Topic: Home on the Rage (1938) - Andy Clyde and Shemp Howard

[Paul Pain]

https://threestooges.net/filmography/episode/269
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166650/



Shemp Howard co-starred in four shorts of the Andy Clyde Columbia shorts series in the late 1930s.  The first of these, NOT GUILTY ENOUGH, was supposedly one of the best shorts Columbia made with Andy (I remember not where I read this), but it's a lost film as of July 10, 2019.

Today we focus instead on HOME ON THE RAGE, the first surviving short.  This one is a prime example of both Andy's style of humor and the style Shemp had in the 1930s and 1940s.

HOME ON THE RAGE is an interesting short with a typical domestic plotline: [spoiler] Andy thinks his wife and annoying brother-in-law (Happy, Shemp Howard) are plotting to kill him.  The uncredited dog is an important part of this short.  In short, Happy keeps making Andy miserable.  First he ruins a business deal which sees a wonderful, but short, scene involving Vernon Dent.  Then Happy destroys the home.  It's an interesting plotline that, strangely given Columbia's style, was never repeated.

Andy is an actor who, like Stan Laurel, requires a short or two to really appreciate.  His style is to keep being pushed, take it quietly, and then suddenly explode in an emotional outburst.  Here, we see how this works with the opening as well as his multiple attacks on Shemp.  He is sinisterly vengeful much like Moe can be, and that helps work well with Shemp.

Shemp is in his more annoying early self, which more resembles his Stooges character than his Columbia solos character.  His character here is more of an overgrown manchild who just doesn't think before he acts and thinks his ideas are the best.  He's quick, smarmy, and able to yelp well.  Strangely, it makes a good clash with Andy Clyde.

Lela Bliss and and Robin Raymond aren't the best ever, but they did well with what they had.  The latter gets a good moment with Shemp trying to ask her out that ends in a strange way.

The ending [spoiler alert again] when the dog walks up the stairs with Shemp's pants as the scene fades out is pretty good.  It's a good effort for this pairing, and I'm going to chalk it up to the combination of Del Lord directing and James W. Horne writing.  For those who don't know, James W. Horne was the author the Laurel and Hardy films BIG BUSINESS, BONNIE SCOTLAND, and WAY OUT WEST.

9/10

[Shemp_Diesel]

That was a pretty good one. I hadn't seen the Andy Clydes in awhile & maybe that jogged my memory that too much Clyde may not be the greatest thing, but Shemp's in it, so 7/10...

 

[metaldams]

[Paul Pain]

EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

[metaldams]

EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, not a Bolton fan.  Horrible war mongering piece of shit.  But man, for years I thought he looks like Andy Clyde.

[Umbrella Sam]

Well, I’ve made it clear in the past how much I hate in-law comedies, but Shemp is one of the few actors who can make it work...at least, work as well as possible. Shemp’s character is portrayed as being annoying to Andy, but his comic style and way of talking make it so that I actually enjoy seeing him on screen.

I’m not hugely familiar with Andy Clyde’s work, though I do recall him and Shemp actually making a very good pairing in their next effort together, MONEY SQUAWKS. Here, Clyde’s craziness towards the end is pretty funny and I do like the idea of the misunderstanding. However, it does feel slow early on whenever Shemp isn’t on screen and even sometimes when he is. Overall, this is a fine enough short.

7 out of 10

[Paul Pain]

C3/Columbia bastards struck here and on BOOBS IN THE WOODS.

[metaldams]

For the record, C3 doesn’t own the films, only the rights to the images of The Three Stooges.  In this case, it’s Sony who owns the films, In the Shemp Vitaphone case, it’s Warner Brothers.

It does suck the films get pulled.  . I’m limited to an extent as to what songs I can cover on my YouTube channel for copyright stuff as well.

[I. Cheatam]

This was remade somewhat with Vernon and Quillan in 1948 as Parlor, Bedroom, and Wrath and again in 1954 as Doggie in the Bedroom.

[Count Jerome “Curley” von Gehrol]

I watched this short on YouTube and Shemp’s character Happy reminds me of the character he plays in Absorbing Junior where he is named Henry and he is considered obnoxious by his brother’s (named Johnny) wife and her mother. In this one, his life insurance business sounds like a scam (at least to me it does) while in Absorbing Junior he constantly gambles on horse races and does not seem to have a job (what’s funny is that Henry’s brother Johnny is actually an enabler while it is the opposite here).