Photos
Harry Bernard
- Cop
- (uncredited)
Harry Bowen
- First Taxi Driver
- (uncredited)
Don Brodie
- Poker Player with Newspaper
- (uncredited)
Baldwin Cooke
- Poker Player
- (uncredited)
Lester Dorr
- Nightclub Dancer
- (uncredited)
Mildred Gover
- Hattie, the Maid
- (uncredited)
Carlton Griffin
- Headwaiter
- (uncredited)
Charlie Hall
- Waiter
- (uncredited)
Jerry Mandy
- Professor Bing
- (uncredited)
James C. Morton
- Second Taxi Driver
- (uncredited)
Jack Raymond
- Poker Player
- (uncredited)
Ben Taggart
- Maitre d'
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- SoundtracksI'm in the Dog House
(uncredited)
Music by Marvin Hatley
Lyrics by Charley Chase
Performed by Charley Chase
Featured review
Does not leave you feeling very sleepy...
"Poker at Eight" is real vintage Charley Chase. In this short from his series at Hal Roch studios the comedian manages to make a witty, complicated farce of sorts fit comfortably into two reels. One of his specialties was taking an outlandish premise and elaborating his day-to-day consequences to make hilarious social comedy. Here he's a husband who's normally under his wife's thumb but who thinks he's developed the ability to hypnotize people. It turns out his wife only pretends to be hypnotized into being a "good fellow" and makes him jealous, seeming to head out for a night on the town while he makes the titular poker game.
The gag construction and plot twists are very funny here -- my favorite moment involving Charley having to carry a zither around with him for no good reason. Constance Bergen does a very good job as Charley's wife; she seems to have appeared in little more than a couple of other Chase shorts and a few smaller roles in Westerns, but here she's very funny making the transition between stern housewife and stern housewife-pretending-to-be-good-time-girl.
This a good example of the kind of sophisticated comedy Charley Chase could produce while still engaging in the kind of visual humor that has him hiding from police officers in a bright raincoat on a clear night. It's also a very funny watch.
The gag construction and plot twists are very funny here -- my favorite moment involving Charley having to carry a zither around with him for no good reason. Constance Bergen does a very good job as Charley's wife; she seems to have appeared in little more than a couple of other Chase shorts and a few smaller roles in Westerns, but here she's very funny making the transition between stern housewife and stern housewife-pretending-to-be-good-time-girl.
This a good example of the kind of sophisticated comedy Charley Chase could produce while still engaging in the kind of visual humor that has him hiding from police officers in a bright raincoat on a clear night. It's also a very funny watch.
helpful•20
- hte-trasme
- Oct 28, 2009
Details
- Runtime19 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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