Topic: Stolen Goods (1924) - Charley Chase

[HomokHarcos]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209356/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

With Stolen Goods, we get a story based comedy instead of a gag one, and it's directed by the excellent Leo McCarey. He meets a woman and her dad in an automobile accident, and later on they just so happen to show up in the market he works at. The funniest part here is that Chase is not too serious with his job and seems to annoy the other workers there. The woman he met earlier shows up and starts stealing things left and right, Charley of course does not want to get her in trouble, and it turns out she's a kleptomaniac. I like how the solution is to put her in handcuffs, not to arrest her but rather to make sure she can't steal again. The ending does seem to come out of nowhere, though, kind of a deus ex machina.

This is not the best Chase short so far, but at 10 minutes you never have anything to lose watching these one reelers. The woman is played by Marie Mosquini, and I'm not sure if I've seen her before, because she doesn't look familiar to me.

[GreenCanaries]

Marie Mosquini was a Roach regular from the Lonesome Luke days through the mid-1920s; she was most prominent as Snub Pollard's regular leading lady. She later married inventor Lee DeForest.
https://www.lordheath.com/menu1_526.html

Decent little effort. I liked the ways some of the gags tied back in with each other, like the callbacks with the accident and the jellybean. I also liked the use of the "title card" with the cartoon of the two cars crashing. Also, a nice against-type use of Noah Young.

Billy Engle as the floorwalker getting trampled by the horde of female customers reminded me of the beginning of the ZaSu Pitts/Thelma Todd short THE BARGAIN OF THE CENTURY (1933), that time with Harry Bowen as the floorwalker -- and directed, perhaps not coincidentally, by one Mr. Charles Parrott...

[metaldams]

Again, not too much to add after what you guys said.  These Chase, or Jimmy Jump one reelers are pretty straight forward and usually very well made. You’re right, a story based one reeler that has one fantastic gag at the end with the handcuffs.  The kind of comedy any straight actor could have pulled off (what Walter Kerr refers to as “The Demiclowns”), yet Chase manages to stand out as a personality, at least for me, in these types of films in a way others could not.  Still can’t place my finger as to why and it drives me crazy.  Chase could do gag based comedy as well, so he’s versatile.

Nice comparison, Green Canaries, about the Pitts/Todd short.  The horde of female customers reminded me of Harold’s rough situation in SAFETY LAST!

[Umbrella Sam]

Surprisingly kind of all over the place from a story perspective. He needs to make $10,000 pretending to cure her kleptomania just so he can give $10,000 to someone to actually cure her kleptomania? Heck, the ending isn’t really all that definitive either. Still, from a comedy perspective, it works fine, the major gag being the one with the handcuffs, and as usual the supporting cast does well. Not a ton to say; it’s fine, although not as good as the others due to its story.

[Paul Pain]

Not a terrible short at all.  To follow up on what metal said... Charley has this charisma that just makes his characters charming or likable more often than not.