Topic: Billie Gets Her Man (1948) - Billie Burke

[Paul Pain]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041180/

Really, this short is more about Patsy Moran, Dick Wessel, and Emil Sitka, but paid star gets billed as star.

Emil Sitka got his first major role in this short.  What a role it was!  As Emil notes, this is Hans Schumm as the German doctor and not Andre Pola, as other sites claim.  Read more at his diary here: http://www.emilsitka.com/billiegetsherman1948.html

Billie Burke was 63 years old when this was made.  It shows as all her comedy comes from her speaking and has little to no Columbia slapstick.  Here, she's merely an hysterical old widow who mistakenly thinks her daughter is pregnant.  Her best moment is when she shoves all the expectant fathers aside to get to the nurse.  Most of the way she's just sniveling and far from her starring past as the Good Witch of the North in THE WIZARD OF OZ.  Parts of this plot were later recycled as part of one Three Stooges short, GENTS IN A JAM, and were recycled from two earlier ones, FROM NURSE TO WORSE and MONKEY BUSINESSMEN.

The funniest parts come from Patsy Moran, Dick Wessel, and Emil Sitka.  There is fantastic slapstick work among in spite of the behind-the-scenes problems.   Patsy and Dick make an hilarious couple and endure tons of abuse.  They really carry the comedic weight of this short.

We have people taking dangerous falls, people getting their skulls bashed, medical ether used, vases in the face, and a violent hospital chase scene.  The violence more that expected from a Three Stooges short, really.

Please read Emil's diary notes for this one.

Next week, we start Harry Langdon's shorts.

7/10

[metaldams]

Had no clue Billie Burke worked with the Columbia Shorts unit.  Time to get my book out again.  Will check this out in a bit.

[Paul Pain]

Had no clue Billie Burke worked with the Columbia Shorts unit.  Time to get my book out again.  Will check this out in a bit.

She made two shorts, the other of which is lost.

[GreenCanaries]

As Emil notes, this is Hans Schumm as the German doctor and not Andre Pola, as other sites claim.

They're technically correct. "Andre Pola" was a stage name of Hans Schumm. He also appears (credited under that name) in FUELIN' AROUND and WAITING IN THE LURCH. (See here.)

[Paul Pain]

They're technically correct. "Andre Pola" was a stage name of Hans Schumm. He also appears (credited under that name) in FUELIN' AROUND and WAITING IN THE LURCH. (See here.)

Oh, now I know what my mistake was!  I was looking for him under the wrong short title instead of WAITING IN THE LURCH!  I was remembering him as the doctor from that short but looked for him listed in a different short.  Now, get to work and watch the short!  It has some funny moments!

[metaldams]

Yes, just watched this one and it’s almost proof Columbia had a house style of making shorts that applied to about everybody they made shorts with.  It will be interesting to see how the Langdon series goes, but that was earlier.  By 1948, when BILLIE GETS HER MAN was released, the Columbia style of pacing and slapstick was well established.

In this established environment, we get Billie Burke, a veteran comedienne in her sixties who obviously wasn’t going to be taking hard slapstick - so instead of tailoring a short to her, they build a typical Columbia short around her.  The results are entertaining, but this does play more like an ensemble piece than a Billie Burke short.  Still, Ms. Burke was wonderful with what she was given, having a way of delivering a skittish line.  If the short was centered around her completely, she would have worked wonderful in some type of boxed in domestic comedy, like early television.

What we get is a lot of slapstick by Dick Wessel and especially Emil Sitka.  This is definitely a prototype for Sitka’s Uncle Phineas in GENTS IN A JAM, down to the train of people running him over in the end and being the long lost rich lover.

Another short that should be of interest to Stooge fans.

...and after reading Sitka’s diary entry, understandable why Burke was not at the receiving end.  Fascinating read about what he went through and not a flattering portrait of Patsy Moran.

[Umbrella Sam]

Based off of the few non-WIZARD OF OZ films I’ve seen Billie Burke in (MERRILY WE LIVE, ZENOBIA, and at least one other film I can’t recall the name of at this moment), Burke seems to pretty much be doing the same kind of comedy she usually did, and that’s a good thing. She seems to usually play a somewhat eccentric person, yet she’s so sweet that it’s hard to not like her, and if Sitka’s diary entries are to be believed, it seems she was just as nice in real life. And to Columbia’s credit, she does actually have some pretty funny spoken word gags. I especially loved when she asked the nurse, “Am I a grandfather or a grandmother?” instead of “Is it a boy or a girl?”

As far as the rest of the cast goes, they’re more in line with Columbia’s usual style, but they’re still very good at it. Dick Wessel plays the dumb guy and Patsy Moran the mean maid (and again, reading Sitka’s diary entries, I can see why she tended to get those parts). Sitka himself is the real standout, though, and he does do a lot of slapstick. Like metaldams mentioned, it’s very reminiscent of what would later be his role in GENTS IN A JAM. Despite doing almost nothing to anyone, the whole world just seems out to get him, and Sitka is great with delivering reactions.

Overall, I really enjoyed this short.

9 out of 10