Hash House Mashers (1915)
** (out of 4)
A rather unfunny comedy from Keystone has Charley Chase wanting to marry the woman of his dreams but her father (Chester Conklin) objects because he's already picked out someone else for her to marry. Chase and the girl decide to run off but when this plan doesn't work out perhaps a movie crew could help. HASH HOUSE MASHERS has a pretty good cast but they've got very little to work with and in the end there's not nearly enough laughs here to make this thing worth sitting through unless you're some major film buff who just watches everything they can. It was fun seeing such a young looking Chase here but I really didn't think he got much to work with. From a performance stand point there really isn't much the film lets him do but I still think fans will enjoy seeing him here clean shaved and really slicked back. Even Conklin as the father doesn't get much to do except for constantly objecting to everything going on. I was really surprised but there wasn't any real scenes where it seemed like they were even trying to do anything funny. At just 11-minutes the film isn't hard to sit through but it's too bad more wasn't done.