Golfer's Blues

Charley Chase in "All Teed Up"

**1/2

Review By Yair Solan

Upon arriving at a restaurant near a golfing facility with his golfing clubs, Charley meets Thelma Todd and engages in a conversation with her. He finds out that Thelma's father is the president of "Lakeside", the golfing club he always wanted to join. Thelma tells him that he could play golf there as her guest. Charley proceeds to play on the golfing greens at the club.

Arriving at the club, he is given three other players to play with, Bicket, Quirt, and Senator Brown. While Charley is playing with them, he annoys them all, mixing up their names and beating them all while admitting that he never played a game of golf in his life. After the game, the three players try to get Charley thrown out of the club. Charley announces that he knows the president, but the president denies it. Charley is thrown out when he sees Thelma riding by in a car. She says that her father's club is a different one, Charley went to the wrong club! Charley meets her father (Edgar Kennedy) and tries to make a good impression. He asks about his health, and he replies that he is well. Charley then asks how the stock market is going and Thelma's father goes berserk with rage at Charley.

All Teed Up is a very funny Chase short with one problem -- the laughs can get stale after a while. While Charley is annoyingly funny to the fellow golfers, not unlike his roles in The Heckler and Sons of the Desert, his performance can annoy the viewer after a while. This doesn't happen in The Heckler, despite the similarity of his characterization. Charley might just be a little too overenthusiastic in this film, a little too annoying. There are some terrific gags in the film, though. While one of the golfers is trying to play, a loud ringing sound is heard and Charley takes out an alarm clock from his pocket! His performance can be very funny, and it is at first, before the schtick gets a little old. His peculiar way of laughing at his own jokes is hilarious in itself.

The opening scene with Thelma Todd and Charley is by far the highlight of the picture. The chemistry between Charley and Thelma is shown in this portion of the film and it is both a very funny and very charming scene. All Teed Up was made at a time when Hal Roach made foreign language versions of his comedies. Foreign language versions were made of Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang, and Charley Chase's comedies. This film was made into both a Spanish-language version (El Jugador de Golf) and a French-language version (Le Joueur de Golf), both directed by Edgar Kennedy.

All Teed Up is an entertaining film. Charley's scene with Thelma Todd as well as his rendition of the song "Golfer's Blues" over the main titles are the highlights of this comedy. He is amusing at best as an annoying golfer and his mannerisms are hilarious, although sometimes they can become grating and annoying to the viewer. All in all, All Teed Up is very enjoyable despite some weaknesses in Chase's characterization. Although not one of the best Chase comedies, nor one of the funniest, All Teed Up is an interesting and entertaining precursor to Chase's later, and superior, comedy, The Heckler.


Credits:

"All Teed Up". Directed by Edgar Kennedy. With Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, Tenen Holtz, Dell Henderson, Carl Stockdale, Nelson McDowell, Edgar Kennedy, Harry Bowen. Produced by Hal Roach. Released on April 19, 1930.


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