Chasing the Chaser

A fairly good comedy short from 1925, made more interesting by the talent involved: future Laurel & Hardy supporting actor Jimmy Finlayson stars; Stan Laurel directs and co-writes; James Parrott, brother of Charley Chase and future L&H director co-writes; L&H cinematographer Art Lloyd is behind the camera and future KING KONG star Fay Wray has a small role.

Fin is very good as a faithful husband, whose wife is looking for proof that more than his eyes have been roving. She hires a private detective to provide it. It consists of three scenes and the one in which Fin is trying to pick out a new hat is interesting. He was always good at registering comic dislike.

I do not know where the Welsh reviewer gets the notion that Jules Mendel plays the detective in this film. The detective is played by the costumier and celebrated female impersonator Frederick Ko Vert.

The reviewer ingeniously invents a fake biography for Mr. Mendel who was a heavily-built balding fellow who appears in innumerable small parts in Roach films (see http://www.lordheath.com/menu1_1145.html for several examples). Since the hat-salesman here is played by William Gillespie, the only part that Mendel could be playing (although it doesn't look much like him) is the whiskered passer-by in the early scenes. "Jules" was his stage-name. His real name was Jewel Mendel.

At Hal Roach Studios, many of the actors were also given a chance to direct films as well. The most famous of these was Charley Chase, who under his real name "Charles Parrot" directed dozens of comedy shorts. In the case of this film, Stan Laurel (who at the time was a solo comedian) was given a chance to direct. Aside from James Finlayson in the lead, the film is full of people who are unknown today, but the overall effort is pretty good and watchable.

The most interesting part of the movie is the cross-dressing private detective Finlayson hires to prove that James is cheating on her. Unlike in THE SLEUTH, where Stan Laurel looks pretty as a private eye in drag, the guy who cross-dresses to uncover the dirt on Finlayson is amazingly convincing as a girl! You have to see it to believe it, that's for sure! Not a great film from the era, but a little better than average and a decent time-passer. Give it a look.