Seeing Nellie Home

I have seen the surviving six-minute-or-so version of the film available on DVD and sourced from 9.5 mm film; if you have have access to the complete ten-minute reel, contact a film archive!

Charley Chase developed and honed the character and comic structure with which he would successfully delight for the rest of his life in his early "Jimmy Jump" films for Hal Roach, each contained on only a reel "Seeing Nellie Home" shows that his ability to fit his comic vision within that timeframe is becoming really expert. The situation is typically embarrassing and unlikely-but-possible for Charley, but it is at the same time such a simple idea -- Charley shows off by taking a pretty girl back home, wreaks havoc trying to get her in, then discovers that she's married -- is so simple that even at such a sort length nothing has to be crammed in, and there is room for elaboration on the concept with a number of clever gags and shots once Charley begins his attempt to infiltrate his companion's house after discovering she has forgotten her key.

It's a slight piece -- especially in its existing form -- but it contains good laughs and really demonstrates Charkey Chase's peculiar genius for manipulating comic structure and drawing laughs from character in a matter of seconds.