Assistant Wives

Clever & funny Silent comedy short.

Charley is in boss Pallette's office sitting in the chair ( cf. Cantinflas in El MAGO) and running through A list of demands not knowing Eugene has come in.

The upshot is Pallette invited for diner with the woman from the flapjack joint opposite the office rung in for Charley's wife.

Drab staging but the combination of Roach, Chase and McCarey produce an item in the top of the range for silent comedy shorts.

Charley Chase is married to Edna Marion, as he was a lot in this period. In his short comedies, I mean. For reasons of the plot, he hasn't told boss Eugene Pallette he's married, so he tries to pass off Anita Garvin, who's the flapjack queen of the diner opposite the office as his wife in hopes of getting a raise. Anita invites the boss to dinner, and Pallette says tonight is fine.

It's a typical sitcom situation, and Chase and crew are experts. However, the real standout here is Miss Garvin. Always a reliable performer in comedies of this period, she is extra funny swanking around in a bleached-blonde wig; you can almost here a Brooklyn accent and sit on the gum she has stuck under the seat.