Between his early talking shorts (creaky and lifeless, mostly unfunny) and the later days of his contract with Hal Roach, Charlie Chase has gotten his act together and gotten a better script, funnier situations and a supporting cast that tops all the others. Chase, a milquetoast who is browbeaten by wife Madge Evans, castigated by boss Clarence Wilson and given the wrong medical report by doctor Billy Gilbert, decides to wake up and really start living when he believes that he has only six months to live. He calls into work to take the rest of the day off. Something tells his wife that he's mistaken, and soon, Chase finds himself crawling back to his office for a showdown with the boss. But Wilson has a surprise in store, giving the old sour puss curmudgeon from many classic comedies the closing scene. A lot of fun, and no medication or anti-drowsy aide to take to get through this one!
5 Reviews
Final Holiday in twenty minutes
boblipton10 August 2002
Cautious, pennypinching Charley is told by insurance doctor Billy Gilbert that he has six months to live -- if he eats nothing but ginger snaps and chews them carefully -- and goes wild. More than the usual number of well-constructed gags thrown into this late Roach short make it one of his best sound films.
YAY!!! Charley Chase made a talkie that was as entertaining as his silents!!!
planktonrules17 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I have seen a lot of Charley Chase shorts in the last year or two--mostly thanks to TCM but also because I have sought out DVDs of his films. Up until I say NURSE TO YOU!, I would have said that Chase's silents were always superior to the talking comedies he made. Now, I am happy to say that NURSE TO YOU! was a wonderful film and proves that my original assessment was a bit premature (though, still, IN GENERAL, this does seem to be true).
The beginning of the film was very cute and had to do with Charley playing a real cheapskate. These quick sight gags were very funny and highly reminiscent of silent comedy. But, although this APPEARS to be the theme of the film, the movie takes a quick detour when Charley goes to the doctor to pick up the results of his physical for a life insurance policy. The hair-brained doctor mixes up Mr. Chase's results with Mr. Case's. Case is very old and feeble and the doctor mistakenly tells Charley he only has months to live!! While this type of plot has been done many times over the years, this is one of the earlier examples and so this can be forgiven. Plus, once Charley thinks he's dying, the results are really funny, as he now thinks he has nothing to lose and begins telling off everyone and acting like a bit of a jerk! In the end, when the mistake is discovered, the whole film is wrapped up wonderfully. A perfect or near-perfect Chase comedy, I must say.
By the way, the director was Charles Parrott--that's Charley Chase's real name and he often directed himself. His brother, James, often directed Laurel and Hardy.
The beginning of the film was very cute and had to do with Charley playing a real cheapskate. These quick sight gags were very funny and highly reminiscent of silent comedy. But, although this APPEARS to be the theme of the film, the movie takes a quick detour when Charley goes to the doctor to pick up the results of his physical for a life insurance policy. The hair-brained doctor mixes up Mr. Chase's results with Mr. Case's. Case is very old and feeble and the doctor mistakenly tells Charley he only has months to live!! While this type of plot has been done many times over the years, this is one of the earlier examples and so this can be forgiven. Plus, once Charley thinks he's dying, the results are really funny, as he now thinks he has nothing to lose and begins telling off everyone and acting like a bit of a jerk! In the end, when the mistake is discovered, the whole film is wrapped up wonderfully. A perfect or near-perfect Chase comedy, I must say.
By the way, the director was Charles Parrott--that's Charley Chase's real name and he often directed himself. His brother, James, often directed Laurel and Hardy.
You Can Have Ginger Snaps - if You Chew Them Slowly
HarlowMGM10 November 2013
Charley Chase in my opinion made the best comedy shorts of any comedy act in the 1930's, solo comic or group. NURSE TO YOU happens to be one of his very best as an ultra cheapstake whose rather eccentric doctor Billy Gilbert gets his name confused with an elderly patient named "Case" and gives him the latter's grim diagnosis of six months to live (though maybe one should know to avoid a doctor who tells him he can eat ginger snaps but not apples or bananas!) With seemingly nothing to lose, Chase scuddles his mild-mannered personality and fights fire with fire and then some when facing with annoying, aggressive people including a belligerent street cop and his long-bullying boss Clarence Wilson.
