High C's: That one where Charley Chase kidnaps a German for his band

If you have about twenty-five minutes and want to see something that feels like it was written by someone who had three cups of coffee and a fever, watch High C's. It is absolutely worth it if you like old-school slapstick that doesn't care about being realistic. People who want a serious war movie will hate this. It treats the trenches like a stage for a musical comedy.

Charley Chase is the lead here. He plays a doughboy named Charlie who is just... obsessed with singing. Not just singing, but being in a quartet.

The movie opens with him and his buddies trying to harmonize while they are basically in the middle of a war zone. It’s a bit jarring. You see the explosions and the dirt, but then Charlie starts hitting these high notes and you forget there’s a war going on. Which I guess is the point?

Then there is Antoinette. She’s played by Thelma Todd. She is wonderful, as always. She runs this little bar in France and she’s the one who tells Charlie he should try to be a sergeant.

Thelma Todd has this way of looking at Charley Chase like she knows he’s an idiot, but she likes him anyway. It’s a very specific vibe. She’s definitely the best part of the first half.

I noticed that the uniforms look a bit too clean. Especially for a movie about guys living in holes in the ground. But that’s 1930s movies for you. They weren't going for "gritty."

The plot really gets moving when the quartet loses their tenor. The poor guy gets shot in the throat. I know that sounds dark, but the movie treats it like a minor inconvenience. Like he just lost his car keys or something.

Charlie is devastated, but not because his friend is hurt. He's upset because the harmony is ruined. It’s such a selfish, funny character trait. He’s a total music snob even while bombs are dropping.

There is this moment where the lieutenant is screaming at him. Charlie just stares at him with this blank, musical look in his eyes. You can tell he’s just thinking about chords.

If you've seen Is Marriage the Bunk?, you know Chase is great at playing these guys who are slightly out of step with the rest of the world. He’s always a little bit too enthusiastic about the wrong thing.

The middle of the film has this very strange sequence. Charlie is out in no-man's-land and he hears a voice. It’s a German soldier singing. And the guy sounds like an angel.

Most soldiers would be worried about getting shot. Charlie just stands there looking impressed. He decides right then and there that he needs to bring this German guy back to his side of the trench. Not as a prisoner of war, but as a replacement singer.

It’s a bizarre plan. He hatches this whole scheme to sneak over and grab the guy. The way he moves through the shadows is actually pretty well shot. The lighting is surprisingly moody for a comedy short.

• The scene with the piano in the trench is hilarious.
• The German soldier seems weirdly okay with being kidnapped once he realizes they just want him to sing.
• The lieutenant’s facial expressions are the highlight of every scene he’s in.

I did find myself wondering how Antoinette felt about all this. She kind of disappears for a while while the boys are doing their musical commando mission.

The movie is much better than Wedding Bells in terms of how the jokes land. It’s faster. It doesn’t linger on the boring stuff.

There is one gag involving a helmet that went on a little too long. I think I checked my watch during that part. But then Charlie did this little dance and I was back in.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s a two-reeler that was made to make people laugh before the main feature started. But it has this weird charm that you don’t see anymore.

The ending is a bit rushed. They kind of just stop the movie once the quartet is back together. I wanted to see more of Antoinette’s reaction to the German guy joining the group.

Also, the sound quality is a bit fuzzy. It was 1930, so they were still figuring out how to record voices properly. Sometimes the singing gets a bit distorted and it sounds like they are underwater.

If you like Charley Chase, you’ll love it. If you’ve never seen him before, this is a good place to start. It shows off his physical comedy and his actual singing voice, which was pretty decent.

I liked the part where they use the rhythm of the gunfire to keep time. It’s a clever little bit of editing that I didn't expect from a movie this old.

Anyway, it’s short, it’s loud, and it’s very silly. 🎷