Showing posts with label Dorothy Granger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dorothy Granger. Show all posts

Saturday, August 10, 2019

'Hips, Hips, Horray!' is worth a cheer

Hips, Hips, Horray! (1934)
Starring: Robert Woolsey, Bert Wheeler, Dorothy Lee, Thelma Todd, George Meeker, Phyllis Barry, and Dorothy Granger
Director: Mark Sandrich
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Small-time inventors of a flavored lipstick (Woolsey and Wheeler), on the hunt for love and money, con their way into a partnership with a large cosmetics firm, Maid in America.


"Hips, Hips, Horray!" is one of those early 1930s comedies full of a variety of sexual innuendos, scantily clad women, and jokes and gags that made the censorship boards of the day gasp with outrage, and which will make their 21st century spiritual successors shriek with horror. It's also a film that makes no pretenses about the fact that it's main purpose is to be entertaining and outrageous. It features only the thinnest of plots that, even though it's well-crafted enough to include all the elements of the Three Act structure, never really gives the viewer any doubt that every thing will work out find for our heroes and their love interests, the owner of Maid in America (Thelma Todd), whose firlm is being sabotaged from within, and her employee and confidant (Dorothy Lee, who was essentially was the third member of the W&W team).

Although, like I mentioned, this film's main purpose is to entertain and be outrageous, there's a little more going on here than just antics, as a good portion of the film is devoted to making fun of the chorus-girl filled song-and-dance numbers that were so typical in movies at the time.

The film opens with one such production number that is so over-the-top, and so filled with naked women, concealed only by bath bubbles or cosmetic products strategically placed in the camera shot, that even the most prudish of viewers (then and now) should be able to get a chuckle out of it. Later, in what is arguably the film's greatest sequence, where Wheeler & Lee and Woolsey & Todd, respectively declare their love and lust for each other through song (the catchy tune "Keep Doing What You're Doing") and then start doing a choreographed dance during which they trash an elegant office. The song is pretty standard fare for films of this period--even if, once again, the innuendo button is being mashed firmly and often--but the dance routine is a hilarious, small-scale send-up of those insanely elaborate Busby Berkeley production numbers.


In addition to the musical production number send-ups, "Hips, Hips, Horray!" features a cartoonish sequence where our heroes accidentally end up driving the car that's taking part in a cross-country race to promote Maid in America. It's bit jarring the way the movie suddenly shifts from being a fairly grounded satire confined to corporate offices to a zany racing comedy where cars can get swept up in tornadoes and Kansas and safely deposited in the Rocky Mountains, the material is funny enough... although it also cost the movie a Star on my Ratings System. Because the movie ends with a car race, Thelma Todd and Dorothy Lee are completely sidelined and given nothing worthwhile to do during this finale--which is a shame, because they already had very little to do in the picture. Given the slight plot in this film--which, as I mentioned, is mostly here to move us from gag to gag--it's almost a given that Todd has very little to do in the picture at all (and Lee only slightly more-so), because she put on an excellent show in her previous teaming with Wheeler and Woolsey, the more plot-driven "Cockeyed Cavaliers".

"Hips, Hips Horray!" is one of nine films included in the Wheeler and Woolsey: RKO Comedy Classics Collection.



Sunday, April 7, 2019

'The Pip from Pittsburg' deserves its reputation as a comedy classic

The Pip from Pittsburg (1931)
Starring: Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, Carleton Griffin, Dorothy Granger, and Kay Deslys
Director: James Parrott
Rating: Ten of Ten Stars

When Charley (Chase) thinks his buddy Griff (Griffn) is forcing him on another terrible blind date, he does everything he can to make himself unattractive--not shaving, dressing like a slob, and eating a fistful of garlic. When his date turns out to be the beautiful and charming Miss Todd (Todd), Charley tries to make himself presentable on the fly.



By the time "The Pip from Pittsburg" was made, Thelma Todd was about to be headlining her own series of comedies for Hal Roach, so this was the second-to-last film she'd make as Charley Chase's leading lady. However, the best was saved for last as his is unarguably the best picture they made together... and one of the best comedies either one of them appeared in.

