The Fraidy Cat

Joe Cobb is most interesting to watch. He was the youngest of the bunch and very precocious. He must have been something in real life. A very smart child who probably was able to follow the director's directions well. He may have been a little bit of a bully and bossy with a loud sassy mouth. I can imagine him causing some trouble and mischief with the other boys on the set. Too bad his career ended early but he ended up working on planes during WWII and stayed with it till he retired in 1981. I wonder what he looked like in later years and if he remained a heavy person. He reminded me of a young Jackie Gleason. Perhaps Jackie Gleason saw these films as a child himself.

It was the Jimmy Jump series of one-reelers that first brought Charley Chase into the limelight as a performer and they remain to my mind, the best stuff he ever did. The short format suited him perfectly; the longer shorts immediately became messier and more randomly slapstick. This particular "Jimmy Jump" is directed by brother James and is not perhaps one of the best; the finest are those written and directed by Leo McCarey. They have a comic invention and a sharp pithy humour that Chase never really reproduced in the rest of his career. He himself seems to have preferred "safe" and undemanding subjects, eventually settling for the charming but unadventurous, slightly geriatric slapstick shorts of the sound era.

This one is really only of particular interest because of the rare outing of the Our Gang kids in force in another Roach comedy. Interestingly the Pathescope 9.5m version was re-titled "Paul Becomes a Caveman", with no attempt to distinguish Charley Parrott from his (at this point still more famous brother) James, who acted under the name Paul Parrott and was already a popular Pathescope star.

James Parrott, Charley Chase's younger brother, directed this short about the cowardly Jimmy. As one of the title cards says "Even the 'gang' has got Jimmy's goat - they've threatened to sic their pet rabbits on him." The gang members are the "Our Gang" kids but not the first of their film appearances, which was in 1922. Everyone bullies Jimmy, especially Lem Tucker who is chasing after Jimmy's true love, the doctor's daughter. When the doctor tells Jimmy that he needs to diet a week, Jimmy hears it as he will die in a week. Determined to 'go out like a man,' Jimmy gets tough with the kids and with Lem. There are a lot of funny bits in this one including one where Jimmy rides a bull to save the doctor's daughter from Lem. A highly entertaining Chase short.

Charley Chase returned to regular comedy performing with his 'Jimmy Jump' series of one-reelers for Roach in 1924. This is the eighth or ninth of the series. In it, he is a coward in love with Beth Darlington, but scared of everyone, including Earl Mohan, who also wishes to woo Miss Darlington, and the members of Our Gang. When he mishears the doctor and thinks he has one week to live, he finds his courage..... and some very funny gags.

Chase would continue with the one-reel comedies for another year, here under the direction of his brother, James Parrott, and later under Leo McCarey, before expanding his output to two-reels at a time, and begin a series of classic short comedies.

A little known fact is that the incomparable Charley Chase introduced the world to the Little Rascals. This is their first short. They play a bunch of annoying kids who torment poor Charley until he gets his nerve and fights back, with hilarious results. One of Chase's best.