(+JMJ+) "Learn to go see the 'worst' films; they are sometimes sublime." - Ado Kyrou, Le Surrealisme au Cinema.
*Check out my horror movie blog, too, at 1000daysofhorror.blogspot.com & my SciFi blog, 1000daysofscifi.blogspot.com
Alisan Porter - Curly Sue James Belushi - Bill Dancer Kelly Lynch - Grey Ellison John Getz - Walker McCormick Fred Thompson - Bernard Oxbar Branscombe Richmond - Albert
John Hughes strikes me as a director who can relate to just about everyone and all the hardships, great and small, we all deal with.
I made some comments about Hughes in my review of his 1991 movie "Dutch," which was released the same year as the last movie he directed, "Curly Sue."
His comedies remind me a bit of Neil Simon comedies. Like Simon, Hughes's comedies are often situational and verbal. And like many of Simon's stories, Hughes's movies often center around the relationship between two unlikely people.
No matter how ordinary the circumstances are, Hughes yanks the tragedy and comedy to the surface and presents it in such a way where the audience laughs instead of cries.
He writes characters that are really no different than the rest of us. They're likeable characters, simple enough to identify with. And the theme Hughes goes with in so many of his movies centers on relationships, whether romantic, familial, working, friendly or complete strangers.
The same is often true with Simon. But with all respect to Neil Simon, Hughes really knows how to tug on an audience's emotions and heartstrings. Simon focuses more on the situation with only enough attention on character development to tie the situation up beautifully.
Hughes's movie "Curly Sue" is often overlooked among his more popular films like "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," "Home Alone," "Uncle Buck," or "The Breakfast Club" to drop a few titles. It happens to be the last movie he directed before his death in 2009.
"Curly Sue" was released in 1991. That same year, his movies "Dutch" and "Career Opportunities" were released, both of which Hughes had written. His John Candy film, "Only the Lonely," which he produced, also came out that year. That's a movie I have on my scope!
This is about the time when Hughes's movies really started to wane as far as popular hits go.
It seems that after the success of his 1990 comedy "Home Alone" which hoisted then child actor Macaulay Culkin to lofty heights of fame, Hughes tried to do the same with then child actress Alisan Porter who plays the lead in this flick.
Alisan Porter and James Belushi in "Curly Sue."
In this movie, James Belushi plays Bill Dancer, a vagrant who has taken care of an orphan girl named Curly Sue (Alisan Porter) since her birth.
Together, they con and scam their way from place to place, meal to meal.
After working the schlubs of Detroit, they make their way to Chicago.
While sleeping in a homeless shelter one night, some homeless guy (Ralph Foody - Johnny from "Home Alone") steals Curly Sue's ring which her late mother left her. Though distraught, she handles the theft rather gracefully.
Bill sets up another con in an attempt to get someone to buy them dinner.
This time he fools wealthy divorce lawyer Grey Ellison (Kelly Lynch) into thinking she hit him with her Mercedes.
The incident gets Bill and Curly Sue a free meal at a downtown joint called Rocky Feller's House of Beef. It's not the kind of place someone like Grey would normally be found in.
Grey's snobby and unsympathetic boyfriend, Walker McCormick (John Getz), interrupts the meal to pick up Grey and take her home.
Throughout the night, and into the next day, she can't stop thinking about Bill and Curly Sue.
The next night, as "luck" would have it, Grey ends up hitting Bill again...and for real, this time...with her car.
Feeling terrible, she takes Bill and Curly Sue back to her upscale apartment and puts them up for the night.
After snooping through Curly's bag, Grey realizes Curly is not Bill's daughter. She confronts Bill about it with threats of reporting him to authorities, but Bill makes it clear he will never leave Sue and says it's time for the two to leave.
She quickly has a change of heart and lets the two stay despite their both being complete strangers picked up off the streets of Chicago.
Fuming with jealousy, Walker reports Bill and Sue to Child Protective Services.
Kelly Lynch and Alisan Porter
People from DCF show up and take Sue to a foster home, and have Bill arrested as he did not have legal custody of Sue.
During his hold up in jail, Bill recognizes the bum who stole Sue's ring. He forces the guy to tell him what he did with it. It turns out he pawned it.
Grey bails Bill out of prison, and pulls some legal strings to unite Sue and Bill.
Thankfully, he knows where the pawn shop is, and goes to look for Sue's ring.
He also can't stand being away from Sue. And Sue yearns for the only father figure she ever had - Bill.