The film hits the ground running with a gag within the first ten seconds and then keeps the laughs coming until Chase and Todd tumble from a balcony at a charity dance thrown into chaos. Like other great Chase comedies, this is a carefully orchestrated and tightly scripted affair. The pacing and comic timing are stop-on, with the plot setting up the gags, the gags unfolding with perfect precision while driving the story forward so the next gag can be set up.

All cast members give excellent performances. Unfortunately, the majority of the time Chase and Todd share the screen together is a comedic dance scene like "The Real McCoy" so we don't get any of that fantastic interplay between them that was in "Dollar Dizzy" and "Looser Than Loose". In fact, like in "The Real McCoy", Todd doesn't have much to do in this film except be pretty and charming, but since she excels at both of those, I can't complain too much. Further, the way Chase goes about cleaning up his appearance while a dance unfolds around him more than makes up for any nitpicking I feel inclined to do. Like the rest of the film, it's a multipart routine that's brilliantly and precisly executed. (It's such a well done and funny series of gags that I even forgive Chase's character for being something of an unpleasant jerk.)

"The Pip From Pittsburg" is genuine comedy classic, and it's one of the seventeen films included in the two-DVD set Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies 1930-1931. It's a must-see if you've enjoyed any comedies starring Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, and/or  Dorothy Granger. While Granger is still clearly learning the ropes at this point in her career, she does a nice job with a rather small part.



Thursday, March 21, 2019

'Looser Than Loose' has a timeless quality, plus Charley Chase and Thelma Todd at their best

Looser Than Loose (1930)
Starring: Charley Chase. Thelma Todd, Dorothy Granger, and Dell Henderson
Director: James W. Horne
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Charley's quiet evening with his fiancé (Todd) is interrupted when his boss calls and orders him to round up a couple of escorts and entertain the firm's biggest client (Henderson) with a night of drinking and dancing. Charley (Chase) lies about the nature of the entertainment he's supposed to line up, and his fiancé insists on joining him as his date. Things go from awkward to awful when the client likes Charley's fiancé better than the escort (Granger) and insists they swap dates.


"Looser Than Loose" is another film that shows how wonderful Charley Chase and Thelma Todd were together on-screen. As I've stated in previous reviews, they seem to bring out the best performances in each other, and where they each occasionally overwhelm other actors they share scenes with, they don't do so to each other. I haven't seen all of the Chase/Todd pairings, but so far, this is the best one. They play off each other brilliantly in their first scene together--Todd in particular seems to be in fine form, with her

The way Chase and Todd balance each other out on screen is shown prominently in "Looser Than Loose". Here, we see Chase and Todd interacting extensively with each other, and then with other performers--Chase with Dorothy Granger, and Todd with Dell Henderson. Henderson is mostly passive in the scenes he shares with Todd, so it's hard to gauge how well they might play off each other, but Granger is absolutely overwhelmed in her scenes with Chase. She's emoting and gesturing and generally being very active, but she doesn't have the sort of magnetic screen presence that Chase has, so he ends up crowding her out by just being his usual on-screen self. This never happens when he is performing with Todd.

As for the story and comedy action of the film, it's a fast-paced affair that sees Chase yet again poking fun at middle class societal standards and hypocrisies of the "Jazz Age"--standards which don't seem to have shifted all that much when it comes right down to it. The script for "Looser Than Loose" could be reshot with a modern spin with very few changes. (The stunt-laden, car-crash filled, chaotic scene of prohibition-era booze-lovers fleeing what they think is a police raid would need a different motivation, but other than that I don't think any other changes would be needed.)

In fact, it is this timeless quality to many of Charley Chase's comedies that has me increasingly viewing him as one of the most underrated comedians and story-tellers of the early talkies era. (Chase may not have written the dialogue for his films, nor been the official director, but he was, by all accounts, very much in control of the subject matter and the general thrust of the scenes and gags in his films.

"Looser Than Loose" is one of 17 Charley Chase-starring short films in included in the Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies 1930-1931, and he shares the screen with Thelma Todd in most of them.


Friday, March 8, 2019

'Dollar Dizzy' showcases the great chemistry of Charley Chase and Thelma Todd

Dollar Dizzy (1930)
Starring: Charley Chase, Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, and Dorothy Granger
Director: James W. Horne
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars


Two single millionaires (Chase and Todd) are booked into the same hotel suite by mistake. Each assumes the other is a gold digger trying to schmooze their way into getting access to their wealth, and each tries to throw the other out of the room. Meanwhile, a suspicious hotel detective (Finlayson) is complicating their situation even further by creeping around, looking through keyholes and peeping in windows.


