"Mr. Bride" is, in many ways, an archetypical Charley Chase comedy, and what one would expect from the performer Robert Youngson had called "the master of the comedy of embarrassment". Indeed, this gem from 1932 takes Chase's comedy of embarassment to its limit, milking it to a level rarely matched in the Chase canon. With "Mr. Bride", Chase's prissy "Nance" persona -- newly hatched at this point in his career -- was about to undergo a massive blow to its masculinity.
In "Mr. Bride", Chase plays Mr. Henderson's (Del Henderson) all-too-obedient assistant. Henderson, a man of the overly organized sort, asks Charley to come along to the resort where he will have his honeymoon and assist in a "rehearsal honeymoon". Like any sane man, Charley is reluctant to go along with this preposterous idea, but with his job on the line, he is forced to accept. It is a decision that, during the course of the comedy's events, he will come to regret.
At the resort with Mr. Henderson, Charley becomes susceptible to an endless amount of humiliation. First off, since Charley is acting as his boss's rehearsal bride, throughout their time at the resort Henderson insists on calling Charley "Mrs. Henderson" and repeatedly refers to him as "dear". As a result, everyone around Charley is quick to laugh at him -- and everyone means everyone: police officers, old women, even a drunk Charlie Hall of Laurel and Hardy fame. At one point, Charley virtually bursts out in tears, exclaiming, "excuse me, puh-leez!" -- his frustration comically undercut by the feminine way in which he utters the line. After all of this sobbing, embarrassment, and even a new hairdo the boss forces upon Charley (which Brian Anthony and Andy Edmonds saw fit to dub "Rasta Chase" in Smile When the Raindrops Fall), it is revealed that Henderson doesn't even have a bride! Apparently Henderson did not bother to ask his intended bride -- his secretary, played by Muriel Evans -- to marry him yet.
Without a bride, Henderson sends Charley to propose to his secretary for him, writing an entire speech on a piece of paper for Charley to read to her. Charley proposes and she accepts, until she finds out that Charley is proposing for his boss. Turns out that she doesn't want to marry Mr. Henderson -- it's Charley she's after. And it is on this delightfully Chase-like turn of events that the film ends.
Scene for scene, "Mr. Bride" is one of Charley Chase's funniest talkies. The short presents Chase with ample opportunity for embarrassment, all stemming from having to pose as Henderson's bride -- a risque premise for a film from the thirties, treated here with taste and wit. Interestingly, Chase and Del Henderson dabbled in gender-bending humor earlier, in the 1930 two-reeler "Fast Work", with Henderson playing a lunatic who, in one memorable scene, persuades Charley to waltz with him on the dance floor. Chase is at his sound-era peak in "Mr. Bride", reacting with embarrassment, frustration, and anger, with just the right amount of humor and sympathy, ensuring that the audience empathizes with Charley just as it laughs at his predicament. One of the funniest moments in the short is a sequence in which an amused group of onlookers watch as Chase and Henderson descend a long flight of stairs while an orchestra plays "The Wedding March". Throughout the scene, Chase displays the kind of restrained frustration so perfect it should be required viewing in acting classes.
"Mr. Bride" is one of Chase's most risque films and among his most satisfying comedies. Like many of Chase's best films from the thirties, "Mr. Bride" is a light, breezy concoction teeming with comic invention and brilliant performances. While it had once been one of Chase's harder to find talkies, the American cable television network Turner Classic Movies has aired the short a number of times in recent years, exposing new audiences to Chase's underrated sound-era work, the film itself serving as a great introduction to the unique style of an unsung comic master.
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