Crazy Like a Fox
About Crazy Like a Fox
Two rich men mean to marry their children to each other. The children hate the plan. She runs. At the station she meets him, and they fall for each other without knowing who is whose child. Each sets out to wreck the parents’ match. Charley Chase, as Wilson, pretends to be insane to get out of the wedding, then finds the sweetheart is the bride. Oliver Hardy, uncredited, is one of Charley’s victims.
Cast & crew
More about Crazy Like a Fox
Leo McCarey directed. Charley Chase and H. M. Walker wrote it. Hal Roach produced. The release date on record is 22 August 1926. The English Wikipedia times it at 25 minutes. Wikidata says 21. Martha Sleeper is the girl. William V. Mong, Milla Davenport, William Blaisdell, and Max Asher are billed. Tiny Sandford, Lyle Tayo, and Al Hallett are also listed. The Academy Film Archive preserved it in 2006. Chase remade it at Columbia in 1937 as The Wrong Miss Wright.
Themes
Making
McCarey lets Chase play mad so the wedding will be called off, then uses the station meeting to make the same girl the person he was avoiding. Hardy is a victim of the act, not a second lead.
Music
Silent, with English intertitles.
Preservation
The Academy Film Archive preserved the short in 2006.
Notes
- Hardy’s bit was shot before he teamed with Stan Laurel.
- The insanity is a tactic. It is not the plot’s last fact. She is the arranged bride.
- The 1937 remake is a sound Columbia short, not a Hal Roach reissue.
- A Commons copy carries the 1926 title.
Scenes
- She bolts, and they meet at the station without names.
- Chase plays insane to kill the wedding.
- The girl he wants is the girl the parents picked.
Influenced
- The Wrong Miss Wright (1937)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Crazy like a Fox (1926).webm)