"Dollar Dizzy" is another great pairing of Charley Chase and Thelma Todd. I have a couple issues with the script, but both stars give excellent performances, and I think this may be the earliest instance of Todd being a full-fledged co-star in a comedy while getting to use every arrow in her quiver. She shows impeccable timing while exchanging verbal jabs with Chase, shows her talent for physical comedy while running in and out of rooms and being tossed around by Chase... and she does it while looking absolutely gorgeous in a sheer Art Deco dressing gown.

Much of the appeal of this film grows from the on-screen chemistry of Chase and Todd. Todd is the only comedienne that I've seen who was Chase's equal in scenes; others who've enjoyed equally large parts as those played by Todd in Chase's films invariably end up seeming more like someone for him to play the scenes off rather than someone for him to play the scenes with. Chase and Todd play to each other's comedic strengths when appearing together, and thus they make each look better than they do when they are apart. (So far, the only person I've seem come close to matching Thelma Todd with Charley Chase is Lena Malena in "Thundering Tenors".)

While the scenes were Chase and Todd are fighting in the hotel suite are the highlights of the film, there are plenty of laughs up to that point, specifically those involving the three most aggressive gold-diggers trying to get their hooks into Chase. The only negative things I have to say about "Dollar Dizzy" is that its structure is a bit too straight-forward; it relies heavily on the tried and true Rule of Three over and over again, to the point where it become distracting. (Perhaps it's just distracting to writer types like me... but I can't recall any other time where I noticed the Rule of Three in effect to such a degree as I did here.) Also, the sequence where Chase and Todd struggle over a pistol, accidentally shooting the hotel detective twice and Chase once, put me in two minds. While the physical humor was great, and what was on display was cartoon violence where no one gets hurt, I am personally too sensitive to the sort of damage a gunshot can do to a human being that I felt the scene went on for too long... and that this one instance where the Rule of Three could have been dispensed with.

All in all, though, this is one of the best Charley Chase shorts I've seen yet. It's a shame he didn't get to work more with Thelma Todd, because this also ranks among the best performances I've seen from her yet. (But, things will only get better as the Year of the Hot Toddy continues, I'm sure!)

"Dollar Dizzy" is one of 17 short films starring Charlie Chase that are included in the two DVD set Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies 1930 - 1931. Many of them also feature or co-star Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, and other well-remembered regulars in Hal Roach productions.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

'Thundering Tenors' sees a party ruined

Thundering Tenors (1931)
Starring: Charley Chase, Lena Malena, Lillian Elliot, Dorothy Granger, Elizabeth Forrester, and Edward Dillon
Director: James W. Horne
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A socially inept radio star (Chase) causes chaos while trying to fit in at a high society dinner party hosted by his girlfriend's parents (Dillon and Elliot)


"Thundering Tenors" gets off to a slow start, but when it kicks into gear about five minutes in, it speeds ever-quicker down a path of growing craziness. The film is at its funniest and wildest when Chase gets into a running fight and wrestling match with a doctor played by Lena Malena in one of the biggest roles of her short career. She is called after Chase gets a fishbone stuck in his throat and the party's host calls for a doctor who lives nearby to come to his aid. The doctor, though, is a chiropractor who tries to use spinal and neck adjustments to get the bone loose, Chase doesn't appreciate her application of "medicine" and the hilarious fight mentioned above breaks out. (Interestingly, another Hal Roach-produced short released later the same year featured a similarly comic chiropractor--the inaugural teaming of Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts, "Let's Do Things". Either the screenwriter involved with both, H.M. Walker, found chiropractors and their "adjustments" funny, or chiropractic quackery was a common target of pop cultural mockery.)

The actors are all perfect in their parts, with Charley Chase being particularly charming and funny, with Lena Malena being hilariously physical in her fight with him. Unfortunately, those performances are undermined by inexplicable and unnecessary sound effects that someone must have thought were funny (like musical notes underscoring pratfalls, or the sound of tearing cloth as Chase undresses for "treatment" by the doctor); they don't ruin the movie, but they do make it less enjoyable. Another curious element of the film is that, despite the title, the presence of a band, and the fact that Chase is playing a supposedly famous singer, there isn't really a musical number in the film.


