What Women Did For Me
	14 August 1927 Pathé Exchange silent short 2-reels

Director: James Parrott  Producer: Hal Roach  Dialogue: Reed Heustis Cinematography: Len Powers  Editor: Richard C. Currier  Supervising director: F. Richard Jones

AVAILABLE ON DVD

A college professor is discharged from an all-girls' finishing school for poor conduct with the girls.  His replacement is girl-shy Professor Chase, who is interviewed and approved by the new Dean.  The Dean's livewire daughter (Lupe Velez) informs the other girls of his arrival, which is awkward for poor Charley, who bolts for the door on account of his fear of women as soon as he sees them. When Chase finally takes charge of the class, he is driven to distraction by the suggestive behaviour of the girls showing their crossed legs and fluttering eyelashes.  He becomes increasingly frustrated and experiences a dream sequence in which he is overwhelmed by the intoxication of the girls.  The dream is broken when one of the girls (Viola Richard) claims to see a mouse.  Charley makes a quick exit and runs across the corridor into the art room where he hides behind a screen and a mannequin.  The Dean sees the Professor's plight and offers to let him stay in his mountain cabin for the weekend in order for him to overcome his fear of women. So Charley drives up into the mountains with a life-sized dummy woman.  With his arm around her in the front seat of the car, he pulls up to the snow-covered cabin.  Thinking he is safe from the company of females, another car full of women breaks down in the nearby vicinity.

The women holed up at Belt's Boat Cabin and telephone the Dean to ask his permission to spend the night there.  The Dean's wife (May Wallace) gives them the ok, but the daughter realises she must now warn Charley - who has made himself quite at home with his mannequin.  Charley is completely oblivious that ten strange women have entered the cabin and made themselves comfortable upstairs, whilst he continues to get 'acquainted' with his dummy. However, when he does realise their presence, he makes a run for it dressed only in a nightgown into the snow.  The women, armed with a shotgun, vow to go after him before he dies of exposure!  As night falls, the sound of a dog howling gives Charley the thought that wolves are nearby and so he legs it, barefoot in the snow pursued quickly by the chasing women who only want to protect him.  One of the girls catches up to him and in a comical moment clings to the back of his gown and is dragged along in the snow behind him before Charley ends up in a hole full of ice water.  He loses his gown and the girls run in the opposite direction. They all meet back at the cabin, where the girls pamper Charley and eventually make him feel better.  Monday morning back at the school and Charley has gained his confidence with the girls.  In walks the Dean's daughter and Charley invites his class to "meet his wife".  The girls all fall of their chairs in amazement.

Favourite bit Undecided.

Facts •Filmed March 14-29, 1927. •Partially re-made as Chase's first talking short, "The Big Squawk" (1929). •The cabin exteriors were shot in Riverside County, California. •The interiors of the cabin were also used in Chase's comedy, The Caretaker's Daughter (1925). •There are 29 intertitle cards. Did you notice? •The name of the girl's school is Montclair. •There are eighteen girls at the school, including Lupe Velez and Viola Richard. •The scenes in the classroom where the women show their legs above the knees was considered very risque for the era. •Charley names his dummy, "Mamie". •Ten women get stranded in the mountains and hold up at the cabin.

	Charley Chase Professor Charley
	Lupe Velez Nelly, the Dean's daughter
	Viola Richard Girl at school
	Al Hallett Belt's Boat Cabin proprietor
	Gale Henry The 'keyhole buzzard'
	Eric Mayne The Dean
	May Wallace The Dean's wife
	Clara Guiol Woman in the cabin
	Caryl Lincoln Woman in the cabin
	Broderick O'Farrell [?]
	Bob Gray [?]
	Broderick O'Farrell [?]
	Frank Whiteen [?]

UNIDENTIFIED Expelled Professor	UNIDENTIFIED Miss Rookie	UNIDENTIFIED Girl #4 in classroom
UNIDENTIFIED Girl #1 in classroom	UNIDENTIFIED Girl #2 in classroom	UNIDENTIFIED Girl #3 in classroom
	UNIDENTIFIED Women in the cabin	UNIDENTIFIED Women in the cabin

Acknowledgements: http://charleychase.50webs.com/movient23.htm (Yair Solan) †The two lobby cards are used by permission of Yair Solan (November 2, 2013) Smile When The Raindrops Fall by Brian Anthony & Andy Edmonds (book) Dave Stevenson (Looser Than Loose Publishing) Jesse Brisson (identification of Caryl Lincoln) This page was last updated on: 31 December 2022