Topic: Convention Girl (1935) - Rose Hobart et al. and Shemp Howard

[Paul Pain]

https://threestooges.net/filmography/episode/284
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026232/

I, the great PAUL PAIN, the heartthrob of millions, am reviewing a movie talkie.  Yes, this is breaking news, folks.

Why?  I can say that I have watched CORN ON THE COP, HIS FIRST FLAME, and a few other shorts that Shemp Howard did between 1933 and 1935, but those videos have been removed from the internet.  So why CONVENTION GIRL?  Ironically, yesterday this movie was the featured film on the ThreeStooges.net homepage.  However, that's not why I chose this.  I chose it because CONVENTION GIRL is special in Stooge lore.

This is the only time Shemp Howard, the great comedian once promoted as "The Ugliest Man in Hollywood," plays a straight, dramatic role.  Not only is this statement true, but Shemp even is the villain of the film.  Yes, you read that right; Shemp is the bad guy in a drama.

The plot is a pretty tired old plot that we've all seen hundreds of times across various productions over the years, but this is one that stretches the rules of the Hays Code because the heroine runs a female escort business and her boyfriend runs a speakeasy.  There are some interesting twists, but nothing too special.

The plot moves along all right and has a funny subplot.  Yes, to make this stranger, there is a comedic subplot that doesn't involve Shemp.  I love the way the convention man's battleaxe wife behaves as she chases him all over Atlantic City.

The song and dance numbers are OK, I guess.  They added 10 minutes of unnecessary footage, but they were added to give some spotlight to Isham Jones and his orchestra.  The scenes of Atlantic City were pretty cool as this was filmed on location.

Shemp is the main point of discussion here.  Shemp plays a gangster, fraudster, robber, and assassin in this, and he does a darned good job of it too!  He even gets away with his crimes!  There are moments where he slips in character and plays it more like comedic Shemp.  I have to give it to him: Shemp is good in this.  He doesn't get much screen time really, but he convincingly moves the plot along as his actions drive most of what happens in the second half.

The acting and plot isn't the greatest, but for a film studio that had most of it's success pre-Code and for the performance given by Shemp, I have to give this...

7/10

[metaldams]

Rose Hobart was Jekyll’s girl in the 1931, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. 

I’ve never seen this before.  Will check it out when I get a chance and pitch in my thoughts.

[metaldams]

      The most off the beaten path film that’s been reviewed on this site and only of interest because Shemp is in it.  It is a fairly straight dramatic role where he plays a gangster.  He is just OK.  This is not the kind of role he normally plays and he’s also in a poverty row environment.  I’m sure if he had a role like this at Warner Brothers and was directed by say, Michael Curtiz, he’d fare a bit better.  Fascinating to watch Shemp as a gangster, but I doubt Cagney or Edward G. were insecure of their status if they would have watched this.  You get the occasional part where you could sense comedy was waiting to be delivered, but the role called for menace and Shemp frankly doesn’t have it here.  He’s too damn likable.  The murder scene is quite the curio, though.

      The rest of the film is too much talk and not enough action.  I also never really got drawn into any of the characters or the plot.  Rose Hobart was a fine actress and does what she can here, but I’m sure she, like everyone else, was just collecting a paycheck.  She’s done much bigger things.  Sally O’Neil is also in this, well into adulthood, unlike when she was Buster Keaton’s leading lady in BATTLING BUTLER.

      A curio worth seeing once for any fan of Shemp, any of the other players involved, or gangster films.  It just doesn’t show any of the actors or genre at its best.

[Paul Pain]

metaldams makes an excellent summation of this movie that is similar to mine, but he has the era better pinned than I do.  I think we shall eventually get further off the beaten path as we enter the darkness of some of the worst short films ever produced.

For a gangster who is unafraid to shoot someone who's in his way, Shemp is smiling and laughing too darned much to be seen as a real threat.  I agree though that with better directing he could have at least come of as more credible in his role.  But it's interesting to see him trying anyway.