Charley is such an endearing and hilarious comedian it's incredible he is rarely considered one of the comic greats of the industry. His acting is always superb, his humor still as sharp and witty as it was eighty years ago. He also almost always has top notch supporting players and certainly does here, notably the wonderful unsung character actor Clarence Wilson, who basically created the mean, little elderly boss man stock character in scores of films that Charles Lane would later be well known for in later decades. Despite it's theme this is in no way a "black comedy", it's 19 minutes of giddy fun.
Charley is such an endearing and hilarious comedian it's incredible he is rarely considered one of the comic greats of the industry. His acting is always superb, his humor still as sharp and witty as it was eighty years ago. He also almost always has top notch supporting players and certainly does here, notably the wonderful unsung character actor Clarence Wilson, who basically created the mean, little elderly boss man stock character in scores of films that Charles Lane would later be well known for in later decades. Despite it's theme this is in no way a "black comedy", it's 19 minutes of giddy fun.
Enjoy it in good health
hte-trasme14 May 2010
"Nurse to You!" is another big winner from Charley Chase's two-reel comedy series. Directing himself towards the end of his run at Hal Roach, Chase injects a real freewheeling sense of fun into this, without losing any of the tightness and compactness of his comedy construction.
He begins the film, as he sometimes would, as his usual character but with one big twist. This time he's a big cheapskate, and the resultant sequence of dry, absurd visual gags is as funny as you'll see anywhere, as his thriftiness is demonstrated with ingenious schemes in which he saves on gas by allowing momentum to roll his car to the office, splits a newspaper with one guy and a shoeshine(!) with another, etc. Something about Charley Chase's great use of running-gags and character-based humor always reminds me a little of Jack Benny's radio/TV, and here he handles material on Benny's most-trod subject with huge facility.
The film then changes to a great iteration of a personality-change plot -- with the worried cheapskate to well and economically established -- as Charley becomes a brash spendthrift when his diagnosis is switched with that off old Mr. Case and he is lead to believe he has only sic months to live. Charley's comic acting pulls this off wonderfully and really makes this short come alive. In addition Muriel Evans is, as usual, a great leading lady for him, and Billy Gilbert is nice as an uncharacteristically subdued doctor. Unlike a lot of Charley's movies, the title actually comes from a clever pun in the script.
This is another little gem of a twenty-minute film for Charley Chase; at this point he was the real master of the form at the greatest studio for them, and it showed.
He begins the film, as he sometimes would, as his usual character but with one big twist. This time he's a big cheapskate, and the resultant sequence of dry, absurd visual gags is as funny as you'll see anywhere, as his thriftiness is demonstrated with ingenious schemes in which he saves on gas by allowing momentum to roll his car to the office, splits a newspaper with one guy and a shoeshine(!) with another, etc. Something about Charley Chase's great use of running-gags and character-based humor always reminds me a little of Jack Benny's radio/TV, and here he handles material on Benny's most-trod subject with huge facility.
The film then changes to a great iteration of a personality-change plot -- with the worried cheapskate to well and economically established -- as Charley becomes a brash spendthrift when his diagnosis is switched with that off old Mr. Case and he is lead to believe he has only sic months to live. Charley's comic acting pulls this off wonderfully and really makes this short come alive. In addition Muriel Evans is, as usual, a great leading lady for him, and Billy Gilbert is nice as an uncharacteristically subdued doctor. Unlike a lot of Charley's movies, the title actually comes from a clever pun in the script.
This is another little gem of a twenty-minute film for Charley Chase; at this point he was the real master of the form at the greatest studio for them, and it showed.
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