Film #14 - Feed 'em and Weep (1928)

 

    

Starring Anita Garvin and Marion Byron.

 

Featuring Max Davidson, Charlie Hall, and Edgar Kennedy.

 

Directed by Fred L. Guiol.

 

Synopsis

"Two girls - working their way to Hollywood"

 

        



"Feed 'em and Weep" begins with restaurant owner Max Davidson and head chef Charlie Hall preparing lunch for 100 people - the delegates of the Pants Makers convention. To ensure a swift and speedy dinner, Max has asked the agency to send him two waitresses...

It just so turns out that the two waitresses sent by the agency are Anita Garvin and Marion Byron.

For reasons that we don't know (because a lot of the early minutes of the film are lost), the girls are forced to get out of the car that they have been travelling in, with 10 miles still to go until they reach the railway "restaurant" - I use the term lightly.

Anita and Marion don't want to walk the 10 miles, so Anita suggests that they attempt to look "vampy" in an attempt to hitch a lift.

This fails miserably and the girls get caked in dust! Trying to find a reason why the male motorist didn't stop, Anita puts it down to Marion's face being too scary.

They're left with no choice but to walk. They've barely gone six feet before all five foot and a bit of Peanuts falls on the floor; having tripped over a rock. Anita picks her up, and chides Marion for not looking where she's going...

Only for Anita to fall down a hole!

They finally arrive at the restaurant but have trouble opening the door, until a dog manages to open it for them.

The girls meet Max in the kitchen and Marion ends up putting her hand in a bowl of something gooey.

The train arrives at the station and the people flock right into the restaurant, trampling over Max's body in the process.

The mass rush to tables, shoving past Anita and Marion.

Somehow, in the mad rush to serve the customers their food, Max trips over and gets his head jammed between the door and the door frame. Marion's bumbling inefficiency sees her repeatedly push the door against Mr Davidson's head! Even Anita joins in, giving Max's head a couple of whacks with the door before the hapless chap gets their attention and makes them stop.

Then a full-scale melee ensues - Max, Anita, and Marion all start serving food, but, with catastrophic and hilarious results.

Just after Max has been sent flying over a table, the conductor (Edgar Kennedy) appears and informs people that they only have 15 minutes to eat!

Anita bungles next, dropping food over customers, whilst Marion gets sent over a table and ends up landing face-first in the dish that she is carrying. Max hoists her up by her skirt, ripping it in the process (Marion is unaware of this).

Marion comes out to serve, unsure of why all of the diners laugh at her. She soon finds out that her skirt has fallen down slightly, revealing a part of her underwear.

Marion's attempt at a quick fix fails miserably, as, again, unknown to her, her skirt falls off completely, leaving her to serve in her underwear.

This rouses more laughter and Max flings himself over another table in the process.

Anita and Marion start fighting with each other, which turns into a full-scale food fight involving the diners!

Max attempts to get his revenge on the girls by bringing out some food to throw at them, but Marion trips him up and he lands face-first in the dishes.  
 

Review

"Anita - she knows everything - - Marion - she knows nothing"


 

    

"Feed 'em and Weep", the first of just three short films that Anita Garvin and Marion Byron made as a comedy team, is probably my least favourite of their short-lived pairing.

It's still a decent short, but lacks much of the originality of "Going Ga-Ga" and "A Pair of Tights".

"Feed 'em and Weep" is a nice starter for the series - you'd feel more comfortable writing that sentence in 1928, not knowing that there were only going to be two other shorts featuring the pair - and it does contain some nice touches which would have stood both Anita Garvin and Marion Byron in good stead to make a durable comedy duo.

Some of these I've mentioned in my previous review of "Going Ga-Ga", but just to run through them again: The height gags make for some good, easy comedy, as does the fact that both Marion and Anita work in very different ways to elicit laughter from the viewer.

Once again, like in "Going Ga-Ga", I find myself laughing more at Marion than Anita, largely due to Marion's penchant for silly faces and amazing ability to do deadpan in the silliest situations. Her moments with Max in this film are very funny indeed.

Anita Garvin's comedy, like Marion's, does involve physical comedy to get a good laugh - just look at how Anita throws herself over a table during the mad rush of diners to get into the restaurant - but she also seems to foreshadow what the Roach studios would expect later on of Thelma Todd, the vampish looking, eye-fluttering sweetie who ends up getting bumped around or in trouble because of a clumsy partner.

It's probably telling that when I think of Hal Roach's women that made up his comedy teams, if you think immediately of ZaSu Pitts, Patsy Kelly, or indeed, Marion Byron, you can conjure up their quirky traits in your head of what "makes" them as slapstick comediennes. When I think of Anita Garvin, it's hard to think of her own individual style and/or quirkiness. Granted, Pitts and Kelly had a lot more films to work with than Anita Garvin, but still, Marion Byron's character is just more likeable than Anita Garvin's in the three films that they made together.

