Eh, I don’t know. For me, this falls under the stock “domestic category”, where Columbia simply puts a comedian they don’t know what to do with in a setting not suited for them. I thought Catlett was great in YOU’RE NEXT!, but that’s because he’s allowed to be a comic leader in the style of Robert Woolsey like he was always meant to be. Here, he’s basically being subjected to constant abuse from an incredibly annoying Vivian Oakland. Maybe he played these types of roles more often than I think, but the Walter Catlett I’m familiar with is the scheming type, the one who can talk his way out of anything. Here, he just seems a bit too out of his comfort zone.
It’s a shame, because there are some good ideas here. I like the scene with the son changing the radio program while Catlett is trying to bake a cake, but it doesn’t feel unique to Catlett; just about any comedian could have done this. Billy Gilbert shows up and while it’s great to see him in just about anything, he too seems like he’s not being used to his full potential; when he seems like he’s finally on the burst of a comical explosion of anger, they cut to something else.
One thing I think this short does have going for it is Monte Collins as the brother-in-law, the type of character I normally hate in these types of comedies. But Monte Collins is one of the few types who I think can genuinely pull this off; like Shemp Howard, he has that infectious laugh you can’t help but enjoy, even if he’s basically ruining his sister and brother-in-law’s lives in the process. He remains consistently funny throughout the short, but unfortunately his role diminishes significantly in the middle before suddenly returning near the end.
In general, I wasn’t a fan. The scene with Walter and the strong man was awful; the bit at the beginning where we hear Walter and Vivian’s thoughts was weird and pretty much disappears, making it seem pointless; and the ending is very rushed...literally. In sped up footage, Walter just chases Heinie Conklin, steals the bag and goes back inside with no real resolution at all. Again, there are some good ideas here and I can see others liking it, but it’s not my type of comedy, and certainly not the type of thing I want to see Walter Catlett doing.
