Review of April Fool

April Fool (1920)
7/10
Delightful outing from a forgotten star.
2 April 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Charlie Chaplin? No, Charley Chase. He was apparently pretty popular during the silent era, yet almost no one remembers him now.

I discovered him on TCM's Silent Sunday Nights and was happily engaged. Like Chaplin, Chase directed himself here. There was good use of camera angles and editing, setting a solid pace. It was pretty sophisticated for what I believe was an independent film-maker only five years after DW Griffith's pioneering techniques in The Birth Of A Nation (1915).

The story itself is funny. Not multi-layered clever like many of the classics from Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd but still with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.

Check it out if you get a chance! It's a good look at a forgotten star.
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