Charley Chase is given an ultimatum by his boss: romance the company’s biggest account, a mature widow, or else. So Charley gets to work but it isn’t easy, especially with the widow’s pretty secretary about.
Home Media Availability: Released on DVD
Just a gigolo
Hal Roach had ambitions for his comedy studio, something bigger than slapstick, and to that end, he began a campaign to hire big, if slightly faded, names in the 1920s. His most famous get was probably Theda Bara in Madame Mystery but a great many stars in decline (temporary or permanent) cycled through.
Be Your Age featured Gladys Hulette, who had been part of the very first wave of credited stars in the while still a teen. She delighted audiences as Puck in the 1909 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and played the title character, a pyromaniac pixie, in Princess Nicotine that same year. Hulette’s star rose through the 1910s with solo starring vehicles (most lost, alas) but she is probably best known as the romantic lead opposite Richard Barthelmess in the Americana classic Tol’able David (1921).
Hulette was buoyed on the film’s success with big studio work but that had dried up by the middle of the decade and she was on the dreaded slide to Poverty Row. While she was just thirty years old, Hulette had been in the public eye for nearly two decades and couldn’t seem to reestablish her foothold. In short, a perfect candidate for Roach.
The short opens with Mrs. Schwartzkopple (Lillian Leighton), a mature widow, meeting with her business advisor, Mr. Blaylock (Frank Brownlee). She wants to marry again and he is hoping to be the man to look after her and her beautiful money, all two million dollars of it. But, no, the spirit of the Roaring Twenties has taken her and she wants to marry a youthful beau.
Meanwhile, Blaylock’s clerk, Charley (Charley Chase), has a family emergency and needs $10,000 urgently. (Aunt Mollie has gone mad from a dog bite and is trying to poison the children and Uncle Wilbur choked her, causing the cook to shoot him and star a fire, which Charley’s father tried to put out and broke his leg in the process. Who among us?) Blaylock gives him a check immediately and, once it is in the mail, tells Charley the conditions of his generosity: he must romance Mrs. Schwartzkopple and keep her and her money with the firm. Charley doesn’t want to, especially since he is attracted to Schwartzkopple’s secretary (Hulette), but it’s too late to get the check back.
Once he launches his charm offensive, Charley goes all in. He is invited to Mrs. Schwartzkopple’s party and, hearing that she has a son named Oswald, brings a little toy drum as a gift for the lad. In fact, Oswald is an adult man (Oliver Hardy) who is not eager to have a new stepfather, especially one who seems to be his own age!
Fortunately (or unfortunately), Mrs. Schwartzkopple is delighted by the attentions of a young suitor and it looks like Charley is well on his way to fulfilling his mission and becoming Oswald’s new papa. Through all of this, the secretary is giggling at Charley’s attempts and doing her best to play minor pranks, such as tricking Oswald and Charley into flirting with one another.
Will Charley win the hand of the wealthy widow or will it all fall apart? See Be Your Age to find out!
This is a cute little trifle of a comedy, even if it didn’t revive Hulette’s career. Charley Chase was probably the most European of the American comedians working at the time, often incorporating bedroom farce elements into his comedies and even doing his own version of Die Fledermaus in Mighty Like a Moose. He was also an excellent choice for showcasing a leading lady because he was no diva and would not object to his costars getting the best punchlines.
Be Your Age has a plot that could have headed into saucy territory but didn’t. I am not sure if this was just due to the presence of Hulette, who was associated with wholesome fare at the time, or if it just happened to be the direction the team decided to go. Hulette is also kept above the fray, with some silly faces and mostly just standing back and laughing at the zany antics of the other characters. The plot flirts with the edges of surreal, as was typical for Roach output of the time, but never quite takes the plunge into full madness and doesn’t have quite the same buildup as other comedies of the period.
So, as a Hulette vehicle, Be Your Age falls short but the rest of the cast is clearly having a blast under the direction of Leo McCarey. I particularly enjoyed the pre-Laurel Oliver Hardy as the spoiled son. Hardy makes the most of his “Babe” nickname and incorporates babyish mannerisms, hiding in bushes, shuffling his feet and petulantly declaring that he will never call Chase “papa.”
The subject of May-December romances and older folks seeking out younger lovers was a pretty common plot device in the silent era and, while the men tended to be treated in a gentler manner, they were not let entirely off the hook. In Orchids and Ermine, Colleen Moore’s character quips that some men think when their wife turns forty they can change her for two twenties and flounces off to marry a man her own age. Be Your Age is ultimately sympathetic to Leighton’s character, who just had a touch of spring fever and quickly realizes that she enjoys the company of a man her age more. If only more films did the same when the fellow was the one doing the chasing.
(It’s worth noting that 1874 baby Leighton was just 52 when this film was made. That’s just a baby by Hollywood leading man standards.)
Be Your Age never reaches the same heights as Chase’s other 1926 hits like Mighty Like a Moose, Crazy Like a Fox, or Mum’s the Word, but it’s a fun little romp made all the better by Chase and Hardy’s skills and charisma, plus those Beanie Walker title cards. Good for a pleasant chuckle, should you need one.
Where can I see it?
Released on DVD by Milestone as part of their Cut to the Chase! collection.
☙❦❧
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