"Curly Sue" has heart. And it's clear what's going to happen. Thankfully, it doesn't overdo the cute and sweet emotions. Hughes knows how far to take all that out of respect for the audiences.
He trusts the audience to feel what he wants them to. Hughes doesn't have to tell them, or force emotions on them.
Belushi and Porter have great chemistry together. They act like they've known each other for as long as Curly Sue has been alive. Porter is cute and very likeable. She doesn't make her character obnoxious. She does make Curly Sue a strong child with a major vulnerability - the risk of losing Bill. Still, she doesn't quite pull on the audience's heartstrings much. It must have been a challenging performance for Porter. She's a character expected to carry a lot of weight while pulling on the audience's heartstrings. Porter clearly strives to do both but focuses less on being cute and adorable, which might be for the better. It adds some maturity to this young kid.
Kelly Lynch on the other hand does little for the movie. She barely has any emotion. And she strikes me as a limp jellyfish out of water when acting alongside Belushi and Porter.
The movie is notable as Steve Carell's film debut. The movie also has a cameo from Edie McClurg who appears in several of Hughes's movies. And Fred Thompson also stars in the film as an attorney in Grey's law firm.
The humor is too subtle, and the laughs are minimal. The movie even uses cartoon sound effects which are out of place and stupid.
But "Curly Sue" isn't terrible. The characters are memorable and easy to become invested in. The performances are decent, except for Lynch's. The plot is intriguing to some degree.
Regardless, it's far from the best of Hughes's movies. It strives to be charming. There's some charm but not enough. There's little depth in "Curly Sue." Overall, the movie feels like it's lacking.
ZaSu Pitts (left) and Thelma Todd (right) were paired together in the 1931 Hal Roach short film aptly named, "Let's Do Things."
Director and producer Hal Roach is known for making several comedy shorts and features during the silent era of movies and into sound pictures of the 1930s and 1940s.
He's particularly known for making movies featuring Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Charley Chase, and the "Our Gang" kids - also known as "The Little Rascals."
Roach also produced films for Harry Langdon and Will Rogers back in the silent days.
One duo Roach paired together to make comedy shorts haven't maintained the height of general popularity they once enjoyed when compared to their comedy colleagues. However, they're far from forgotten thanks to film fans and appreciation societies like the Sons of the Desert.
ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd worked together to make 17 comedy shorts for the Hal Roach Studios beginning with their first picture, "Let’s Do Things" (1931).
Pitts and Todd even have their own theme. As "Call of the Cuckoos" is Laurel and Hardy's theme, and "Good Old Days" is the theme for the "Our Gang" shorts, both composed by Leroy Shield, his composition "Beautiful Lady" became the opening theme for Pitts and Todd movies.
By the way, Laurel and Hardy make a cameo in the fifth Pitts and Todd short, "On the Loose" (1931) in an attempt to help boost their popularity.
Cameos between Hal Roach pictures were a common occurrence, actually.
Some of the kids from the "Our Gang" follies appear in various Laurel and Hardy shorts. Laurel and Hardy also make a cameo in the "Our Gang" film "Wild Poses" (1933). Comedian Charley Chase appears in the Laurel and Hardy feature film, "Sons of the Desert" (1933). And Laurel and Hardy appear in Chase's 1936 short "On the Wrong Trek."
The same goes for Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts.
Todd stars alongside Laurel and Hardy in their first talking picture, "Unaccustomed as We Are" (1929). She's also in their comedy shorts "Another Fine Mess" (1930) and "Chickens Come Home" (1931) as well as their feature films, "Fra Diavolo" (1933) and "The Bohemian Girl" (1936) - Todd's last film appearance as she died in 1935.
It's worth noting, since I'm on the topic of film appearances, that Todd also stars in the Marx Brothers' movies, "Monkey Business" (1931) and "Horse Feathers" (1932).
When ZaSu Pitts left the Hal Roach Studios in 1933, she was replaced by a fairly new actress at the time named Patsy Kelly.
Pitts and Todd were a popular team back in the 1930s. When Patsy replaced ZaSu, that popularity didn't diminish.
Todd and Kelly first appeared together in the 1933 film, "Beauty and the Bus." Together they made 21 movies total, until their last picture, "An All-American Toothache" (1936).
That's the movie that introduced me to this comedy pair. But more on that later.
Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts in their first film short, "Let's Do Things" (1931).
After Todd's unfortunate death, Kelly was paired with Pert Kelton for one short called "Pan Handlers" in 1936. And then Kelly was paired with Lyda Roberti for three films - "Hill-Tillies" (1936), "At Sea Ashore" (1936), and "Nobody's Baby"(1937). The latter is a feature film.
