Vamp Till Ready

As was often the case, Charley Chase co-directed his own comedy short using his real name, Charles Parrott.

In "Vamp Till Ready", Charley is married to Norma...and Norma is very plain and wears old fashioned clothing. Well, after Charley makes a comment about her ugly dress, she decides to give herself a makeover--with nice hair and a lovely dress. However, when Charley sees her, he assumes she is his wife's twin sister...who's known for being vivacious. When Norma realizes this, she pretends to be her own sister and she starts coming on to Charley and see if he is the cheating sort. What's next? See the short for yourself.

While the plot is pretty familiar, it's handled very well and offers some nice laughs. Not the best thing Chase ever made, however, it's better than usual and well worth seeing.

Wilma Cox doesn't want to spend any of Charley Chase's money on designer dresses, despite her mother, Zeffie Tillbury telling her Charley can afford it, and would like it. Certainly her twin sister, also played by Miss Cox, dresses well. So she has her modiste run up a slinky dress for her, and Charley thinks she's her sister. She takes advantage of this to try to seduce him.

It's certainly not the first time that film comedies made use of this sort of farcical situation, of married couples attempting to cheat on each other with their own spouses. D. W. Griffith played the part against hs real wife, Linda Arvidson, in 1908's AT THE FRENCH BALL, and it forms a major component of Chase's classic silent comedy, MIGHTY LIKE A MOOSE. It's handled very nicely here, too.