IMDB:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132353/Joe Smith lived to be 97, and Charlie Dale lived to be 90. The result? 70+ years of working together as a comedy duo, including two shorts made for Columbia Pictures under Charley Chase's direction. The first of these is A NAG IN THE BAG, a short that probably ranks in the top-5 all time for "That makes no sense moments" in a Columbia short.
That said, Smith & Dale, a famous comedy team who relied heavily on snarky interactions and some dialectic humor, were not a favorite of Jules White and canned quickly... probably because their comedy wasn't violent enough. It was an interesting experiment though. The only reason this short exists in such crisp quality is because it was restored as part of the Charley Chase Columbia set.
Restaurateurs were a common feature of the Smith & Dale skits, so it's no surprise that this short features them as deadbeats running a food stand in the middle of a busy city. Addicted gamblers, Smith is a good fit for this role, and Dale follows along nicely as the unwitting victim of Joe's schemes.
This short gave birth to the legendary Columbia phone booth that we all know so well: heavy (in this case, Bud Jamison) is in the phone booth, comic gets in with him, and chaos ensues. Here, however, there is grand climax to the gag. Smith simply makes his phone call, and they eventually all get out of the booth. No exploding booths, no fingers getting jammed where they don't belong, and no one biting himself in the leg.
The scenes once Smith & Dale get to the race track are uninspiring and downright stupid at times. We see firsthand the bad side of Charley Chase: things get a little too farfetched and air-headed for my liking. I think Charley had the natural ability to be a good director, but he needed a second director working with him until he got his act together. Charley does play a role in this one; see if you spot him (hint, you can't).
It's an interesting pairing, and I hope their other short is available because Smith & Dale have the potential to be a riot given a better script.
6/10