Lastly, ZaSu Pitts and Patsy Kelly appeared in a feature length film together in 1941 called "Broadway Limited" released by United Artists and produced by Hal Roach.
While a number of Hal Roach movies starred regular female comedians such as Anita Garvin, Vivien Oakland, Daphne Pollard, and Mae Busch, they normally play side characters, or the wife to Laurel or Hardy. Pitts and Todd were the only female team and the stars of their own movies from the Hal Roach studios.
Pardon my editorializing, but if it had been up to me, I would have included Australian born actress and Hal Roach comedian Mae Busch into a comedy team alongside any one of these ladies. Busch starred in 13 Laurel and Hardy films, beginning in 1927 with their movie "Love 'Em and Weep." Busch has a very strong screen presence in her silent and early talking movies, especially when playing opposite Oliver Hardy as his shrewish and bossy wife, as seen in "Sons of the Desert."
Her performances are memorable, seductive, hilarious, and energetic. Busch could play a charming, manipulative character who could effortlessly put a man (usually Oliver Hardy) in his place.
In the Laurel and Hardy film "Them Thar Hills" (1934), Busch plays a camper who becomes accidentally drunk thanks to Laurel and Hardy. Her performance in this short shows her goofy comedic side. "Tra la la, la la la, la la la la - pom pom!"
Actress Mae Busch
Watching these Todd, Pitts, and Kelly shorts, Mae Busch comes to mind as someone who may have had the potential to launch a girl comedy team to great heights.
Thelma Todd is a phenomenal actress and manages to carry on some hilarious moments. However, she lacks a little as far as slapstick humor goes. Busch could dive into slapstick while maintaining her on-screen charm.
ZaSu Pitts, a native of Parsons, Kansas, had an acting career that covers nearly five decades. She brings a small-town naivety, frustrated, overthinking, and a bit frumpy character to the Pitts and Todd comedies. This contrasts properly with the classy, more street-smart, pragmatic, self-assured characteristics of Thelma Todd who tried to appear charming while Pitts tarnished those efforts.
When Patsy Kelly, a native of Brooklyn, New York, replaced Pitts, she brought a more Tom-boyish, wisecracking, brass character that wasn't as soft as Pitts.
Still, it gives Todd a lot more to play off of while her character tries to appear dainty and suave against her co-star, Kelly.
Pitt's final film role was that of a phone operator in the 1963 movie, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."
Kelly, by the way, has a long history in movies up until her death in 1980. She even stars in the 1968 Roman Polanski horror movie, "Rosemary's Baby" as well as Disney's 1976 classic, "Freaky Friday."
I wanted to write something up about these hilarious ladies ever since the biopic, "Stan and Ollie" came out in 2018.
Back in the mid to late 1990s, when cable network AMC only aired actual classic movies, they used to have Laurel and Hardy marathons. I recorded a few of these marathons onto VHS. I wish I still had them.
I recall during one of these marathons, the short film, "An All-American Toothache" aired. The familiar music of Leroy Shield heard in Laurel & Hardy features played on top of the title cards, with "Hal Roach presents..." above the names "Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly." It grabbed my attention as I had never heard of "Todd and Kelly" before.
Though Pitts, Todd and Kelly were popular during their time together in pictures during the 1930s, they're not completely forgotten. It's just that, as Carrie Fisher once said, "fame is obscurity biding its time."
My favorite flicks between them...
Patsy Kelly and Thelma Todd who appeared in 21 shorts together, beginning with "Beauty and the Bus" (1933).
Comedy duos and teams are a dime a dozen. They go back to the early days of movies. In fact, they go back to those days of Vaudeville, and probably even before that.
The good ones have a staying power - Abbott and Costello, the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Martin and Lewis, Lemmon and Matthau, Cheech and Chong, or Mike Myers and Dana Carvey.
While some of these teams include at least one female partner, such as George Burns and Gracie Allen, or Dick Powell and Myrna Loy, female comedy duos don't seem as numerous. There's Tina Fey and Anne Poehler, French and Saunders, Laverne and Shirley (Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams), and Lucilla Ball and Ethel Mertz from "I Love Lucy."
Pitts and Todd have often been called "the female Laurel and Hardy." Though their comedy style and fame are different from Stan and Ollie, that label is more in regard to their general roles as one being the smart one, and the other being the follower.
