Looking for Sally

Looking for Sally (1925)

*** (out of 4)

Far-fetched but funny two-reeler from Hal Roach has Jimmy Jump (Charley Chase) returning from Europe after nearly two decades where he plans on marrying his childhood sweetheart Sally (Katherine Grant). She is waiting for him at the peer but he sees an ugly woman thinking it is her so he decides to stay away. He ends up meeting another woman at the peer, the real Sally, and spends the rest of the film trying to track her down. This is a pretty routine story built around the mistaken identity scenario that is hard to believe but there are enough big laughs to make this worth viewing. What really worked here is the maniac performance by Chase in his final billing as Jimmy Jump. He does a great job at showing off his comic timing and has many opportunities to play different types of comedy. Early on it's hilarious seeing his facial gestures when he thinks his true love is now a dog. Even funnier is towards the end when he's pretending to be a homeless drunk to meet his woman only to then go into a stage act of being crazy. Chase is wonderful but so is Grant as the woman he loves. Noah Young, a veteran Roach player, is also very good as a dumb detective trying to bust Chase for just about anything. The drunken flashback sequence really doesn't contain enough laughs to make it worth being included in the film but it will remind some of the early Keystone films. Fans of Chase will certainly eat this thing up but it's also a good one to show people who aren't familiar with the actor.