Modern Love (1929 starring Charley Chase)

Arch Heath: Modern Love (US 1929) with Dorothy Coburn, Anita Garvin, Charley Chase (John Jones), Edward Martindale (Weston), Jean Hersholt (Renault), Kathryn Crawford (Patricia Brown, secretly married with John Jones). Photo: AMPAS – Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles.

(US 1929) regia/dir: Arch Heath, Jack Foley. sogg./story, scen: Beatrice Van. dial/titles: Albert De Mond. photog: Jerry Ash. cast: Charley Chase (John Jones), Kathryn Crawford (Patricia Brown), Jean Hersholt (Renault), Edward Martindel (Weston), Anita Garvin (la mora/a brunette), Dorothy Coburn (Half and Half), Betty Montgomery (bionda/blonde), Jack Chefe (vestiarista/dresser), Virginia Sale (dipendente gelosa / jealous employee), Chester A. Bachman (poliziotto/cop). prod: Carl Laemmle, Universal Pictures (Universal-Jewel). uscita/rel: 21.7.1929. copia/copy: 35 mm, 1496 m, 54'32" (24 fps), pt. sd.; did./titles: ENG. fonte/source: NBCUniversal, Los Angeles.

    Unreleased in Finland.

    Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): Slapstick Prog. 5 Marriage Rows, 13 Oct 2023

Steve Massa (GCM 2023): " At the end of the 1920s, Charley Chase was a well-established star of short comedies. By that time he’d had a long film career. Fresh out of vaudeville in 1914 as Charles Parrott, he traveled through an invaluable training ground at Nestor and Keystone, through a period as a crack comedy director for Fox, King Bee, Bulls Eye, Arrow, and Paramount, to the Hal Roach Studio – where he spent time as the director-general of the lot and eventually became one of its most popular performers. Two-reelers on the order of His Wooden Wedding (1925), Mighty Like a Moose, and Dog Shy (both 1926), made him a solid fan favorite, and in 1929 he got the chance to star in his own comedy feature. "

" This opportunity didn’t come from his home base of the Hal Roach Studio, but from Universal Pictures. Having had great success starring Reginald Denny and Edward Everett Horton in features with situational plots that used slapstick as seasoning, “Big U” reasoned that this formula would work for Chase as well. Charley is still the put-upon everyman of his shorts. This time it starts with him wedding his sweetheart, but they must keep their marriage a secret so she can remain at her well-paying position with an exclusive dressmaking company. Charley is old-fashioned and would rather she’d stay at home, but against his better judgment he agrees to the secrecy and maintenance of separate apartments. Complications ensue. "

" This plot gives Chase ample opportunity for the comedy of embarrassment that had become his stock in trade, and although not at his home studio, it looks like he was given a free hand to develop the material and gags in his usual way. Helping with this is the presence of three Hal Roach regulars in support – Anita Garvin and Dorothy Coburn as guests at the big dinner party, and perennial policeman Chester Bachman, who specialized in giving Chase a hard time and does so here as well. "

" Director Arch Heath had just helmed The Melody of Love (1928), Universal’s first 100% talking picture. His directorial career had included serials like The Masked Menace (1927) and the Max Davidson shorts Came the Dawn and That Night (both 1928), but didn’t last past 1931. He also worked as a dialogue director and writer before his career ended in 1941. According to contemporary exhibitor ads and information, the picture was co-directed by Jack Foley, who was a writer at Universal on Glenn Tryon features such as Hot Heels (1927), The Gate Crasher (1928), and The Kid’s Clever (1929). His other directing credits were Universal shorts with Benny Rubin and Pat Rooney, but Foley became a pioneer of sound effects, recording different sounds to match the screen actions. While he never received screen credit, he did this into the early 1960s, and the people who do this work today are still called Foley Artists. "

" Chase’s co-stars are Kathryn Crawford and Jean Hersholt. Crawford had made a splash in the Los Angeles run of Hit the Deck, and was signed by Universal, where she became a leading lady for Hoot Gibson and Glenn Tryon. Despite good sound films like Red Hot Rhythm (1929) and Flying High (1931), her career cooled and ended in 1941. Jean Hersholt is remembered today for the humanitarian award that bears his name, but the Danish-born actor was in pictures for many years. Having made films in his native Denmark, he moved to Hollywood in 1914 and started as an extra. He quickly became a busy character player, with Greed (1924), Stella Dallas (1925), Grand Hotel (1932), and The Country Doctor (1936) among his best-known pictures. "

" This being 1929, Modern Love was released in two versions – one totally silent, the other a sound hybrid. This is what has been preserved, and is mostly silent, but has a score as well as a few dialogue and musical sequences. Since both Chase and Crawford had musical stage backgrounds, they each have songs. Charley’s song “You Can’t Buy Love” was written by himself and assistant musical director Bert Fiske. This was the working title of the film (which originally started out as Sex Appeal). "

" Although generally well-received on release, Modern Love was quickly forgotten and disappeared. All that was available for many years was a chunk of the silent cut, but in 2008 Universal restored this sound version. Charley Chase’s career followed a similar path. After this feature he returned to the Roach lot and his output of two-reelers. Although not as inventive as his silent shorts, he continued to make quality comedies for Roach and then Columbia Pictures, until his premature death in 1940. Largely forgotten by the 1950s and 1960s, in the 1970s his silent work was rediscovered, giving him a place alongside the other great creators of silent comedy. " – Steve Massa

AA: Charley Chase was one of the very greatest during the Golden Age of Comedy. It's a thrill to see him star in a feature-length comedy. Modern Love is a situation comedy, a comedy of misunderstandings and a comedy of embarrassment. The chemistry is great between Charley Chase and Kathryn Crawford, and Jean Hersholt is fine even though perhaps overdoing his "French" mannerisms. Perfectly entertaining, and it is good to hear Charley Chase sing a song of his own, "You Can't Buy Love". 

Charley Chase's best films are pure diamonds. Modern Love is good enough.

About the Charley Chase mystery: William K. Everson thought that Charley Chase resembled too much Harold Lloyd, Raymond Griffith and Reginald Denny and failed to achieve greater stardom therefore.