Topic: Nobody's Home (1955) - Wally Vernon & Eddie Quillan

[Paul Pain]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175967/

NOBODY'S HOME is a stock footage remake of their earlier HOUSE ABOUT IT, which itself was a stock footage remake of the lost Collins & Kennedy short BURY THE HATCHET.  As a result, it's nearly impossible to tell what's stock and what isn't.  Thus, we shall blind ourselves to ignore this situation, be blissfully ignorant, and pretend that this is all fresh material.

My goodness is this a violent short.  Women get punched by men; Eddie falls down the stairs; the demon child attacks Eddie and keeps sadistically starting fights; the record player shoots records and eventually combusts; Wally & Eddie try to fix a pipe and instead blow up the house; Wally attacks Eddie with a variety of tools; Eddie using the metal scraper on Wally's head.  The Three Stooges could fill three shorts from that list, and Vernon & Quillan do all this and a lot more in NOBODY'S HOME.  If senseless violence is your thing, then this short will be right up your alley; seriously, this short may very well be Columbia's answer to the "Jackass" films or "Friday the 13th."  Now, there are quite a few funny bits, but this one suffers from the poor quality of the film reels.  It relies entirely on slapstick violence and has almost no verbal humor except that which goes along with the violence.  All those mothers who complain that the THREE STOOGES are too violent should be glad they've never seen this short.

Now, the actors chosen are fine, and the performances are OK.  It's just that this material could have been handled by nearly any competent comedian.  Now, I imagine certain scenes would be improved by some actors abilities to express rage (likely the case in the Collins & Kennedy original) and frustration.  But, this short is nothing special.

7/10

[metaldams]

Actually, I really dig this short because of the slapstick violence.  Seriously as insane as any Three Stooges short including THEY STOOGE TO CONGA!  I just ignored the plot and focused on the slapstick and as far as that goes, this short satisfies quite well!

As far as it being stock footage, there were a few close up shots where they mention something resembling plot I’m assuming is new footage, but other than that, I can’t tell.  Part of it may be we’re not talking the greatest print and another part is I’m not as familiar with these guys as I am The Three Stooges, so the aging process isn’t as obvious.  I imagine any footage with the kid is old - kids grow up fast, after all.  If I knew the original version of this, who knows?  Maybe I would find this pointless and stick to the original.  As it stands now, very entertaining.

Same theme of these two guys not really starting as a team, more so like rivals and yes, the women do take some insane abuse - as does everyone else.  The lack of realism softens the blow, compare this to say - ANY OLD PORT from Laurel and Hardy, where the abuse of the female character feels all too real and disturbing.

[Paul Pain]

As far as it being stock footage, there were a few close up shots where they mention something resembling plot I’m assuming is new footage, but other than that, I can’t tell.  Part of it may be we’re not talking the greatest print and another part is I’m not as familiar with these guys as I am The Three Stooges, so the aging process isn’t as obvious.  I imagine any footage with the kid is old - kids grow up fast, after all.  If I knew the original version of this, who knows?  Maybe I would find this pointless and stick to the original.  As it stands now, very entertaining.

I would say not being able to what is and isn't stock footage helps things quite a bit.  I have say my favorite bit doesn't really involve any of the main cast: when the record player and car get blown to hell.

The lack of realism softens the blow, compare this to say - ANY OLD PORT from Laurel and Hardy, where the abuse of the female character feels all too real and disturbing.

This part right here is the important part.  At the end of the day, this is the one thing Columbia shorts consistently captures.

[HomokHarcos]

I love cartoony slapstick violence, so I found this very entertaining. Seeing people get hurt all the time is funny as long as it's not real. Now one issue I do have is that violence is one sided, it's almost always Eddie Quillan hurting Vernon. If Moe got that abuse he would definitely retaliate. I don't have a problem with women being part of the slapstick violence. This short reminds me of a Donald Duck cartoon where he is told to control his temper yet is always getting hit, which makes the problem more difficult.

In this case it's good that we got the remake with stock footage, or else the original would have been totally lost. If we could watch the original, our opinion might be lower.