Perhaps the bosses were a bit unsure what to do with Anita Garvin, apart from the height difference providing obvious gags? She is a good actor; that's for sure. She's funny, and has a great way of conveying a variety of passions with her eyes. I like watching her act; it's just that I feel the writers could have done more to make her more of a quirky foil to Marion Byron's character than what they did.

Having said that, I definitely feel that there was enough potential for the Byron and Garvin pairing to acquire a certain longevity as a good comedy pairing at the Hal Roach studios. And, in "Feed 'em and Weep", we can see that the writers were already creating several nice touches that could have become trademark gags had the series continued for longer. One such example is that little Marion Byron carries a handbag that is much bigger than tall Anita Garvin's, which is very small indeed!

This makes it all the stranger as to why the series just stopped after "A Pair of Tights". As I've mentioned already, Anita Garvin did carry on working with the Hal Roach studios, Marion Byron didn't. But could the Garvin/Byron pairing have been panned because Hal Roach had signed Harry Langdon on a big money contract, shortly after "A Pair of Tights" was completed? Byron and Garvin's series may have been unfortunate victims of studio budget cuts.  

"Feed 'em and Weep" is also curious in the sense that it is probably the most "Laurel and Hardy" of the three shorts that the girls made together. With Anita's bossiness that often backfires into mishaps mirroring Hardy's, and Marion's clumsiness and silly faces matching Laurel's, it's an interesting connection in a script that also does feel very Laurel and Hardy-esque. If Hal Roach did want to create a female Laurel and Hardy, it seems like he hedged his bets on Byron and Garvin as his women to do the job. By the time Pitts and Todd appear a few years later, Roach seems to have given up trying to create an exact replica of Laurel and Hardy in female form, instead, he looked to cash in on the potential of a female comedy duo with popular actresses.

Ok, so what do I like best about "Feed 'em and Weep"?

Well, I can tell you what I dislike first of all - it's a great shame that the surviving film is incomplete. Even though it is a great shame that some sections of the film are missing, it's by no means as fragmented as some of the films contained on the German Filmmuseum's Max Davidson set, some of which, sadly, are missing huge chunks which does affect your understanding and enjoyment of the film.

It would be nice to know exactly what happens to the girls at the start of the film; why they get out of the car and what happens to them immediately afterwards, and I also get the sense that some of the film right at the end of the short is missing. But all in all, the missing footage does not ruin the cohesion of the film.

So here's what I like best about the film:

Marion trying to pull Anita out of the hole in the road. It's a nice, simple slapstick moment before the real meat of the comedy takes place in the railway restaurant.

I like the moment when the girls try to get into the restaurant but have trouble opening the door. For me, this really smacks me as a fine example of Laurel and Hardy-type comedy, with Marion's upset facial expressions and Anita's firm hand moving Marion out of the way so that she can try (and fail) to open the door herself resembling Laurel and Hardy. Anita's clear "I'll do it," with a hand pressed to the chest is textbook Oliver Hardy. Marion's cute scrunched-up-face-giggle is also on a par with Stan's big smiles in the face of error.

Once they get inside, it's Marion Byron who really comes into her own with regards to quirkiness and comedy. Her deadpan, almost confused expressions are again reminiscent of classic Stan Laurel, and her interactions with Max Davidson are hilarious.

Just take the moment where Anita tries to vamp it up with Max whilst Marion just stares wistfully into the distance with a look of utter blankness all over her face - that's brilliant, and remarkably different from what her character would become in "A Pair of Tights", where she's the energetic flapper that we'd seen in "Steamboat Bill, Jr". Again, I wonder why the sudden change in Marion Byron's character between the second and third films the girls made?

Max Davidson provides some great moments of comedy, whether he's being trampled by hungry diners or getting his head and throat smashed with a door being pushed by Marion and Anita. The sight of Max on the floor as Marion and then Anita shove the door into his face is one of my favourite moments in the whole film. The look on the girls' faces is also brilliant!

And, seeing Max with egg(s) on his face is also one of the highlights of the film - it's made funnier by Marion's cheeky grin!

Anita Garvin is in her element once the catastrophe with serving the food begins, rolling her eyes in frustration, looking nervous, trying not to laugh at Max's exploits, and all of this makes for some good comedy. The slightly unoriginal food fight plot is made better by the interesting dimension that Marion unknowingly serves food with her lower undergarments showing, before losing her skirt completely!

Her way of moving round the room, vainly trying to keep her skirt up (when in fact, of course, it's fallen down a while ago), is hilarious.

The final fight between Marion and Anita also reminds me of moments when Laurel and Hardy would turn on each other and effectively trash a place. Marion delivers a very realistic looking boot to the backside of Anita, whereas Anita really gives Marion a good whack with some food (ouch!)!

If I'm being terribly harsh, it's rather clear that it's obviously not Marion Byron who goes over a table and gets food splattered in her face towards the end of the film: as would be expected, it's a stunt double - possibly a man (?!), it's too hard to tell. Max's body stunt double is more believable though!