"Thundering Tenors" is one of 17 short films included in the two DVD set Charley Chase at Hal Roach: 1930 - 1931. It promises to be the first installment in a comprehensive collection of Chase's talkies.

Saturday, December 22, 2018

Christmas is Coming...

... and rather than hang the wreath here at Shades of Gray, Dorothy Granger decided to hang *with* the wreath.


Hopefully, you're having an easier time decorating your place than we're having around here!

Sunday, December 9, 2018

The first outing of a legendary comedy team

Let's Do Things (1931)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, George Byron, Jerry Mandy, Mary Kornman, Maurice Black, Charlie Hall, and Dorothy Granger
Director: Hal Roach
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Thelma and ZaSu (Todd and Pitts) go on a double-date with ZaSu's deadbeat boyfriend (Byron) and his boorish doctor friend from Boston (Mandy). The night goes from bad to worse when Thelma initiates a scheme to bring it to an early end, and ZaSu accidentally gets drunk on the doctor's homemade "medicine."


"Let's Do Things" was originally produced to be part of "The Boyfriends" series of comedy shorts, but it must have been immediately apparent to everyone involved that there was something special about the teaming of Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts, because this instead became the launch of a new series centered on them.

Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts are a working women who are friends and roommates away from the job. In an example of deft writing, their relationship is established with a few lines, even as their characters are delineated: They moved to the Big City with the idea of finding jobs that would lead them to snare wealthy and influential boyfriends. Todd is the more ambitious, organized, and clear-eyed of the two, while Pitts is a naive romantic who stumbles her way through life, both literally and metaphorically.

The characters that Pitts and Todd portray in this film (and the entire series) are obvious from their types... Pitts, a veteran comedienne who got her start in silent pictures, is the gawky, befuddled. socially inept of the pair; while Todd, a beauty contest winner turned actress, is the attractive, sharp-witted one. However, in an atypical move--and one that takes full advantage of both actresses talents, Todd isn't just the "straight man" for Pitts to play off, but is just as likely to be delivering jokes and otherwise clowning it as Pitts is. In fact, some of the funniest physical comedy in the film involves Todd getting the world's worst chiropractic adjustment, and her being tossed around the dance floor like a ragdoll... before turning the proverbial tables on her dance partner and sending him flying.

As funny and well-written the material performed by Pitts and Todd is, the humor is augmented by the fact that the boyfriend characters are not bland cyphers (as often seems to be the case in films from this period) but are instead almost as complete characters as Thelma and ZaSu which makes the gags even funnier. It also doesn't hurt that both are played by veteran comedians, George Byron and Jerry Mandy.


"Let's Do Things" is included in a two-DVD set that contains all the short films that Pitts and Todd made together. If they're all as much fun as this one, it's going to be great pleasure watching and reviewing them.

Monday, November 5, 2018

A case of murder most funny!

The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930)
Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Fred Kelsey, Frank Austin, Dell Henderson, Bobby Burns, and Dorothy Granger
Director: James Parrott
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

When Ollie (Hardy) concocts a scheme to pass Stan (Laurel) off as the to a recently deceased millionaire, the two find themselves trapped in a creepy house with a killer and incompetent cops.


During the silent movie era and well into the 1940s, the "dark old house" sub-genre was very popular, both in straight-up mystery and horror films, and as the target of lampooning. With "The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case", the popular comedy team got their piece of that action.

The result is a mixed bag. The film features spot-on satirical takes on the genre's standards--stormy weather, creepy servants, overly complicated murder methods, and "big reveals" that don't make much sense and often have no foundation in the story--but the various set-piece gags mostly meander and peter out instead of coming to a comedic crescendo. What's worse, the film comes to one of the lamest endings I have come across.

