Thelma is a Bombshell for the Defense

Sneak Easily (1932)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, James C. Morton, Bobby Burns, and Billy Gilbert
Director: Gus Meins
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Attorney Thelma Tood (Todd) is defending a mad scientist (Burns) who has been accused of murdering is wife when juror ZaSu (Pitts) accidentally swallows a piece of evidence--which just happens to be a sample of the time-released high explosive of the madman's creation. Will ZaSu develop a case of terminal indigestion, or will the Thelma and the rest of the officers of the court find a way to save her before it's too late?

When I read a logline for this film--"Juror Zasu accidentally swallows a piece of evidence which just happens to be a time bomb."--it moved to the top of the list of things to watch. However, while amusing, this outing for these great comediennes is deeply flawed in several ways, almost all of them originating with the script.

The problems start almost immediately. Three minutes in, I felt like I had missed the beginning of the film, because so many questions are raised by the way Thelma Todd's attorney character is introduced. She is clearly an inexperienced attorney trying to inflate her image, but why? And how did she end up defending the mad scientist? Perhaps her apparent inexperience with court procedures is an indication that she isn't an attorney at all but is some sort of fraud? The sense of having missed out on a chunk of the story only deepened when an exchange between ZaSu makes comments to Thelma that not only establishes that they are closely acquainted but that they may even be roommates like they are in other entries in the series; how could ZaSu be on the jury in a murder trial if she has close ties to the defense attorney? It makes sense if Thelma is some sort of fraud and somehow managed to get ZaSu on the jury as a "ringer"... but, again, that means there's a chunk of story missing. I don't mind joining a story in progress when it comes to short films like these, but I do mind when it feels like I came in late.

Another problem is a bizarre repeat of footage during a high-speed driving sequence when ZaSu is being rushed to hopeful salvation in an ambulence. I thought maybe the DVD had skipped, but, no. For whatever reason, the filmmakers decided to insert the same few seconds of external footage of cars on a road twice in the same sequence, with only a short scene of the actors mugging it up in the ambulance in between. It's unncessarily distracting and looks sloppy and cheap. If it was done for comedy, I'm missing the joke.

Despite the flawed beginning, once ZaSu swallows the trial evidence, the film is utterly hilarious and top-notch. While Todd doesn't get to show off her flair for physical comedy, Pitts gets to do plenty of pratfalls. In fact, it many ways, Todd serves as the eye of a storm of craziness, as she is the only actor who isn't hamming it up... at least not until the explosive prelude to the film's twist ending.
"Sneak Easily" is one of 17 short films included on the two-DVD set containing

Picture Perfect Wednesday: Thelma Todd

I was recently going through my pile of "To Be Watched & Reviewed" DVDs, and I noticed that the majority of them feature Thelma Todd. I didn't plan it this way, but appears that 2019 will be the Year of the Hot Toddy. (I'll add a "Thelma Todd Quarterly" to the line-up--with her joining Bessie Love and Milla Jovovich in rotation--to make it even more so!)

In addition to regular appearances by Thelma Todd, I am hoping and planning for 2019 to bring many more reviews of movies and comics, as well as a healthy dose of photos and art and the occasional music video and randomness.

I hope you all will join me on the other side!

Merry Christmas!

I hope all those who have visited 'Shades of Gray' for the reviews, pictures, and music videos over the past ten years are enjoying the company of friends, family, and other people who care about them. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you'll be back in the future!

'Horse Feathers' is high-quality nonsense

With the college football season coming to an end for 2018, it seemed like the perfect time to rewatch one of my favorite Marx Brothers films with an eye toward reviewing it for Shades of Gray. And it was.

Horse Feathers (1932)
Starring: The Marx Brothers, Thelma Todd, Nat Pendleton, and James Pierce
Director: Norman McLeod
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A crazy university president (Groucho Marx) tries to rig the Big Football Game against a rival school... with disastrous results.

