Film & Shorts Discussions > Random Comedy Reviews

French Fried Frolic (1949) - Wally Brown & Tim Ryan

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metaldams:
Yet another in a long line of domestic mix up comedies.  It’s amazing how few of these The Three Stooges did compared to everyone else.  It’s as if they figured out The Three Stooges as an individual and unique team while a lot of other comedians they gave cliched scripts and just tried to figure out if anything sticks.  Brown and Ryan were just thrown together and are serviceable and likable.  A fun short overall, one of those comfort food deals.

What I got most out of this was seeing Christine McIntyre and Nanette Bordeaux together.  Christine did great with her French accent and the two ladies really compliment each other well.  They also worked well together in HUGS AND MUGS along with Kathleen O’ Malloy, one of the wives in this short.  These two ladies could have been Columbia’s Pitts and Todd.  Heck, even Emil Sitka stood out more than some of these other comedians that were brought in.  It makes me wonder why Columbia didn’t draft in house versus bringing in all these outsiders for two picture deals.

Umbrella Sam:
Alright, Wally Brown and Tim Ryan. Not too familiar of either of their work, although Ryan was of course Irene Ryan’s husband and he also had some Stooge connections (mostly appearing in Shemp solo projects). Wally Brown was apparently in THE MOUSE THAT ROARED, which is a movie I really like, but I haven’t seen it in a while and I don’t remember him in it. Alan Carney, of course, was in my favorite movie, IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD.

As for this short, it’s...fine. This does seem to be another in that long line of random Columbia pairings. To be fair, it does seem like they both are more comfortable in words-based situations, so that might justify the pairing, but even then the word-based gags here aren’t all that funny; that part where they’re talking to Emil after throwing the wives out particularly dragged. Still, the supporting cast is good and there is an occasional unique situation like when Brown and Ryan pretend that their wives are blackmailers. Not bad, but at the same time, I can also kind of see why Columbia didn’t proceed further with this pairing.

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