Topic: Meet Mr. Mischief (1947) - Harry von Zell

[Paul Pain]

Emil Sitka's diary entry: http://www.emilsitka.com/meetmrmischief1947.html

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171519/

Harry von Zell was, in the 1930s to 1950s, one of the most famous radio voices in America.  He worked with, among others, George Burns, Eddie Cantor, and Dinah Shore.  His fame was such that he emceed a nationally televised birthday tribute to then-President Herbert Hoover, famously saying Hoover's name wrong on air.  Unsurprisingly, the Harry von Zell series of Columbia shorts features the misadventures of a radio host.  von Zell is one of the few non-Stooge actors to have his face on the title card of a short.

MEET MR. MISCHIEF is the second short in the series, as the first (supposedly a dud) is unavailable as of this post.  This short has, overall, one of the most cohesive plots that we will ever see in a Columbia short.  The laughs come quickly and in a variety of ways, which makes this one never really boring.  You won't be disappointed.

Harry immediately establishes himself as the appropriately titled Mr. Mischief, a guy who will take every possible opportunity to pull a prank on someone or make a wise crack.  All sorts of slapstick and all manners of joke ensue from this and see Harry torment his coworkers, his friends, and his wife.  We can't ruin the short by detailing it all though.  The entire angle of the man wanting Harry's head and then chasing him all over the studio was hilariously dark, especially with how Harry handles it.  The chase through the different shows and attracting the hire of the various hosts leads to an appropriately mischievous courtroom scene with a satisfying conclusion.

Harry is great.  Christine McIntyre is great as Harry's long-suffering wife.  Emil Sitka is always a hoot as the nervous, eccentric old man.  Dudley Dickerson is always great when scare reactions are needed.  Symona Boniface, Victor Potel, and Fred Kelsey all deserve mentions for their roles.  But Ralf Harolde is definitely the highlight as the cult leader looking to decapitate Harry; he's slimy, perseverant, and fearless.  He would have done great as a slimy Phil von Zandt type if he had been in more shorts.

Some might be tempted to dismiss this as a scare comedy, but really Harry does more panicking than scare reactions.  Overall, it's really more about the comic chase than the scare angle.  All the scares are delivered by Dudley Dickerson, while Harry is more bumbling and running.  Harry's radio talents translate well into his character here, and I think you won't be disappointed.

9/10

[HomokHarcos]

This was a surprisingly hilarious short as I didn't know who Harry von Zell was. I loved the beginning when he was the practical joker, he was great at playing that jerk wise guy and I was laughing a lot at it. There's a similar scene in a Clark and McCullough short where Bud Jamison plays a bunch of pranks on them that I really liked. The gun part reminded me of when Stone Cold Steve Austin threated to shoot Vince McMahon only for it to be a toy gun.

 Then came the part with the swordsman, it was also entertaining but seemed like a departure for him character wise, but when when he was doing the radio broadcasts he was right back to doing the wisecracks.  Overall a very good film and I definitely want to see more starring him, there were several times when I was watching this that I rewinded and watched a scene over because I found it funny. Also who is the woman in the beginning of the film? She looks quite a bit like Hedy Lamarr.

[metaldams]

After the first few minutes of this short, I didn’t have high hopes.  One dimensional practical jokes that were back to back to back to back to…..and it just seemed liked we had a stinker.  Then a third of the way through this thing, the beheading business starts and this short becomes awesome in a DOPEY DICKS kind of way.  As an added bonus, Dudley Dickerson scare reactions a plenty and the cast is a who’s who of Columbia, Christine, Emil, Symona, Vernon, Fred Kelsey….a lot of familiar faces.  So yeah, the good outweighs the bad, I give it a thumbs up.

[Umbrella Sam]

Going into this, I didn’t really know what to think. A radio announcer pulling off the Columbia style? It just didn’t sound right. True, some radio announcers were incorporated into the comedy of their shows (Don Wilson comes to mind), but even then, that’s still a completely different style. Well, I was pleasantly surprised, because this was one of the most entertaining Columbia shorts I’ve seen. Harry himself fits the main role well; a guy with a sense of humor, but still enough regular sense to make a good fall guy when Christine is trying to teach him a lesson. There are some good radio references in here; the closet gag is a reference to a long standing running gag on Fibber McGee and Molly, in which Fibber would open the closet to the sound of multiple things falling out. The supporting cast is great; Fred Kelsey as the officer who momentarily forgets he’s an officer; Emil Sitka as the guy getting constantly beat up; Symona Boniface as someone getting easily irritated; Vernon Dent as...well, the man could pull off any role. One thing I found interesting was seeing Phil Arnold as the effects guy. It’s funny, because I always felt he had a perfect voice for radio comedy and he gets to show that off here for once. There’s just so much craziness in here whether it’s the party scene or the scenes with Harry thinking he’s going to get killed. It just throws joke after joke at you and they constantly hit. I think my favorite part is when Harry runs into Kelsey and gets Kelsey so worried that Kelsey is calling for the police. Overall, a really solid short.