"Life Hesitates at 40" showcases the brilliant comic timing and writing of Charley Chase. The photography and sound are ingeniously integrated into the plot(in an avant-garde manner)way beyond the standard for two-reel comedies of any period. The chemistry between Charley Chase and Joyce Compton makes for an enjoyable, quiet verbal parrying that is reminiscent of the banter found in screwball comedies that were just beginning when "Life Hesitates at 40" was filmed. Charley Chase (in this and other shorts) displays such a mastery of comic situation, dialogue, and slapstick that no one else in short subjects equalled. He could truly be called the "father of screwball comedy". Joyce Compton showed in "Life Hesitates at 40" that she could play a smart, charming, knowing comic heroine, a role she rarely got to play.
Review of Life Hesitates at 40
