Biography
Already boasting experience as a prizefighter, vaudevillian, and legitimate stage entertainer, 29-year-old Chuck Reisner inaugurated his screen career as a comic and gag writer at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studio. At First National from 1918 through 1923, Reisner was a close associate of
Charlie Chaplin, laboring as an assistant director and supporting player in such Chaplin films as
The Kid (1921) and
The Pilgrim (1923). Reisner's first feature film directorial credit was
The Man in the Box (1925), starring Chaplin's brother,
Sydney Chaplin. An A-to-Z comedy specialist, Reisner directed such top laughgetters as
Buster Keaton in Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928), Laurel and Hardy in
Hollywood Revue of 1929,
Jack Benny in
It's in the Air (1935),
Ed Wynn in
The Chief (1933), the Marx Brothers in
The Big Store (1941), and Abbott and Costello in
Lost in a Harem (1944). He was also principal director for MGM's popular
Marie Dressler/
Polly Moran vehicles of the early '30s. Reisner's last theatrical feature was the
Joan Davis slapstickfest The Travelling Saleswoman (1950); thereafter, he concentrated on television work. Charles Reisner was the father of actor/writer/director Dean Reisner, who was active at his father's "home" studio of MGM in the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide