Topic: Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes (1926) - Ted Healy, James Finlayson: Dir: Stan Laurel

[metaldams]

      So there’s fan letters out there that Stan Laurel wrote in the mid fifties.  You’ve probably heard me say this before, but when commenting on Shemp’s death, he refers to The Three Stooges as “Healy’s boys.”  It just shocked me because Healy was dead for almost twenty years at this point and The Three Stooges, in my eyes, and I’m guessing yours too, have crawled out of the shadow of Ted Healy by this point.  Yet in Stan’s mind, they were still Healy’s boys.  Well….

     It turns out in 1926, Stan actually directed a silent short for Hal Roach that had Ted Healy in it.  You’d think I would know about this, but it took me years before I found this out.  It was Healy’s only silent era performance.  I would love to know what led to this pairing and what Stan’s professional and personal relationship with Healy was like.  Obviously based on this filmed evidence, there was a little something and it’s such a shame Healy’s boys didn’t get in front of the camera with him.  As for Stan himself, his career was in limbo here.  This is after his initial Roach and Joe Rock runs as a solo comedian and before teaming with Oliver Hardy.  So Stan was directing and writing and films like WISE GUYS PREFER BRUNETTES.

      So how is this thing?  It’s OK, a case where I like the first reel better than the second reel.  Let’s talk about Ted here.  Pretty fascinating watching him play a supportive boyfriend to to the dress shop owner (Helene Chadwick) instead of playing a hard boiled wise guy drunk slapping Stooges around.  With the Stooges, Healy to me always seemed older than he really was but here he does appear somewhat youthful and in reality, he was only in his late twenties here.  He’s got a sci-fi thing going by inventing some youth powder that makes old Jimmy Finlayson act young.

      As far as Mr. Finlayson goes, this short offers a nice excuse for a few close-ups for him to do his patented facial expressions in the first reel.  He plays a Dean of a girl’s college who is upset by the skimpy clothes (by standards of the time) the girls wear from the dress shop of Ms. Chadwick.  So he gets into Healy’s youth powder.  After a fun scene where Ted tries to wrestle Finlayson to get him powdered, he ends up taking the powder accidentally in a sauna.  Now Finlayson has an eye for the young girls again which easily leads to the best scene in the short.  He’s underwater with a girl, in slow motion, having a chat with her.  Very fun and surreal and this is the kind of thing that helps me really appreciate the world of silent comedy. 

      The second reel turns into drag comedy and bedroom chases, so if you know my tastes, not really my thing.  Not many close ups of the comedians and whatever character could have been developed with Healy gets totally lost in drag.  Just a lot of mindless chasing around and it’s times like these where my brain just lets go of the plot and enjoys it all on a strictly superficial level.  Nothing wrong with that, but that kind of thinking doesn’t lead to good reviews.

     So we get an interesting novelty here.  Ted Healy, at Hal Roach, in 1926, directed by Stan Laurel.  If anybody has any background story about this, please share.  I’d love to hear it.

[Dr. Mabuse]

If anybody has any background story about this, please share.  I’d love to hear it.

From what I have read in the trades, Healy was borrowed from vaudeville to support Helene Chadwick in her two-reel comedy debut. Roach signed Ted for a one-picture deal.

No longer a dramatic star, Chadwick had an uncredited role as Del Henderson's wife in W.C. Fields' "It's a Gift."

[Umbrella Sam]

From what I recall from those letters, Stan was always talking to Betty Healy whenever Ted and the Stooges came up. So I’d be interested to know if Stan was already friends with Betty at this point or if this was how they met. Judging from what Dr. Mabuse said, it sounds like the latter, though I suppose it’s possible Stan could have also had some influence on Roach’s decision.

As for the short itself...eh, for the most part, I wasn’t a fan. The first half gives off some major early Keystone vibes, especially when Finlayson is at the pool. Some impressive stunt work, yes, but it’s not funny. It’s basically just Finlayson doing these wild reactions, which are funny in supporting roles, but they can’t carry a whole short on their own. I was wondering beforehand why Healy only did one silent film, but after watching this, I can see why. His reactions are very bland. Look at how he reacts when Helene Chadwick kisses him, it’s clear they’re trying to make something funny out of it, but he’s not giving them anything to work with.

The second half really isn’t much better; the plot doesn’t really go anywhere and it turns into this very bizarre mix up with Healy and Finlayson dressing up as the matron. The only part I kind of liked was when Healy was wrestling Finlayson while dressed as the matron. Finlayson’s confusion matched with Healy going so overboard did make me laugh, but then it’s mixed with this unfunny bit where Helene Chadwick is struggling to operate a camera, and it goes on for what feels like forever. Very chaotic and not all that entertaining, but I still preferred it to the first half, which seemed to be more of a showcase for effects and animation than anything else.

[Paul Pain]

Very weird, disjointed short.  It's a curio of legends, but it lacks on all levels.