Abbott & Costello are great in an otherwise mediocre movie

In Society (aka "Abbott & Costello In Society") (1944)

Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marion Hutton, Kirby Grant, and Ann Gillis

Director: Jean Yarbrough and Earl C. Kenton

Rating: Five of Ten Stars

A series of mistakes and bad assumptions lead to a female cab driver (Hutton) and her incompetent plumber friends (Abbott and Costello) to be drawn into the social machinations of high society, as well as an art heist.

"In Society" is one of the weaker Abbott & Costello films. It's main problem is an unevenness of tone and energy. When it's Abbott & Costello are being mischievous and/or destroying property, the film is lively and full of energy. When the rest of the cast are off in other scenes setting up the plot or moving it forward, things are stilted, overly stagy, and borderline dull. It doesn't help matters that the obligatory songs in the film are performed by Marion Hutton--a pretty lady but a so-so singer and an awful actress. Her film career consisted of just four entires, and this was her only starring role... and judging from her performances in this film, it's no surprise why what is.

Another aspect of "In Society" that bothered me is that Abbott & Costello's standard characters have been ramped up to the point where Abbott is so vicious toward Costello that I had a very strong dislike for him, a dislike that was intensified by the fact that Costello was so dim and childlike in the way he played that he came across as simpleminded or even retarded, which made Abbott's behavior seem even more reprehensible. I had a similar reaction to Abbott's character in "Hold That Ghost", but it was more intense here. 

For all I didn't like about the film, I loved the four major comedic set-pieces that A&C have in the film--and they got a full star in my rating by themselves--the bit where Costello sets up work for their plumbing company; the bit where he argues with a police officer about honking a car-horn at night; the bit where they destroy the bathroom in a mansion; Costello trying to get directions from people on a city street; the pair disrupting a gathering of snooty rich people; and the climactic scene where they are chasing thieves on a fire truck are them at the top of their game (even if I think that chase scene relies a bit too much on stock footage).

"In Society" is nowhere near the best Abbott & Costello film, so you can save it until you've watched the others included in eight-movie collection The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume 2.

When grifters and con artists collide!

Are Crooks Dishonest? (1918)
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Harry Pollard, Bebe Daniels, and William Blaisdell
Director: Gil Pratt
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Two grifters (Lloyd and Pollard) engage a pair of fake spiritualists (Blaisedell and Daniels) in a battle of wits. Unfortunately, the grifters came to the fight unarmed.

"Are Crooks Dishonest?" is a fast-paced and uncomplicated film with the characters breezing through the antics and action with barely a wasted moment. A small part of me is annoyed by the way the second (and best) half of the film is set up by a couple extreme conincidences, but the entire cast is so charming and the film so much fun that I can overlook it. 

The best parts of this 14-minute film take place in the secret-passage laden, gadget-festooned "mystic temple" of Professor Goulash where William Blaisedell and Bebe Daniels bilk the gullible with their fake spiritualism, and where Lloyd and Pollard try co-opt their scam. From Lloyd using the trick doors to evade the police and an angry Professor Goulash; to Daniels setting out to turn the tables on Lloyd and Pollard when they try to con her out of money she stole from them earlier in the film; to Lloyd and Pollard just generally clowning around, it's all expertely executed and extremely funny.

Pollard and Daniels in particular get to shine in this film, as they share one of the funniest moments in it. Daniels is an absolute joy to watch in this film, and it's great the way her character is also the most fun of the four leads in the story. (Her reactions to the clumsy cons of Lloyd and Pollard are priceless.)

This entire film is embedded via YouTube below, and I strongly recommend you check it out. The time you spend with the rogues "Are Crooks Dishonest?" may be the best quarter-of-an-hour of you day! Even better, either the film has been carefully restored, or this was digitized from an amazingly well preserved copy, because few films over 100 years old are as clear and crisp as this one. (The look of the intertitles make me think it's the latter.)

'Cockeyed Cavaliers' has hits and misses

Cockeyed Cavaliers (1934)
Starring: Robert Woolsey, Bert Wheeler, Dorothy Lee, Thelma Todd, Noah Beery, and Robert Greig
Director: Mark Sandrich
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A pair of wandering rogues (Woolsey and Wheeler) pass themselves off as physicians from the King's Court and insinuate themselves into the household of the local lord (Greig). In between hitting on his sister (Todd) and trying to help a young woman who has disguised herself as a boy (Lee) in order to avoid a forced marriage to the lord, they are constantly struggling to avoid giving themselves away by being too stupid.

"Cockeyed Cavaliers" is a movie of highs and lows. When it is funny, it is very funny. When the jokes fail to land, they crash and leave big craters.

