Okay Toots!

Cute little shortie from Hal Roach. Starts with Charley (played by actor Charley Chase) at the office, singing into the phone to his wife ("Toots"… played by Jeanie Roberts). They crack a few gags, some of which work, and some of which do not. Then he heads home to find his wife entertaining friends with a professional fortune teller. On the way home, a couple more gags are worked in, regarding parking, and the cops. Something goes very wrong with the fortune teller, but I won't spoil the surprise here. Keep an eye out for Hattie McDaniels in one of her very early credited parts. It all gets resolved by the end, and Chase finishes the song we had heard him singing earlier. I did find Toots' voice terribly annoying, about five octaves higher than Gracie Allen. A fun story to watch, and you only have to put up with that annoying voice for a couple minutes. I'm glad this little piece of history has been preserved, as I had not seen anything Chase had done, prior to this. Chase acted and directed in tons of films, many "shorts", and many "silents" but died quite young.

We thought it might have already been copied and preserved and it's true! A theatrical projection print was made by the (and bless them all) the Library Of Congress motion picture conservation center lab in 1990. It's a pretty good short comedy, one with several laughs and a peppy song. I recommend it for a theater screenings whenever they have a spot for classic forgotten Charley Chase funny shorts at BIG SCREEN film festivals. The other review here describes enough of the plot I won't give out any spoilers, just say if you are a fan of the MGM/Roach sound Chase shorts, see this one with a like minded crowd of friends and you can thank me later! Made the same year as some other good Chase shorts: Poker At Eight; Southern Exposure; The Four Star Boarder; Nurse To You!; Monkey Business; Ghost NO. 1 all 1935. Film rules!

Charley Chase was a very talented director and comedy star. It's a shame that many of his best films with Hal Roach are impossible to find today. A few that you can find are absolute classics, such as "Nurse to You!" and "Might Like a Moose"...and a few, like "Okay Toots!" are NOT. I guess you can't win 'em all!

The first portion of the short is better than the big gimmick midway through the film. It seems that Charley made a mistake....and made a fortune for his brokerage company! After leaving for home, there's an overlong routine involving his car being parked in by other cars. None of this is great...but at least it didn't grate. The grating portion happened after he arrived at home. He finds his wife having a fortune telling party with friends and goes up to bed...and has a goofy dream where he has his wife's voice and she has his. It's really unfunny...and made worse by the wife's voice...which is much like Helen Kane's or Betty Boop's...and a little of this high-pitched voice goes a long way.

Overall, a dud. The only plus is you get to hear Charley sing a bit...as he had a very pleasant voice and he only sang occasionally in films. Also, you do get to see Hattie McDaniel as, you guessed it, a maid.

Charley Chase quarrels with wife Jeanie Roberts and goes up to take a nap. He dreams that he has become Miss Roberts, and she him, by switching voices.

It's a gimmicky little film, with one or two good lines, but the big gag is hearing Miss Roberts' squeaky voice coming out of Chase's mouth. There are lots of fine comics in this one, not only the usual second-stringers that show up in all sorts of Roach shorts, but also Ferdinand Munier, Queen of the Dress Extras Bess Flowers -- she actually gets a line here -- and Hattie McDaniel, but Miss Roberts' helium voice is actively annoying.

Okay Toots! (1935)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Very weak and unfunny short has Charley Chase coming home to find his wife (Jeanie Roberts) with a group of other woman and all of them talking with a psychic. This sets Chase off and he wishes that he could be his wife for a day and have it easy. His wish is granted. OKAY TOOTS! has a fun title but sadly everything after the opening credits is pretty weak and this includes Chase who is usually very dependable. Chase is actually one of my favorite comedians from this period but there's no question that he made some bad films at MGM and this here is one of them. The entire situation just isn't funny to begin with and it gets even more annoying when you throw in the high pitched voice they make Roberts use. The "twist" in the story is the simple use of dubbing as the Chase character eventually gets Roberts' voice and Roberts gets the voice of Chase. Again, once this happens there's not a single laugh to be found and instead you're simply going to want to put cotton in your ears to avoid the pain of listening to these failed jokes. Even the short appearance from Hattie McDaniel can't make this work.