprising but wonderfully ambiguous way that respects both characters.

It is a terrible shame that this was Chase's only true starring feature, because it shows he really could carry feature films with ease; it's even more impressive that the film works so well in its difficult part-talkie hybrid form, as many similar films of its time are not very effective today. In many ways it's a tighter and lighter-feeling film than most of Laurel & Hardy's features (save SONS OF THE DESERT) as Chase has a little more time to give more dimension to his character beyond that in his usual two-reel comedies. MODERN LOVE is still a pleasing and funny film to watch even with its technical sound limitations, which is a marked achievement.