I can't decide if it's the style of the performances in the film, or the material that gets in the way when the movie starts sliding in the direction of crappy, so it may be a combination of both. And there's one area where the costume designers and make-up artists didn't go quite far enough to make an aspect of the film convincing.

First, let's start with the script, the songs, and the jokes.

Story-wise, the script is solid, nicely paced, and consisting of several intertwining plots that provide our heroes with plenty of challenges to overcome--including their own stupidity. The romantic subplot between Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee's characters--which starts when everyone believes Lee to be a boy--is interesting and ultimately leads straight into the film's conclusion and resolution of all the various problems; and the danger posed by Robert Woolsey's inability to not be randy around the wife of the very jealous and very violent baron (Thelma Todd and Noah Beery respectively) give rise to an equal amount of comedy and tension. The pieces are all very well arranged to maximize both the comedic and dramatic value of the plot elements and the characters in them.

Unfortunately, two out of the film's three major musical numbers aren't all that great. In fact, the song that opens the movie--performed by gossiping villagers and setting up a few major plot points--was so lame that if I wasn't watching this movie as part of the "Year of the Hot Toddy" project, I might have found something else to do with my time. The second song ("The Big Bad Wolf is Dead"), performed by our heroes, the films kinda-sorta villain, and the staff and guests at an inn, is better, but it goes on for entirely too long and the parts that are supposed to be funny mostly fail to launch or fail and crash. The third and final song ("Dilly Dally")--a combination song and dance number performed by Wheeler & Lee and Woolsey & Todd, in pars and together as a group--is, however, extremely entertaining on every level. It's well worth the wait. In some ways, this song even reflects the trajectory of the movie; it starts shaky, but firms up at about the halfway point, and really delivers during the third act. (This is of course better than the opposite.)

Despite the film getting better as it goes, the comedy remains uneven. It is not until we reach the climax--with a high society party, a wild boar hunt, and an even wilder chase scene--that every joke and physical comedy bit comes off well. Up to that point, some of the comedy routines fall flat because the jokes are weak and delivery feels like Wheeler and Woolsey (or whoever their "straight man" is) are performing a routine on stage. While other similar comedians--like the Marx Brothers and, later, Abbott & Costello, were literally taking routines perfected on stage and porting them into films, when watching them, I rarely have the feeling that a waiter is about to lean in and ask for my drink order the way I felt with nearly ever bit in this film. In fact, the scenes that worked the best were the ones where the comedy arose from the situation as much as it did from the back and forth between characters. For example, every scene Woolsey shares with Todd varies from chuckle-worthy to laugh-out-loud funny, especially when the action is revolving around Todd's cleavage.

In fact, I think the only thing that ruined this film for me more than the nightclub-style delivery of many of the jokes was the fact that I simple could not buy Dorothy Lee as a boy. Sure, she was in man's clothing, but the characters would have to be both blind and stupid to not recognize that she was female. This is a shame, because there are some funny jokes tied to the cross-dressing element which would have been even funnier if more of an effort had gone into making it work. I mean, would it really have been that hard to give Lee a hairstyle more in keeping with what her character was pretending to me? Or perhaps putting her in a shirt and vest that were even looser and a little longer?

There are so many things I like about this film that I wish I could have liked the end result more. Aside from the stand-up feel of some of the delivery, every actor in the film is great in their parts. It's easy to see why Dorothy Lee played opposite Wheeler & Woolsey in just about every movie they made, because they make an excellent trio. And, although she had more than come into her own as a comedienne by the time she made this movie, Thelma Todd is mostly used here as the "straight man" for everyone else to play off... and she does that just as well here as she did when she filled that role in her earliest films with Charley Chase. Meanwhile, Noah Beery and Robert Greig are equal parts funny and melodramatically villainous as the film's corpulent bad guys. The production values in this period film are also top-notch, as are the special effects and stunts during the film's climax. And I adored every second of the aforementioned "Dilly Dally" routine. Still, I can't bring myself to give this film more than a high Six Rating.

"Cockeyed Cavaliers" is one of six films in the Wheeler & Woolsey RKO Comedy Classics Vol. 2 set, which features a mix of movies Wheeler & Woolsey made as a team and individually.

Wondrous Women Wednesday!

The great George Perez announced his retirement from being an artist earlier this year, after four decades of entertaining us with his fantastic work. I'll be posting occasional galleries of his work throughout this year celebrating his career.

 

Musical Monday: Don't Let's Start

It's Monday, the beginning of another work week, or school week, or some other week that the majority of us probably would rather not let start. They Might Be Giants are here with the theme song for the day (like they have been since 1982).

Your Monday theme and music video: "Don't Let's Start"!


And when you're done with that pithy little ditty, They Might Be Giants wants to invite you to swing by their website and download a six song sampler of their latest effort! Click here to hop on over and get all the details!