For Christmas a couple years ago, my sweet wife found a complete collection of the Pitts and Todd, and Todd and Kelly shorts. I worked my way through all the films twice. The collection also includes the Patsy Kelly and Pert Kelton short "Pan Handlers" as well as Patsy Kelly and Lyda Roberti shorts, "Hill-Tillies" (1936), "At Sea Ashore" (1936), and "Nobody's Baby"(1937) as I mentioned above. All that's missing is the feature film "Nobody's Baby" which was the last film of Roberti and Kelly.
I watched them twice because I really wanted to get a clear idea of what kind of comedy duo these funny ladies are. The films seem like a consistent work in progress, fleshing out this duo and building on their style and chemistry movie by movie.
Here's my favorite films of theirs.
ZaSu Pitts & Thelma Todd
1) Let's Do Things (1931) Director: Hal Roach - As I've mentioned, this is Pitts and Todd's first movie. And it sets the initial premise for later Pitts and Todd scenarios.
In this movie, the girls are roommates who also sell sheet music in a department store.
ZaSu's bum of a boyfriend, Milton (George Byron) along with his doctor buddy, (Jerry Mandy) take the girls out dancing. They agree to go only when the doctor offers to pay.
Regardless, the doctor comes across as a bad-mannered buffoon. They all go out to a night club where the doctor sneaks in a bottle of homemade booze. Remember, this was filmed during the prohibition.
Through various mishaps, some of that booze finds its way into ZaSu's ginger ale.
As a result, a series of slapstick hilarity ensues.
The film opens with Thelma at a piano singing, "Them There Eyes" to a group of young suitors.
The humor is practically situational, which is generally the style for most Hal Roach shorts.
ZaSu sets up her character as a naïve small-town girl who's uncomfortable in risky settings. She's basically a fish out of water.
Thelma, meanwhile, knows the situation and how to act accordingly. But ZaSu stumbles in Thelma's way.
2) War Mamas (1931) Director: Marshall Neilan - This is the fourth Pitts and Todd movie, which as the title suggest, is a military comedy.
In this short, Pitts and Todd play ambulance drivers during World War I. They're driving a couple soldiers from the warfront, who turn out to be their boyfriends.
However, the girls find themselves in enemy territory. In order to evade capture, the girls disguise themselves as a couple of Germain gals as they find shelter in a large house occupied by some German officers. They coax the girls into playing strip poker - don't worry, neither ZaSu nor Thelma do any stripping.
The situational comedy is complimented with a scene in which Thelma struggles while helping ZaSu take off her boots. The scene is similar to the Laurel and Hardy movie "Be Big" in which Stan is forced to help Oliver take off Stan's boot which he mistakenly put on his own foot.
The girls are pretty established as a team at this point, and this movie really drives their chemistry home.
Laurel and Hardy's cameo in "On the Loose."
3) On the Loose (1931) Director: Hal Roach -
The movie begins with the girls coming back from a double date to Coney Island. They swear they'll never go back again as their previous dates also took them to Coney Island. They're sick of it.
Later, they meet a couple other suitors who buy them new outfits and then ask them out to...Coney Island.
"What do we go for anyway? We can get the same effect by staying home and hitting ourselves on the head with a hammer," Thelma asks ZaSu.
They reluctantly go, and some great jokes and dialogue ensues as the exhausted pair feign interest going through all the attractions and funhouses.
The story is told through Pitts and Todd's experience in putting up with these two guys who are having the time of their lives while the girls suffer through it all.
The film ends with a cameo from Laurel and Hardy who ask the girls out to...Coney Island.
4) Red Noses (1932) Director: James W. Horne - This movie portrays how out of touch Pitts is when it comes to new and novel situations.
In this short, Pitts and Todd are both suffering from a terrible cold. So, they visit a Turkish bath to help kick their viruses.
The movie shows how visually comedic Pitts and Todd can be as its heavy with slapstick.
There's also a running gag in which the girls are trying to change their clothes and leave, but their clothes end up missing.
Pitts ends up wearing some guy's clothes. Thelma, meanwhile, is wrapped in towels.
When they finally manage to leave the bath house, they wander down the road, Thelma in towels, and ZaSu in a man's suite, trying not to be noticed.
It's a real showcase at how funny Pitts and Todd can be within physical comedy.
5) Alum and Eve (1932) Director: George Marshall - This is definitely one of my more favorite Pitts and Todd films.
Thelma proves how comedic talented she is as she and ZaSu are pulled over for speeding. Thelma lies to the cop telling him that she's taking ZaSu to the hospital. She hopes he'll buy this lie and she can get out of a ticket.
The cop assumes ZaSu is going to have a baby, so he escorts them there. Now, the girls have to go through with the charade to fool the cop and avoid a ticket.
It's definitely one of their funniest shorts. To me, this one shows how brilliantly ZaSu and Thelma work off of each other. Each of the their comedy styles and personalities meld well in this picture.
6) The Soilers (1932) Director: George Marshall - This twelfth Pitts and Todd film is really off the wall. The girls are selling magazine subscriptions door to door to help get themselves through college.
This scenario sets up ZaSu as a dispirited character while Thelma knows she has charm and tries to use it to her advantage.
As the two aren't too successful going from house to house, they decide to lay on the charm and try to sell subscriptions to men at their workplaces.
The comedy arises through the usual slapstick alongside entangled situations. Otherwise, it's all slapstick.
It's an us versus them scenario; it's two girls up against a world of men. Thelma and ZaSu are really solid in this movie. ZaSu is much more a fish out of water in this performance. But she's no dunce.
7) Sneak Easily (1933) Director: Gus Meins - If their last movie "The Soilers" was off the wall, Pitts and Todd's thirteenth movie, "Sneak Easily" is even more so.
According to writer James L. Neibaur in his book, "The Hal Roach Comedy Shorts of Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts and Patsy Kelly," Thelma had been hospitalized prior to filming "Sneak Easily." So, ZaSu has a lot more to do in this story.
This time, Thelma is a defense attorney who is trying to get a crazy scientist accused of murdering his wife by slipping her an explosive pill rather than her diet pill, off the hook. He allegedly slipped his wife some kind of explosive pill.
A bailiff brings a real explosive and an identical fake explosive, but the identification cards for each get mixed up.
As part of her defense, Thelma claims that nobody can swallow something so big as an explosive pill.
ZaSu, who's sitting on the jury, insists she can. And she swallows the fake explosive. When the other explosive rolls off the table and doesn't go off, everyone thinks she swallowed the real explosive.
And hilarious panic ensues within the courthouse.
It's such a far-fetched scenario that it works so well as a comedy. The always burdened and worried ZaSu who may have swallowed an explosive pill alongside a very cautious courtroom is hilarious.
8) Bargain of the Century (1933): Director: Charley Chase - The scenario in this movie puts the girls into a situation that really suites both of their comedy styles.
Fellow Hal Roach comedian Charley Chase sits in the director's chair for this flick.
The movie opens with the girls driving way too fast just to get to a sale at a department store all while trying to elude a motorcycle cop pursuing them.
They all pull up to the department store. When the traffic cop tries to give them a ticket, they tell him ZaSu is really the daughter of the officer's boss at the police station.
This freaks the cop out a bit. Instead of giving them a speeding ticket, he agrees to help them shop and work their way through the busy crowd of shoppers.
Just trying to plow through the crowd leaves the officer with a torn-up uniform.
His boss happens to catch him out of uniform and is just as shocked that he actually believed the girls when they told him ZaSu is his daughter. So, he fires him.
Feeling terrible about getting the cop fired, Thelma and ZaSu hire him as their personal housekeeper, which the ex-cop accepts.
As expected, the former cop struggles with this. And things go from bad to worse when the girls invite his former boss to dinner. The scenario is such a far-fetched one just to bring in laughs, it's impressive how it all works. The comedy is great and unforgettable.
'Spanky' McFarland in "One Track Minds."
9) One Track Minds (1933) Director: Gus Meins - "Our Gang" member 'Spanky' McFarland co-stars with Pitts and Todd in their last film together, "One Track Minds."
The girls are on a train heading to a studio as Thelma is going to make it big in the movies. Or so she thinks as she is a winner of a beauty contest.
It so happens that Von Sternheim, the big and haughty director she needs to meet, is on the same train. But neither Thelma nor ZaSu realize who he is.
This last film also stars a young Sterling Holloway whose voice is likely familiar to audiences. He voiced well-known Disney characters including Winnie the Pooh, the Cheshire Cat in "Alice in Wonderland," Kaa in "The Jungle Book" and Mr. Stork in "Dumbo."
There is a ton of character packed in this short, which is pure unfiltered slapstick at its best.
It all ends with a beekeeper's box of bees getting knocked over, causing the bees to swarm the train cars. The one issue is that the jokes don't flow well together. Regardless, I had fun watching this short. Pitts and Todd are such a solid team by this point. It's too bad ZaSu would leave the act after this movie.
