Topic: Wedlock Deadlock (1947) - Joe Derita

[metaldams]

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/368
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039974/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1



      Joe Derita has a four short series with Columbia.  I think it's getting safe to say last week's short single handedly saved this series from complete disaster, as WEDLOCK DEADLOCK is lousy and next week's short... we'll get to next week.  Do not expect me to knock Joe Derita in this one, it's the writing that's the problem.  The few good moments of this short are the first couple of minutes and it's solely because Derita and Christine McIntyre appear likable as a newlywed couple.  Christine's lipstick line, for lack of better term, is actually cute.  The problem is when her family come in and live with the newlywed's.  They are unbelievably annoying, throwing insults, hogging food, and just taking over the place in a way that's beyond the way real human beings act.  When The Three Stooges ruin a dinner, it's out of ignorance, not malice, and the results are funny.  These people are just plain malicious.

      OK, so how do these crazy in laws get their commumpence, you ask?  Derita unleashes some genius plot?  Not exactly.  Actually, he's a bystander in the second reel.  Never mind he's the top billed comedian.  He gets his friend from work and his wife to come over, pretend they're crazy, and drive the rude in laws away.  So basically, you get unbelievably rude people being driven out by people acting unbelievably crazy, and the people being crazy end up being jerks themselves.  You witness Dorothy Granger doing bad singing at the piano, and stock comic routines like flowers that shoot water and hand buzzers.  Bear in mind, Derita, the main comic, is a bystander while this is all going on.

       The only other funny bit is Derita reading a book on how to murder, where the author is Elwood Ullman.  Funny inside joke.  This short is mostly a disaster, just completely annoying people and underuse of the main comic.  A waste of Derita and Christine.  Yes, Derita is Chaplin next to these in law clowns. 

3/10

[Paul Pain]

I read metaldams' review is remembered why I didn't laugh much when I first watched this.  These people are as unlikable as Sergeant MacGillicuddy, if you can believe that!  Joe is fine, as is Christine.  But the rest... oh, the rest!  I wanted to reach in and personally kill them all like he did!

Next week: more trash

4/10

[Shemp_Diesel]

Well, definitely a step down in quality from the previous shorts--but, I have to say--I didn't find this short to be as bad as Paul and Metal. More to the point, I didn't find Christine's in-laws to be as obnoxious or offensive as they did. In fact, I found them to be quite humorous in certain situations, like the dinner scene where Derita has to do all he can to fight for some food & ends up eating a flower.

I too, enjoyed the little inside joke where Joe is reading "Nearly Perfect Murders" by Elwood Ullman. The scheme where Derita plans to get rid of his in-laws by having crazy relatives of his own show up does lead to some laughs when bodies go flying out the window.

Overall, I would say this is "average." We've seen worse, & by worse I mean the last one, Jitter Bughouse.

5 out of 10 pokes....