Topic: Glove Affair (1941) - The Glove Slingers

[Paul Pain]

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145796/

Our Columbia shorts journey has come to a [temporary] end.  Aside from the 4 Besser solo remakes, every available two-reel production from the Columbia Shorts Department has been reviewed on this forum.  It's possible that I will do a search this week and find that some others have been uploaded or reuploaded, but otherwise it's time for me to find new material to review!

The Glove Slingers never fail to disappoint, but we have an improvement over the last short.  David Durand, Paul Hurst, and Dorothy Vaughan rehash their roles from before, and now we have Roscoe Ates as Uncle Tom instead of Uncle Pat.  In this one, the character of Terry is now out of college and engaged to be married to Josie. 

This is the most confused short of the set as well as the one with the weakest and most hole-ridden plot.  We get introduced to a new child character with little explanation of who he is or why this cast should care about him, and all we know is that some local thief keeps trying to get the kid in trouble.  It's all very hodge-podge and the plot requires you to turn off your brain too much to enjoy it as a short.

Now, almost 12 minutes of this 16 minute short is dedicated to the antics of Roscoe Ates and Paul Hurst, and they do elicit quite a few laughs in this one.  First, Paul drives the RV (we'll just call it that for ease) down a train track and parks in a tunnel.  Then he outraces the train and successfully pulls the entire car+RV off the road; then suddenly the scene cuts and the RV is back on the train track so they can steal the "train-hits-the-house" motif from Buster Keaton's ONE WEEK.  But it's all much weaker here.

Roscoe and Paul are funny, and this time the obligatory boxing match at the end even has comedic bits beyond just the reactions of the audience.  Dorothy Vaughan seems annoyed to be on the set, and David Durand is just having fun in his few scenes with Pamela Blake and in the fight scene.  Naturally, Vernon Dent is good as the Eastern European grocer.  Just try to enjoy this one for the laughs, and it'll be much better as a two-reel comedy sketch then as a cohesive short.

6/10

[HomokHarcos]

This one does not involve the Glove Singers formula of more plot and a college setting. Instead it is more like you would normally expect from the Jules White shorts division. I actually don't know why it had to be part of the series. I didn't care about the child character, but thought the comedy duo parts were funny. I almost wish we could have gotten a full series of that instead of the Glove Slingers. That scene reminded me of One Week, and I think there was another Buster Keaton movie that used that same gag.

Good run with the Columbia shorts, hopefully more of them turn up in the future. I like the slapstick style that Jules White uses.

[metaldams]

Yeah, this short is indeed pretty hodgepodge.  The first quarter of the film is like a Dead End Kids drama, the second and third quarters a decent slapstick fest and the fourth quarter a return to “plot” with an obligatory boxing match mixed in with some slapstick. 

To probably no one’s surprise, it’s the second and third quarter I like best.  No inventing the wheel here, but a fun set of train and bed gags that keep me entertained.  The most interesting thing for me is hearing Roscoe Ates speak straight.  At first I thought it couldn’t be him because he’s not speaking proto-Porky Pig, but indeed, it’s him.  He only does his trademark stutter in one brief scene when he’s scared.