It's a Cinch (1932)
Starring: Monte Collins, Phyllis Crane, Tom O'Brien, and Richard Powell
Director: William B. Goodrich (aka Roscoe Arbuckle)
Rating: Five of Ten Stars
When a dance instructor (Collins) is tricked into facing a prize fighter (O'Brien) in the boxing ring, his girlfriend (Crane) devises a plan to turn the odds in his favor.
"It's a Cinch" is a mildly amusing short film with a fast-moving story performed by a pleasant but unremarkable cast. They are, sadly, made even more unremarkable by the degraded state of the of the film the DVD transfer was made from. The sound quality is okay, but the picture is so washed out and blurry that I couldn't even capture a good image with which to illustrate this review. (Hence, the use of a head shot of actress Phyllis Crane.)
"It's a Cinch" is perhaps of greatest interest to modern viewers because it is the last film directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. In 1921, he had been accused of rape by a woman who died before an investigation of her charges could even be properly begun, the prosecutor decided to link the two events and Arbuckle was tried for murder.
Although he was ultimately and emphatically found not guilty by a jury (so emphatically, in fact, that the jury felt obligated to issue a letter of apology to him with their verdict), Arbuckle's career was in ruins, because he had already been tried and convicted in the media. He could no longer get work as an actor, but he turned to directing under the pseudonym William B. Good. By the time work wrapped on "It's a Cinch", however, the murder trial was far enough in the past that Arbuckle's acting career began to revive and he stepped back in front of the camera.
Why am I rattling on about Roscoe Arbuckle? Because the only gripe I have about this picture leaves me wondering about the choices he made as a director.
"It's a Cinch" opens with a scene at the dance academy where the main character is an instructor that consists mostly of lingering shots of the dancers' chests and legs. Now, I don't usually have issues with cheesecake (as there is plenty of evidence for
here and
here), but those shots made me feel awkward, almost embarrassed, to be watching. What's more, these shots were completely out of tone with everything else that followed in the picture. In the final analysis, that opening scene almost made me knock the film down to a Four Out of Ten Star rating, but since the film was fun enough otherwise I held it to a low average rating. (I just wish I could figure out why someone thought that opening scene was a good idea... especially from a director who'd been accused of rape and who's pseudonym was Will B. Good. And my initial reaction wasn't even colored by that; it wasn't until I was starting this review that it registered who had directed the film.)
"It's a Cinch" is one of six short comedies included in the "Ultra-Rare Pre-Code Comedies Vol. 4" collection. The degraded quality of the original from which it was transferred is about the same as the others in the set--most have decent sound but awful picture--but this is a case where you get what you pay for. (Near as I can tell, this disc is also the first time these films have been available to the public for a long time.)
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