1) Beauty and the Bus (1933) Director: Gus Meins - The more aggressive and rougher Patsy Kelly replaces ZaSu in this movie.
And to be honest, she's a better match for Thelma Todd.
That's not to say ZaSu didn't work in the previous comedies. She's fantastic and has great chemistry with Thelma.
The one thing she has that ZaSu doesn't is confidence. And that is often to the audience's humor.
With Patsy, I'm feeling it a bit more. The plot to her first movie with Thelma is perfect and quick in making them a new pair of funny girls.
In this movie, Patsy wins a car during a raffle. And the fun soon begins. It's a tit for tat scenario once she takes it to the road.
Patsy has a strong and unforgettable screen presence right from the start. However, like ZaSu, Patsy has a knack for making rash, impulsive mistakes.
Her role changes the tone of this comedy team, and it works well immediately in "Beauty and the Bus."
2) Air Fright (1933) Director: Gus Meins - In this movie. Thelma plays an airline hostess who gets her friend, Patsy, a job on board an experimental flight.
As I said before, Patsy has an impulsive way of doing things. So, obviously things get funny.
And to make the scenario even funnier, the plane they're riding on has a feature in which passengers can drop through the floor and parachute down to the ground.
Thelma keeps her magnetism and timing which contrasts the slap stick humor, making her roles all the funnier in these shorts.
All the gags and jokes are set up perfectly. Above, it's a funny picture.
3) I'll be Suing You (1934) Director: Gus Meins - To me, this story feels ahead of its time. It's a fast-paced, energetic comedy. None of that gets in the way of the comedy.
After a car accident, Patsy is coerced by Thelma and an attorney into faking the loss of her leg in order to win an insurance settlement. They want to fool a couple of insurance adjusters.
The scenario is similar to the Our Gang short, "Fishy Tales" in which Alfalfa pretends to have a broken leg in order to get out of a fight with a local bully.
Patsy's comedy style and energy really comes through in this short, which is why I put it among my favorites.
The way she reluctantly goes through the charade is what makes this film hilarious.
4) Three Chumps Ahead (1934) Director: Gus Meins - This is the girls' eighth film. By this time, their chemistry is solidified. So, this film gives them a chance to explore that chemistry.
In this movie, Thelma falls in love with a yacht-owning rich guy named Archie.
Patsy, meanwhile, is skeptical of this Archie. When Thelma invites him over, Patsy tries to make their romance do anything except bud. The ending brings to mind two Laurel and Hardy movies - "Below Zero" and "Men O' War" in that during a restaurant meal, the lack of money, becomes an issue. So much for being rich!
This scenario gives Thelma a chance to show how much she can be irked by Patsy when things don't go the way Patsy wants them to.
Thelma's irritation properly sets up Patsy to bring the laughs in. It's a funny picture, indeed!
5) Treasure Blues (1935) Director: James Parrott - This is Todd and Kelly's 13th movie. And it brings about a unique scenario that goes beyond the usual "female" scenarios involving the typical girl struggles with men, careers, and their social life.
Now, the girls can explore unique and out-of-their-way comedic situations.
Lack of money becomes an issue for Patsy. As luck would have it, she inherits her late uncle's fortune. The catch is that this fortune is at the bottom of the ocean.
He leaves Patsy a diving suit and instructions on where to find the treasure.
So, Patsy, Thelma, and a drunken accomplice, played by Arthur Housman who often plays a drunk in Hal Roach shorts, set sail to find the treasure. And find it they do, but not without unique underwater scenes, slapstick gags, problems, and hilarity.
James Parrott directed a number of Hal Roach shorts. He has a knack for creating really imaginative stories for Todd and Kelly, or Laurel and Hardy.
He's the genius who directed Laurel and Hardy's most iconic picture, "The Music Box" as well as their shorts "Another Fine Mess" and "The Laurel - Hardy Murder Case." His movies are simple but full of creativity and brilliant humor. His scenarios stand out above the rest. The same goes for "Treasure Blues."
6) The Misses Stooge (1935) Director: James Parrott - Director James Parrott once again puts the girls in such a unique situation, the comedy practically writes itself.
Here, Patsy works as a magician's assistant while Thelma is the plant in the audience.
And hilarity follows from that simple scenario. As expected, they botch the magician's tricks.
In one scene where the magician makes Thelma float in midair while she's unconscious, she then starts floating off stage and out the door. So, Patsy has to go get her down and pull her back onto the stage like a balloon.