Laurel & Hardy are excellent as usual. The strongest part of the film is its opening scene where they are sitting on a pier, Hardy taking a nap and Laurel doing a little fishing. It's also the most traditional "Laurel & Hardy"-esque part of the film. The bits where they arrive at the house in the rain, and later when they are chased by a "ghost" are also highlights of the film, but everything else is a little shaky. Nothing in this film is all that bad, but I feel that part of the problem is that the underlying plot was too big for its 30-minute runtime. I think, ultimately, the filmmakers felt the same way, which accounts for the fizzling gags, scant story (there's a gathering of heirs but hardly anything is done with them), and an abrupt and awful ending. I usually complain about films being too long, but this one could have benefitted from an additional 10 minutes spent on Laurel & Hardy interacting with the greedy family members and the creepy servants.

In the final analysis, "The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case" is worth checking out if you LOVE Laurel & Hardy or the "dark old house"-type movies. More casual fans of either can find far better instances of either to check out. That said, if you're an Amazon Prime member, you can watch it for free as part of your subscription package, and others can rent it (and two other Laurel & Hardy films) for a very reasonable price.


Saturday, November 3, 2018

Ending a series on a low note

Wig-Wag (1935)
Starring: Dorothy Granger, Jack Mulhall, Grady Sutton, Jane Darwell, and Carol Tevis
Director: Sam White
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

After his fiance (Granger) breaks their engagement just before the wedding, Jack (Mulhall) decides to win her back by making her jealous. To do this, he convinces his friend Grady (Sutton) to dress up like a woman and pretend to be his new bride.


Aside from the very first installment, this is the weakest entry in the "The Blonde and the Redhead" series. It's almost as if the series came full circle, but in the worst possible way.

The problem with "Wig-Wag" is that it wants to rely on slapstick humor, but what it offers in that department is executed without energy and in a very feeble fashion. I don't know if it was under-rehearsed or ad-libbed on the set, but the performers weren't leaning into it. Nor was the production department for that matter; sometimes, slapstick is made funnier with exaggeration through sound effects... but that wasn't done here.

The filmmakers would have done viewers a service if they'd focused more on dialogue and characters here. I suppose they did as much with homosexuality and gender roles as they could in the 1930s, but the scenes where the cross-dressing Grady is in "danger" are the most amusing, especially the awkward kissing scenes. These scenes also contain the only truly funny lines in the film, with the "She's the biggest thing to come into my life" being prime among them. (And Sutton is BIG in this picture, given they put an already tall man in heels.)

As for the actors, they seem to be giving it their best, considering what they're working with. Jack Mullhall and Dorothy Grangers are the stars here, with Grady Sutton supporting them nicely; he is mostly serves as the straight man, which is an odd phrase to say about a hulking cross-dresser. Carol Tevis' role is the smallest she's had in any of the episodes, whether it be screen-time or role in the plot. She could have been left out entirely, and it wouldn't have made a difference.

"Wig-Wag" is the fourth and final short included on the second DVD collection of these RKO short films. It's the most risque of them humor-wise, but, as mentioned, it's also one of the worst when it comes to execution. Still, this is a collection worth checking out, as it also contains two of the best entries in the series, "Bridal Bail" and "Contented Calves".

Monday, September 24, 2018

The 'Ocean Swells' bring laughter

Ocean Swells (1934)
Starring: Zeffie Tilbury, Dorothy Granger, Carol Tevis, Grady Sutton, Cully Richards, Landers Stevens, and Edgar Dearing
Director: George Stevens
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

While on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation on Catalina Island, three laundry workers (Granger, Tevis, and Tilbury) pose as high society ladies. When the two younger ones meet a pair of handsome rich men (Richards and Sutton), and are mistaken for relatives of a wealthy yacht owner, the women decide to take full advantage of the situation. Unfortunately for them, the wealthy young men are also just posing...


The sixth installment in RKO's "The Blonde and the Redhead" non-series series (a "non-series" in the sense that while the same core performers are featured in most of them, they are playing different characters in each film) is different from previous ones in a couple different ways. First, June Brewster has been replaced as the Redhead by Dorothy Granger. This change is hardly noticeable, except Granger's comedic timing is better than Brewster's (which could go a long way to explaining why Granger's career continued into the 1950s and Brewster's was essentially over at this point). Secondly, the actual lead here is Zeffie Tilbury, both in the sense that she's the instigator of plot complications as well as portraying the character with the most lines and screen time. Usually, its some lie or clever idea from one of the "girls" that gets them in trouble. It's only fair that Tilbury should get to take center stage in this film--she had been performing on stage and in films for 20 years when this film was made--but it's still an unusual move, given the formula of the series.

