Una Cana Al Aire

Series: Charley Chase

Director: James W. Horne

Producer: Hal Roach

Dialogue: H.M. Walker

Photography: Art Lloyd

Editor: Richard C. Currier

Sound: Elmer Raguse

Stars: Charley Chase, Carmen Guerrero, Enrique Acosta, Alfonso Pedroza

Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Released: 21 November 1930

Length: 5 reels

Production No.: C-34-S

Filming dates: August 21 - September 3, 1930

Rating: 4/10

Una Cana Al Aire

Available on DVD:

• See also Looser Than Loose

and Garde la Bombe

Alfonso Pedroza, Carmen Granada, Carmen Guerrero, Charley Chase and [unidentified] in Una Cana Al Aire (1930)

Carmen Guerrero is excited when her boyfriend Carlos (Charley Chase) shows up at her house, though her father is less enthusiastic. Carlos proposes to her with a very cheap ring to which she plays to the camera with such a wonderful facial expression of anger and disappointment. As the two are about to kiss Charley's boss phones (Charley's reaction is outrageously brave!) He tells Carlos that Señor Pedroza is in town and that Carlos has to show him a good time. Despite Carlos's efforts to disguise the fact he is being told to go out with a woman, Carmen catches on fast and berates Carlos over it before deciding she will join him.
They leave in a taxi and stop off to pick up Señorita Granada at her apartment. Carlos gives a loud whistle and is pelted from above with hundreds of room keys before she shows up and gets into the cab with him and Carmen. Their second stop is to pick up Señor Pedroza from his hotel before heading off to the nightclub. After fighting his way across the dancefloor, Carlos finds a vacant booth and sits down with Carmen, whilst Pedroza and the annoying Granada sit opposite them. Carmen continues to voice her displeasure to Carlos over the situation. Granada notices that Pedroza is wearing a wig and very loudly announces it to everyone, but the quick thinking Carlos manages to change the subject by recommending something from the menu. But not for long, as Granada makes a complete prat of herself by acting totally crazy and peeling the wig off before sprinkling salt all over Pedroza's jacket whilst laughing her head off.

The nightclub owner announces something to everybody which draws disappointment from the crowd but Pedroza suggests Carlos take to the stage to entertain the guests. Carlos and a girl (Dorothy Granger, no less) begin dancing to the band who play on the stage which gives Pedroza the chance to sit himself down next to Carmen, much to her annoyance. When Carlos resumes his seat he is sat down next to the annoying Granada. His girlfriend starts to flirt with Pedroza, which prompts Carlos to do the same with Granada. After a pinch of the cheek, a cuddle and finally a kiss, this show of spite ends in a draw. Pedroza mocks Carmen's ring to the point where he plonks his own, much more sparkling ring on her finger! It doesn't stay there for long as Pedroza removes it from her finger as the four of them get up to dance.
Carlos dances with Granada whilst Carmen dances with Pedroza. After a few minutes Pedroza takes Carmen into an empty booth. Carlos takes Granada into the adjacent booth where he hears whispering coming from the booth next to theirs. He wrongly assumes the whispers are coming from Carmen and Pedroza and starts getting angry; lighting a cigar and aggressively blowing his smoke into Granada's face. After a while Carlos throws his cigar away, which lands on a balloon. This pops and sets off a chain reaction causing everybody to scream and run out of the building. Carlos finally gets up and smashes a vase over the head of his rival before realising he has got the wrong man (Otto Fries taking over from Edgar Kennedy's role in the English-language version). Pedroza faints just as a cop comes in and takes the injured man away. Carmen realigns herself with Carlos and leaves with him, leaving Pedroza with the annoying Granada.

Charley Chase and Carmen Granada in Una Cana Al Aire (1930)

Carmen Granada and Charley Chase in Una Cana Al Aire (1930)

Favourite bit
When Charley blows his cigar smoke into Carmen Granada's face. Her reaction is brilliant.

Trivia
• Copyrighted November 10, 1930.
• This is the Spanish-language version of Looser Than Loose. Also filmed in French as Garde la Bombe.
• At twenty minutes longer than the English-language version, this version is padded out with extra scenes of Charley's boss at the office at the beginning making the telephone call; Charley standing outside Granada's apartment and being pelted with room keys (reminiscent of a similar scene from an earlier film, Innocent Husbands (1925); a scene with the two ladies in the back of the taxi talking to each other; Charley visiting Pedroza at his hotel before going to the nightclub.
• Carmen Granada does not fill that dress half as well as Dorothy Granger did in Looser Than Loose! Talking of Granger, she has a small role as the girl Charley dances with about halfway through the film.
• The woman with Otto Frties looks like it could be Linda Loredo (which would make sense) but I cannot be completely sure.

My opinion
• This is a desperate shadow of the English version, with Carmen Granada being utterly annoying from start to end. It's pretty much the same film but with less cleavage and much less enjoyable.

	Charley Chase Señor Carlos Chase
	Carmen Guerrero Daughter
	Carmen Granada Señorita Granada
	Alfonso Pedroza Señor Pedroza
	Enrique Acosta Carlos' boss
	Otto Fries Nightclub patron
	Dorothy Granger Nightclub dancer
	Baldwin Cooke Nightclub patron
	Silas Wilcox Nightclub patron [stock footage]