The gags and dialogue are absolutely hilarious. I got some great laughs watching this movie.
7) Twin Triplets (1935) Director: William H. Terhune - This 18th movie of Todd and Kelly is definitely among my top favorites. The girls play a pair of investigative reporters who are going to do a story about a parachute jumper who survived a plummet when his shute didn't open. They're able to sneak into the hospital to talk to this jumper after Thelma pretends to faint on a city sidewalk while Patsy shouts for someone to get an ambulance.
At the hospital, Patsy overhears a female doctor say she just delivered six babies in the past hour.
Patsy takes this to mean someone just gave birth to sextuplets.
She tells Thelma, who tells her editor.
The editor makes his way to the hospital with some photographers to get this story.
When Patsy realizes she made misunderstood the nurse, she has to find six newborns so the editor can get this story regardless of whether it's true or not.
There's a scene in which Patsy chats with a German mother-to-be. The entire exchange reminds me of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?"
Watching Patsy run around a maternity ward disguised as a nurse, trying to find six newborns to concoct a story is hilarious. It begins easy enough, but the entire situation becomes an entangled mess that ends in humiliation.
8) Top Flat (1935) Directors: Jack Jevne & William H. Terhune - This short is pure Thelma and Patsy at their silliest.
Once again, the girls share an apartment together. While Thelma writes poetry and fancies herself a poet extraordinaire, Patsy does the ironing and other chores.
She's sore that Thelma doesn't contribute much around the place. Thelma thinks her poetry will bring in financial success.
The two have a verbal scuffle over the matter, and Thelma moves out. Just before she leaves, Patsy mockingly says, "I suppose you'll be riding in a limo covered in furs."
Later, Thelma has a job working as a French maid in a penthouse owned by an older wealthy couple. They ask Thelma to take a mink coat downtown for a fitting. So, she puts it on and heads downtown in their limo.
As she gets out of the limo wearing the fur coat, she runs into Patsy. Of course, she thinks Thelma actually did become a successful poet.
So, she goes to check out the Penthouse that she thinks Thelma is living in and decides to bring some friends along.
Despite the obvious comedic setups, everything plays out smoothly. Patsy and Thelma's relationship is the center of the movie, and the comedy surrounds that. It's a purely entertaining short.
9) An All-American Toothache (1936) Director: Gus Meins - This is the last short for Todd and Kelly. It was also my introduction to this entire team from Hal Roach back when AMC used to have Laurel and Hardy marathons that would run an entire day.
During one of these marathons, AMC snuck in this Hal Roach comedy short.
It was filmed just after the Laurel and Hardy movie "The Bohemian Girl" which also stars Thelma.
Like "Bohemian Girl" it was released after Thelma's tragic death in 1935.
It features former Little Rascal, Mickey Daniels who used to play Elmer during his Our Gang days. In this short, Mickey plays a college football star who won't be allowed to play in the final big game unless he continues with his dental experience which necessitates him pulling a wisdom tooth.
Thelma and Patsy work at a nearby diner and are friends with Mickey and a lot of the other college students who frequent their diner.
So, Thelma coaxes Patsy to be Mickey's volunteer patient so he can pull her wisdom tooth. This is a highly energetic comedy
Pert Kelton & Patsy Kelly
Pert Kelton and Patsy Kelly in the 1936 Hal Roach film "Pan Handlers."
1) Pan Handlers (1936) Director: William H. Terhune - Now we're talking! The dialogue is rich in this short.
Pert Kelton replaces Thelma Todd. And this is the only short she made with Patsy.
In this movie, the girls are door to door saleswomen selling aluminum for the Anchor Aluminum Company. Or, as Pert pronounces it, "amolamoom."
They have no luck selling door to door until they come upon a housewife who needs help cooking dinner for her husband and his friends who are arriving for dinner on short notice.
So, Pert and Patsy agree to cook for her if she'll buy some of their aluminum cookware.
As expected, hilarity ensues when the neighbor is none other than their boss who is also cooking dinner with the same aluminum cookware.
When Patsy and Pert screw up the housewife's turkey by shrinking it thanks to over steaming the bird, they steal their boss's cooked turkey instead.
The way Pert and Patsy bounce lines off each other is hilarious. The irreverent humor is also just as entertaining.
I really wish these two made more pictures together. This pair has so much potential, it's still thick after all these years.
They are perfect for each other. Pert fills in the comedic spaces that Thelma Todd, as wonderful as she is, would fall short at times.
Pert is the more straight woman in this duo, but like Oliver Hardy, she's not as smart as she thinks she is.
