Topic: Bridge Wives (1932) - Al St. John - Dir: Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle

[metaldams]

      All those years ago, I bought that 4 DVD set THE FORGOTTEN FILMS OF ROSCOE “FATTY” ARBUCKLE.  Lots of great stuff on there, but I became a bit surprised my favorite film on the set is one Roscoe didn’t appear in.  The fourth disc is films he directed and this 1932 one reeler, BRIDGE WIVES, is my favorite film on the set.  Al St. John stars along with on screen wife Fern Emmett.  The story is quite simple.  Fern plays in a three month long bridge tournament and Al is impatient.  You see, she’s neglecting the wifely duties like cleaning and cooking.  Al is relegated to a sink full of dishes and eating sardines on bread.  When the tournament is over, it is announced there is a tie and the tournament will continue for three months.  At this point, Al St. John snaps.

      “Al St. John snaps.”  I really could say this is why I love this short and end the review here, because my words can’t do his performance justice.  I’ll try anyway.  The slow burn Al does when he snaps is brilliant.  The long camera shot that follows with him separate from everyone else in the room is well staged.  Perfect for showing him go mad and wonderful for watching the way he clears out that room.  I never fail to laugh at this.

      The rest of the short?  Simply Al hearing about bridge and getting madder and madder.  The radio stuff is great.  Al hears talk of bridge on the radio, so he tosses the radio through the wall, jumps through the wall and proceeds to bury the radio in a big hole in the yard.  He’s doing these wonderful cackles as he’s doing the burying.  When wife Fern confronts him, he’s measuring her because it’s obvious he wants to bury her as well.  What’s so funny is she’s too dense to realize it until he literally points to her and then the hole in the ground.  Also dig the way the radio announcer is in synch with what Al is doing to the radio, very clever.

      Al is mad this whole short.  A wonderful climax where he takes a perfectly symmetrical dive into a sewer hole.  Between that and the dives through the wall and back flips, Al still has his stunt abilities that harken back to the silent days.  But it’s Al’s madness that is so fun to watch.  Yes, Fern Emmett is good here, Billy Bletcher is really good as the radio announcer and even Lynton Brent (one of the weaker Stooge supporting players, in my opinion), gets a role as a reporter.  But this is Al St. John’s show all the way.  Thank him and Uncle Roscoe for giving us this masterpiece.  One of my favorite comedy shorts ever.

[Paul Pain]

This is one of the finest one-reelers, silent or talkie, I have ever seen.  Al St. John's stunt prowess, especially for the knockabout stuff, was always the best in the silent era, and he still has it here.

The slow burn is absolutely perfect, and the radio is one of the best gag build-ups I have ever seen.  When I saw the camera showing the pipe, I had no idea what was going to follow.  Absolutely brilliant, especially with the cops and Fern not noticing him going absolutely insane.

This is my first time seeing Al in a talkie, and his voice actually matches the expectation based on his face.  But I really just love seeing him in the 1930s do all the wild things that made him so remarkable in the 1910s.

[Umbrella Sam]

I’ll admit, going in, I had my doubts as to whether Al St. John could really hold his own as a lead. For one thing, I didn’t realize this was a one-reeler. As funny of an idea as this is, I think it’s clearly suited to be no more than one reel, especially considering how early Al’s initial freak out is. But, to his credit, that freak out is pretty funny and that manic energy pretty much carries the short. The only part I may argue against is when he’s first digging the hole; it does seem like they spend a bit too much time on that, but even then, what it builds up to, with the radio voice coming out of the sink and then the police playing bridge with his wife, is great. This is mainly Al’s show, but the supporting cast is still good. Fern Emmett does a good job with her reactions, and Billy Bletcher is perfectly cast as the radio announcer; it’s no wonder he was so popular with the major cartoon studios, he has a real natural comic tone that he can create just with his voice. Very fun short, glad I got to check it out.