"Ocean Swells" is a comedy of errors and it's very amusing even while being absolutely predictable. From the moment "Auntie" (Tilbury) promises that she's going to hook her young friends (Dorothy Granger and Carol Tevis) up with rich men, viewers have a sense of where this film is going to end up. As is often the case in the "The Blonde and the Redhead" series, the stakes keep getting higher and the situation gets more and more complicated as the film unfolds, and so the viewers continued attention is assured to be held.

The film's funniest moment come during the "seduction" scene between Tevis and Grady Sutton; it plays with the height difference between the two actors--with Tevis barely clearing 5' and Sutton being over 6' tall and Sutton playing his typical romantically challenged character. That one scene is worth a whole Star in my rating, by itself.

Friday, June 15, 2018

Have a fun time with 'The Dancing Millionaire'

The Dancing Millionaire (1934)
Starring: Dorothy Granger, Carol Tevis, Grady Sutton, Tom Kennedy, and Jack Mulhall
Director: Sam White
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

When her wrestler boyfriend (Kennedy) is arrested after a road-rage incident, Dorothy (Granger) decides to trade up to a rich man (Sutton) she meets at her job as a taxi-dancer. Things get complicated when the ex (who doesn't know he's an ex) gets out of jail and shows up at the restaurant where Dorothy is on a date with her new man.


"The Dancing Millionaire" is the most 'mature' of this allegedly risque series of pre-Hayes Code comedy shorts that I've watched so far, at least as far as the jokes and the character motivations go, as as Granger's character's main interest in men being what's in their wallets rather than their heart or personality. Some of the slapstick is a bit on the lame side, but the non-stop pace of this film makes that excusable. What is slightly more annoying is that Dorothy Granger appears to be doing the "high-pitched dumb chick voice" like Carol Tevis always does... and both of them doing that is a bit much. Still, this is a fun film... and a funny twist at the very end.

You can find "The Dancing Millionaire" with several other entries in the "Blondes and Redheads" series on DVD. I recommend picking it up. Some are better than others, but they all have something worthwhile about them.



Trivia: Almost everywhere you look on the Internet--including at IMD--the summary of this film is wrong. They even get it wrong on the back cover of the DVD I link to above. Just about everyone seems to think "The Dancing Millionaire" can be summarized as follows: "A thuggish gangster, trying to prove that he's "sophisticated", gets the girls to help him to win a local dancing competition."... But there is neither a thuggish gangster, nor a dancing competition anywhere in the film.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

'Thru Thicket and Thin' is a nutty send-up of jungle pictures

Thru Thin and Thicket, or Who's Zoo in the Jungle (1933)
Starring: Eddie Borden, Dorothy Granger, and James Finlayson
Director: Mark Sandrich
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A booze-happy reporter (Borden) and an unscrupulous African explorer (Finlayson) compete for the attention of Tarkana, Queen of the Jungle (Granger).


"Thru Thin and Thicket, or Who's Zoo in the Jungle" is a fabulous send-up of the jungle explorer genre of adventure films. From the first mocking of the liberal use of stock nature footage in such pictures, through the final scene of "jungle domestic bliss", this film offers some 20 minutes of absurdist humor with barely a break between gags to let the viewers catch their breath from laughing.

Eddie Borden and James Finlayson (the latter of whom I recognized from his many parts as the frustrated man caught up in Laurel & Hardy antics) are great fun as the smarmy would-be beneficiaries of Tarkana's Innocent Affections... and Dorothy Granger is hilarious as the not-so-innocent wild woman. Everything you expect in a jungle picture is either turned on its head or savagely mocked (or both) in this brief film, including the portrayal of the natives. (And I can't even comment on one of the film's funniest and most startling gags, because even mentioning it will ruin its impact.)

"Thru Thin and Thicket" is one of 13 short films that were produced by members and starred members of the Masquers Club, a private social club for comedians as fund-raising vehicles for charity and to fund a new meeting place in the early 1930s. Several of them are available on DVD, or can be viewed for free online.



And while I'm at it, here are some publicity stills of Dorothy Granger as Tarkana. (The weird contraption she's sitting next to in one is a "radio" that is playing music in a scene.)