It Happened One Day

"It Happened One Day" is a pleasant Charley Chase comedy that he also directed. It's not among his best films he made for Hal Roach Studios, but it is enjoyable.

The story begins with a grouchy man tripping over Charley. Soon, the guy is spitting mad and the man also turns out to be Charley's new boss. Oddly, although the man hates him, he doesn't fire him but sends him to run the Long Beach office (Long Beach is in the suburbs of Los Angeles). However, after sending Charley, he learns his daughter is also heading to Long Beach and the boss tries to stop get a hold of Charley, as he's afraid the pair will meet and he'll be stuck with an idiot for a son-in-law!

There are some funny bits here and there, such as the final few minutes of the picture. But a few gags had poor timing and were over-used...such as the sneezing and tripping bits. Overall, a mixed bag but a mostly pleasant little film.

By the way, the title to this is a parody of the VERY successful "It Happened One Night"....which also came out in 1934 and garnered five Oscars!

It Happened One Day finds young Charley Chase, a veritable Sammy Glick of the Thirties, getting hired by a firm headed by Oscar Apfel. Two problems with that, Apfel had some unpleasant run ins with the bumptious Chase. Chase even makes an offhanded comment about marrying the boss's daughter and the other employees immediately take it in their minds to put the upstart in his place.

Popular Chase leading lady Betty Mack is Apfel's daughter and on a train trip back from Long Beach the two of them meet and do fall for each other. Life does take some funny turns.

Chase was perfectly cast as a bumptious type. Thirty years later I could have seen him doing How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. This was one short which depended more on character than gags for laughs and Chase succeeded admirably.

Charley Chase has been hired as a clerk at Oscar Apfel's firm. After blathering on about hard work, the other men in the office talk about him becoming a manager, and marrying the boss's daughter. Apfel, hearing this, ships him to Long Beach, where he meets Apfel's daughter, Betty Mack.

One of the joys of the classic Chase short subjects was his ability to compress a three-act plot into two reels, with plenty of time and talent for classic slapstick gags. In the sound era he would throw in a song or two, usually written by himself and house musical director, Leroy Shield; we get one here, a variation on "The Man on the Flying Trapeze". We also get plenty of well-timed gags, from Chase and Apfel tripping over each other and busting hats, to a full-fledged fire, with inept firemen trying to put it out. Enjoy!