"Horse Feathers" is one of the greatest movies the Marx Brothers ever made. It is an almost non-stop barrage of wild comedy--both visual, physical, and spoken--that is book-ended by my most favorite Marx Brothers song and dance routine--"Whatever It Is, I'm Against It"--and the craziest football spoof ever committed to film. Every joke and gag comes off perfectly, and the Marx Brothers are all top form, even the straight-man of the group, Zeppo, shines as a college football star and son of the university's president.

The stellar performances from the Marx Brothers are ably supported by equally great showings from Nat Pendleton (who appears as a football player) and Thelma Todd (who proves here that she will forever be one of the sexiest commedienes in history; films like this really show what a great loss to the world her tragic and premature death  was). Todds comedic timing is absolutely perfect throughout this film, as she vamps it up as a campus man-eater and femme fatale with the scenes she shares with Chico and Groucho being among the film's brightest highlights.

There is really only one part of the film that doesn't click is the musical number performed by Harpo in an attemtp to woo Thelma Todd's character. It goes on for too long and it brings the movie to a screeching halt for over three minutes. Yes, "Everyone Says I Love You" is a nice tune and Harpo plays beautifully, but the segment is out of place... and Zeppo and Groucho's respective uses of the verses of the same song in serenading Todd don't interrupt the flow of this zany movie. (In fact, Groucho's performance and its aftermath cranks it up a notch.)

There are few films I have watched more than once--there are simply too many movies in the world--but I am glad that I now number "Horse Feathers" among them. This second viewing was time well spent.

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.

Lions and Bulls and Woman Drivers, oh my!

The Old Bull (1932)
Starring: Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, and Otto Fries
Director: George Marshall
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Thelma (Todd) is helping her friend ZaSu (Pitts) learn how to drive on a country back road. After ZaSu crashes into a barn, the ladies are stranded in farm country when the angry farmer (Fries) refuses to let them have their car back until they pay for the damage. When the news reports that a lion has escaped from a nearby circus, Thelma cooks up a plan to retrieve the car.

From 1931 through 1933, Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts co-starred in 17 short films from the same production company that brought us the team of Laurel & Hardy. In fact, Todd & Pitts are very much like a female version of Laurel & Hardy, with Todd being the "brains" and Pitts being the " simple, clumsy one"... although there is none of the abuse and venom between the two ladies that so often creeps into the interactions between the two gentlemen.

"The Old Bull" was the ninth film in the series, and it goes straight into the comedy with the barest of introductions of the two main characters, because I assume the filmmakers felt that viewers were familiar with Todd and Pitts's respective characters at this point. Even for viewers who weren't, once Pitts' foot gets twisted and stuck on the gas pedal, sending the car accelerating out of control, it's crystal clear who's who in the comedic line-up.

And for the whole 19-minute run-time of the film, Todd excels as a "straight man" to Pitts' goofiness and pratfalls (although Todd also gets the opportunity to do some gags of her own). The bits revolving around animals--primarily the duck that torments ZaSu on and off, and the lion that you know would eventually show up to make Thelma's stage hoax a reality--are top-notch, and they will have you laughing out loud more than once. Pitts and Todd both have perfect comedic timing, and they play well off each other.

Unfortunately, they are let down by the director and the script. The car crash sequence--where the ladies are zooming around a barnyard in the out-of-control car thanks to ZaSu's stuck foot--goes on too long. Individual moments in the sequence are hilarious, but the spans between them are each many seconds too long, making something that only lasts about a minute and half feel much longer. The sequence would have been stronger if we'd been spared some of the rear projection scenes of the ladies flailing in the car (although maybe 1932 audiences had a different reaction than a viewer in 2018 who is used to car chases and crashes enhanced with digital effects). As for the script, the film just sort of stops. While I can see the ending is a resolution of sorts, it still felt lacking, and I was left wanting more.

"The Old Bull" is one of the 17 film contained in the two DVD set Thelma Todd & ZaSu Pitts: The Hal Roach Collection 1931-1932. I will eventually review each film in the set here at Shades of Gray. (I started in the middle, because I accidentally put Disc Two in the DVD player and was too lazy to get up and change it.)