Married to Order

Married to Order (1920)

*** (out of 4)

Boy (Charley Chase) meets girl (Rosemary Theby). Father (Oliver Hardy) hates boy. Girl dresses up as her brother to get out of the house to elope but the near-sighted father mistakes her for the twin brother and all chaos follows. Many reviews site this film as being an early version of the type of movie Chase would make for Roach during his heyday of the mid-20s. I think that's a true statement as we get Chase doing everything he can to make something go in his favor yet things keep getting in the way and getting worse and worse. Once again we have Chase giving a terrific performance and we get to see some of his more physical humor including a great sequence where he dresses as the milk man to try and get inside the house. Hardy, billed under the name Babe Hardy, also shines as the father and the politically incorrect jokes about him being near-sighted are extremely funny and the actor pulls off playing an old man perfectly. This 16-minute short contains several laughs but one of the real highlights comes towards the end when the girl dresses up as her brother and the father, thinking it's his son, decides to get 'em drunk.