The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™ has scheduled a
few two-reel goodies to run between their regularly scheduled classic film
features…so I thought I’d give a few interested
TDOYers a heads-up in case they were interested in adding these timeless
Hal Roach comedy shorts to their collection.
The one comedy in the bunch that I’ve not seen is
Sealskins (1932; I have it on DVD around here in the archives but haven't had a chance to view it), which features Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts in a haunted
house romp in which newspaper typist Thelma catches wind of a story involving a
missing “seal”…and thinks it’s an aquatic animal (it’s really a precious
gem).
Thel and Zase get mixed up with a
spooky old manse with the usual two-reel horror elements: strange butler, man
dressed in a skeleton costume, gorilla on the loose, etc.
It’s not supposed to be one of the girls’
strongest comedies—but I’ve been known to enjoy even the weakest Todd-Pitts offering
simply on the basis of their winning personalities.
Sealskins
airs after
A Free Soul (1931) this
Friday (September 26) at approximately 7:34am.
Thel also figures in the two-reeler
The Real McCoy (1930), a Charley Chase outing that I originally saw
back in August of 2010 when Tee Cee Em saluted Ms. Todd during
Summer
Under the Stars; Charley displays his fondness for rural comedy in a
short that finds him mingling with several backwoods folks while on the run
from a cop played by…well, who else but Edgar Kennedy?
Thelma is the object of his romantic pursuit,
a gal whom he thinks is hillbilly to her core (but he’s in for a bit of a
surprise).
Baltimore’s favorite son
indulged in a number of these bucolic frolics—he made two more while he was at
Roach,
One of the Smiths (1931) and
Southern Exposure (1935), and one
during his stint at Columbia,
Teacher’s
Pest (1939).
(I think
Smiths is the only one of the quartet I
haven’t seen.)
Not the funniest comedy
in the Chase canon…but any outing with Charley, Edgar Kennedy and the
delightful Thelma can’t be all bad—decide for yourself when McCoy airs after
The Life of the Party (1930) on
September 29th (next Monday at approximately 7:49am).
Before
McCoy at
6am, however, check out Edgar doing his slow burn thing in the “Boy Friends” entry
Doctor’s Orders (1930)—a first-rate
comedy starring former Our Gang kids Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman in a wild two-reeler
that also features ace stuntman Dave Sharpe, Gertie Messenger, Dorothy Granger
and
TDOY idol Grady Sutton (it was
the first offering in the short-lived series).
Mickey and Grady have faked an automobile accident to get attention from
Gertie and Mary, and Dave masquerades as a doctor—which necessitates he perform
hilarious business changing in and out of clothes between the two floors of
Kennedy’s house.
The “Boy Friends”
shorts never completely overcame their overall hit-or-miss reputation but I think
Orders
is a lot of fun (watching Sharpe is worth the price of admission).
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