John Flansburgh and John Linnell, Giants since 1982

Will Their Marriage Survive 'One Week'?

One Week (1920)
Starring: Buster Keaton and Sybil Seely
Directors: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Newly-weds (Keaton and Seely) build their dream house from a kit they've been given as a wedding present. Thanks to their lack of handiness and sabotage from her ex-boyfriend, things go less than smoothly. Will love conquer all, or will their marriage be over by the end of the week?

"One Week" was the first film Buster Keaton made after his partnership with 'Fatty' Arbuckle ended. When compared to the works that would follow--with their wild chase scenes and elaborate stunts--this is a fairly sedate movie. But it's some 25 minutes of solid hilarity, plus more than a few pratfalls and even some stunts.

In some ways, "One Week" is a collection of brief comedic sketches. The film is divided into sections, each covering a day in the week of the title, each featuring a little bit of plot, a gag or two, maybe a stunt, and all tied together by the couple working together to build their future home together. As the days unfold, the problems with their construction project escalate, in no small part due to interference from the bride's ex. One of the seven days is a Friday the Thirteenth, so on that day, things get really crazy for the newlyweds and their new home.

Humorous highlights of the film include a fun little bit where Keaton and Sybil trade places on the ground and first floor of the house in an instant; Keaton trying to get the chimney onto the roof; a piano delivery gone awry; a storm that has a most unusual effect on the house; the film's climax on the final day of week, which I can't even comment on without spoiling it; and one of the funniest bits of fourth-wall humor I've ever come across. There's also the scene where Sibyl takes a bath, which I partially covered in this post.

Perhaps even more important than the comedy bits are the way that Keaton and his co-creator Eddie Cline deftly fit enough character development of the newly-weds into the scenes that viewers see how much they love each other and subsequently become invested in the success of their do-it-yourself home construction project. For me, their first fight as husband and wife was one of the film's most dramatic moments and it made me smile broadly to see it resolved.

"One Week" is a movie I feel is well-worth your time and attention. I've made it easy to watch it by embedding it for you to watch right here. Just click, sit back, and be ready to laugh.

Picture Perfect Special: 'Charley Chase - Nude'

Over the past two months, one of the top search results that are bringing people to this blog is "Charley Chase - Nude" (or some variation of that). Well, seeing that I love to have an audience, and you get an audience by giving people what they want, I thought I should deliver what the web-browsing public is seeking.

While I can't post nude pictures, here's a nice one of Charley Chase in underwear, legs spread. 

On the other hand, here's Charley's reaction to those web searches.

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(Featured pictures are stills from or promotional shots for "I'll Tell You One" and "Looser Than Loose".)

'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.

Picture Perfect Wednesday: Sybil Seely

Sybil Seely was a silent movie comedienne who spent most of her career under contract to Mack Sennett and appearing as a "Bathing Beauty" in some of his films. Her best movies, however, were the short films she made with writer/director Buster Keaton while "on-loan" to him. Keaton enjoyed working with her, but five films were all they were able to make together before she retired from acting in 1922.

The first of the movies Seely made with Keaton was "One Week", a tale of a newly-weds putting up a pre-fabricated home on a lot they were given as a wedding present. In the film, Seely takes a bath... so this film sees her literally being a bathing beauty.

And here are some stills from the part where Sybil drops the soap...

What happens next? Click here to find out! You'll be able to watch the entire film there, as well as read my review of it! (I will be posting reviews of all of the Keaton/Seely films here at Shades of Gray.)

'The Scarecrow' shows why Buster Keaton is a legendary comedian and filmmaker

The Scarecrow (1920)
Starring: Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Sybil Seely, Joe Keaton, and Luke the Dog
Directors: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A pair of friends sharing a one-room house (Keaton and Roberts) are both in love with the farmer's rebellious daughter (Seely)... and both will go to great lengths to win her hand in marriage.

"The Scarecrow" opens with a scene that deftly establishes the relationship between the two main characters, roommates Buster and Joe, but it revolves around a gag that isn't terribly funny. As a result, I didn't have high hopes for what was going to follow, but then the film got into gear and ended up becoming one of the funniest things I've seen.

From the Rube Goldberg contraptions that permeate the main characters' living space, through the business involving the titular scarecrow, and the film's three spectacular chase scenes, viewers are treated to 15 minutes of amazing prop-based and physical comedy. The longest chase involves Keaton being pursued by a dog he believes is rabid and if you don't find it hilarious then you are probably dead inside--or just plain dead. (I included the dog among my list of stars at the top of this review, because it performed as well as its human co-stars!)

But don't just take my word for how funny this film is. Watch it, right now, because I've embedded it below, via YouTube.