NATURE IN THE WRONG (1933)
Article 5341 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-10-2017
Directed by Charley Chase
Featuring Charley Chase, Muriel Evans, Carlton Griffin
Country: USA
What it is: Charley Chase short

In order to marry his beloved, Charley must prove he has blue blood in his veins, but when he contacts an ancestry company from Texas, he is told he is the descendant of Tarzan. Initially disappointed, he decides ultimately to emulate his ancestor.

The first half of this short sets up the situation; the second half has Charley dreaming he’s Tarzan in his jungle home. Actually, this short has probably more fantastic content than the average Tarzan movie; in his adventures, he encounters a talking lion and a talking gorilla (the always welcome Charley Gemora). It’s pretty silly, and it’s hardly Charley Chase at his best, but the short is fun in its goofy way. There’s a bit of pre-code humor with Charley swinging on a vine over a nudist camp, a few in-jokes (the Lion’s brother works for MGM), and some sequences are downright bizarre, such as the one in which Charley tries to get milk for the baby. Oddly enough, there’s one detail that the short misses. Being a descendant of Tarzan would make him a blue-blood; Tarzan was Lord Greystoke, after all.