This is another good, solid entry from that master of the two-reel comedy short, Charley Chase. This one isn't the number-on best constructed comedy in the series, but it is pure good-mood-generating fun from start to finish, and that's good enough for me! It starts with some very funny scenes involving Charley trying fool a principled English ash-collector into taking his ashes late, then stumbling into a job as an "interior decorator" and overdressing for the paint-intensive work. It's classic Chase comedy of errors and embarrassment.
Billy Gilbert gets a larger role here and he makes a good impression as his German "Mr Schmaltz" persona. Gilbert was a perfect supporting player to enhance a short, but was always too hammy to have much success starring in one. He's got a fake Oliver Hardy-style moustache on here, and in the second reel he and Charley get to engage in the sort of deliberate, measured slapstick that Laurel and Hardy specialized in around the business of painting a table, and it works very well. Charley also doesn't resist throwing in his very good Billy Gilbert impression! Charley Chase's comedies -- the sound ones especially -- were always very musical, and "Luncheon at Twelve" is a good example, with the clever business of Charley's distracted painting matching the rhythm of the music from the other room. He also sings a very fun blackface-style song (supplied with white-lips makeup by a mishap with the paint), which provides the enjoyable if abrupt ending. This is a good one, lacking none of the infectious fun that the Charley Chase talkies are so memorable for.