Even with just one movie, it's as though they've been working comedy together long before. Pert Kelton is a natural and quick comedian. In fact, she was the original Alice Kramden in "The Honeymooners" with Jackie Gleason.
She did appear with Kelly in the 1936 short "Kelly the Second" which also stars Charley Chase. It's produced by Hal Roach and directed by Gus Meins. But she and Kelly don't star in that movie as a comedy team.
I'm certain if Pert Kelton and Patsy Kelly made more movies together, they're names would be well known today.
After this Pert and Kelly short, Hal Roach decided to pair Kelly with actress and singer, Lyda Roberti.
Together, they would make three films. Sadly, Roberti would die from a severe heart attack in 1938.
Though I didn't particularly care for the next two movies, I think they're worth mentioning.
Lyda Roberti & Patsy Kelly
Lyda Roberti and Patsy Kelly in the 1936 film, "At Sea Ashore."
1) At Sea Ashore (1936) Director: William H. Terhune - With Lyda Roberti being a singer, this movie features her singing a number. Afterall, the movie needs to sell her to audiences.
In this short, Patsy works at Rumplemeyer's Donut Shop in Brooklyn. Mr. Rumplemeyer's niece is heading into town from his home country.
So, he sends Patsy to go pick her up at the immigration office.
He gives her cab fare, but as luck would have it, she forgets her purse and can't pay the cab fare.
So, the driver waits for her while the meter runs.
When Patsy meets Lyda, Patsy manages to find her way into the holding area where she can't get out without a passport.
To escape, Patsy hides in Lyda's trunk as the angry cabbie as well as a cop and an immigration officer are searching for her. All Patsy has to do is get Lydi to her awaiting uncle.
This duo takes a different turn from the previous movies. Lyda is an immigrant unaccustomed to the American way of life. And Patsy is introduced to Lyda to show her how things are done.
Honestly, there's little chemistry between she and Kelly. They just don't match well as a comedy team. But the movie itself could work on its own if it wasn't trying to pair the two up as a duo. They don't strike me as a comedy team.
2) Hill-Tillies (1936) Director: Gus Meins - This second and last Kelly and Roberti flick pairs the girls up for a camping trip all performed for some sort of publicity stunt.
The girls are out of work. So, they decide to have a public 1-day campout in the wilderness with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
It's an attempt to demonstrate female superiority and determination. Secretly, their friends sneak them camping equipment and other necessities.
Being out in the wilderness is all the setup they need for comedy.
Again, Kelly and Roberti don't gel particularly well as a comedy team.
I don't know enough about Lyda Roberti, but she doesn't strike me as a comedian.
Perhaps, Kelly and Roberti may have developed as a comedy duo over time with more pictures.
Their last picture together, "Nobody's Baby" (1937) is a feature film with an hour runtime. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy to watch.
These two girls are very talented in their own way. I mean that sincerely. Perhaps, it's fairer to say that the team could have used time to find their footing together.
After Roberti's death, Kelly would go on to make a few more Hal Roach pictures such as "Merrily We Live" (1938), "Road Show" (1941), and "Topper Returns" (1941).
I believe unfortunate circumstances really toppled all efforts to make a strong comedy team. The untimely death of Thelma Todd, and Lyda Roberti dissolved those efforts.
Pitts and Todd were very popular. And Todd and Kelly were also hilarious and popular. It must have been difficult for Hal Roach to continue the comedic team without Todd. Although, Pelton and Kelly have a lot of charm and likeability together, and make a great pair in their one film together.
Though all these girls were and still are highly respected comedians, it's unfortunate they haven't maintained that popularity through the decades that other comedic teams like Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello have managed to keep up.
These girls didn't have an opportunity to make any feature length films as a comedy duo save for "Nobody's Baby" which was the last film to star one of these female comedy teams.
A feature film could have certainly boosted their popularity to a great level, leaving their legacy which some much deserved durability through the decades.
It's a shame as the chemistry, talent, and humor is very much there from picture to picture.
Fortunately, none of them are completely forgotten, and their films are still available.
Hal Roach and his teams really worked hard to find a unique comedy style and voice. And in a lot of these shorts, they certainly nailed it.
Pitts, Todd and Kelly deserve a standing ovation and continued appreciation for their rightful place in the genre of comedy. While obscurity tarnishes all famous people to some degree or another, these girls are still recognized for the laughs and influence they brought almost 100 years ago. Their role in paving the way for more female comedians and comedy duos is as solid as ever.
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