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

[Paul Pain]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0189533/
http://www.emilsitka.com/frenchfriedfrolic1949.html

FRENCH FRIED FROLIC was the lone effort for Wally Brown & Tim Ryan.  The Emil Sitka diary linked merely contains the details about the part, but there are no diary notes as of now.  This short was one of the first non-Stooge Columbia shorts I ever watched, as at the time I was discovering Emil Sitka's other work, and this is my first viewing of this in 4-5 years.  Outside of Hugh Herbert and Schilling & Lane, there are few of these shorts that I have seen previously.

This short is such a disappointment because it's the lone short for this team.  Wally Brown was an ex-Vaudevillian who handled quick-talking Abbott and Costello type of routines well (unsurprisingly, he was a regular on their radio show) and did well at comically panicking; he died from a throat hemorrhage in 1961.  Tim Ryan, better known as Irene Ryan's ex-husband; Tim and Irene had a short-subject series at Educational from 1935 to 1937; Tim Ryan passed away in 1956, aged 57.  Together, they make an interesting team as hen-pecked husbands desperate for a dollar.

This short has a slightly different premise: Wally and Tim, insurance salesmen, pose as husbands so that two newly-wed French ladies, whose husbands are away, can collect a $50000 dowry from their Uncle Pierre, and in return Tim and Wally get $2500.  It wouldn't be Columbia pictures, though, if Tim and Wally's wives though didn't show up, having conveniently chosen to do their husband's jobs behind their backs and happening to decide to go to the exact same apartment first.  From there, it's all matters of domestic craziness as disguises and trickery abound.  Then, the real husbands just-as-conveniently return from their business trip a day early; and further craziness ensues.

Now, this may seem stale, but there are some wild moments in here; my favorite moment, in particular, is when Tim Ryan bites Frank Sully on the leg, primarily because Tim just doesn't look like the kind of guy who would resort to such measures.  Everything moves rapidly, and the jokes and slapstick is equally rapid.  If fast-paced comedy is your thing, then this is a good short for you.  We even see the full bathtub gag used at the end of THREE DARK HORSES 3 years later.

The cast consists mainly of Columbia workhorses: Emil Sitka, Nanette Bordeaux, Christine McIntyre, etc.  Among those is Eddie Baker, an old staple from the silent-film era.  Overall, there are no major complaints about the cast.  Everyone handles their role well even if most of them are not outstanding.  The ones who are outstanding are Nanette, Christine, and Emil in their French characters. 

9/10

[metaldams]

Wally Brown was part of RKO’s Abbott and Costello knock off team Brown and Carny.  I’ve seen a few of those and they were dreadful.  This should be interesting when I get to it.

[HomokHarcos]

Wally Brown was part of RKO’s Abbott and Costello knock off team Brown and Carny.  I’ve seen a few of those and they were dreadful.  This should be interesting when I get to it.

That's what I know Wally Brown from, but I actually liked Zombies on Broadway. I'll watch this later today.

[metaldams]

That's what I know Wally Brown from, but I actually liked Zombies on Broadway. I'll watch this later today.

I like Zombies on Broadway too, but because of Bela Lugosi and Darby Jones as the zombie.

[HomokHarcos]

That was an entertaining comedy. My favorite part is when Brown and Ryan claimed their wives were blackmailers trying to get money by falsely claiming to be people’s wives and the detective takes them away. Surprisingly the short is well plotted and there doesn’t seem to be any gags that were added in just for the sake of more violence.

[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.