Overall, I like "Feed 'em and Weep", but it ranks behind "Going Ga-Ga" and "A Pair of Tights" in terms of enjoyability, in my opinion.

What do you think of "Feed 'em and Weep" and Marion Byron and Anita Garvin in general?

Watch it

"It was your face! It scared him!"

 

 

 
"Feed 'em and Weep" is available on DVD, beautifully restored by the German Filmmuseum as part of their "Female Comedy Teams" set.

 

Here's the link: Female Comedy Teams DVD 

Film #13 - Top Flat (1935)

 

   

Starring Patsy Kelly and Thelma Todd.

 

Featuring Grace Goodall, Fuzzy Knight, Ferdinand Munier, and Gary Owen.

 

Directed by William Terhune and Jack Jevne.

 

Synopsis

"You'd better go on the wagon!"

 

       



Patsy and Thelma are at home. Patsy's ironing, and Thelma is writing "poetry"...

Patsy doesn't appreciate Thelma's literary endeavours, pointing out to her pal that the grocery bill and rent are unpaid.

Thelma takes exception to her poetry being insulted, and she declares that they should split up...

We next see Thelma working as a French maid in a "top flat" at The Warwick. Thelma's going under the alias of 'Marie', and works for a Mr and Mrs Lamont (played by Ferdinand Munier and Grace Goodall respectively).

Thelma takes Mrs Lamont's fur coat down to "Andre's" for storage for the summer. In getting out of the chauffeur driven car she bumps into Patsy.

Patsy's chuffed for her pal, believing that Thelma has "made it" by selling her poetry for a fortune. A distant Thelma invites Patsy to visit her at her penthouse one day.

Patsy gets the address from the chauffeur (Buddy Roosevelt), who has been listening in to Thelma's lies the whole time.

Mr and Mrs Lamont go out for dinner one evening, and Patsy rocks up to visit her old pal with a couple of loud and goofy boyfriends (played by Fuzzy Knight and Gary Owen).

Thelma is not happy to see the rowdy and raucous uninvited guests (who enter pushing Patsy in a wheelbarrow sporting a "Men at Work" sign).

The trio get busy making music a noise with the piano... Thelma gets anxious and tries to tell Patsy the real situation, but you know Kelly - it's hard to get a word in edgeways!

In an attempt to keep the peace, Thelma ushers the boys outside onto the balcony. Patsy takes the opportunity to mix herself a drink, but doesn't like what she swallowed!

The boys amuse themselves by making water bombs which they dutifully drop on unsuspecting passers-by.

In the meantime, Kelly decides to take a bath, much to Thelma's chagrin.

Thelma finally manages to tell Patsy that she doesn't own the penthouse. Patsy just laughs!

Just at that moment, Mr and Mrs Lamont return to the apartment. Thelma tries to get Patsy out of the tub and out of the flat as quickly as possible.

This involves several trying moments, firstly, as Mr Lamont enters the bathroom, Thelma must hold Patsy's head under the water until he leaves.

Kelly later has to hide in Mrs Lamont's bed and then in the closet to avoid detection. Mrs Lamont gets into her bed and goes under the covers, only for Mr Lamont to suspect that 'Marie' is under there! He arranges a rendezvous for both of them, which, of course, his wife doesn't like too much...

Patsy takes the opportunity to escape the bedroom and makes for the exit with Thelma. A cop is at the door, having been struck by one of the water bombs thrown from the balcony.

Just at that moment, Mrs Lamont enters the sitting room, chasing her husband. He crashes into the wheelbarrow and is chastised by the policeman for being 'drunk and disorderly'.

Patsy, Thelma, and the boys make a quick exit...
 

Review

"Upon the wall a picture, a picture upon the wall. Upon the wall a picture, and some wallpaper"


 

   

"Top Flat", the penultimate Todd and Kelly film, must have been a strange short film to experience upon its initial release in December 1935.

It would have premiered in cinemas less than one week after Thelma Todd's tragic death. I wonder what the mood would have been like in cinemas at the time? It must have been difficult for some cinemagoers to watch this short, knowing that Thelma Todd had passed away just a few days previously, even if they did want to laugh at the comedy and appreciate the late comedienne.

Watching the film eighty years later, without the shock and sorrow attached which might have been prevalent in 1935, I still believe that "Top Flat" is a strange film in the Kelly/Todd series.

For reasons that I will explain below, it's my opinion that this is not one of the better Todd/Kelly films. It's not the worst, but it would be nowhere near featuring on my "Top 10" list of films that the girls made together.

And here's the reason why, I feel.

It's simply not that funny.

There aren't that many laughs in it. "Babes in the Goods", "Beauty and the Bus", and possibly my favourite Kelly/Todd short, "Soup and Fish", all have great moments of laugh-out-loud comedy. "Top Flat" by comparison, veers towards the type of comedy you'd expect from a Kelly/Todd short, but never actually takes you past the stage of a wry smile of appreciation.

I wonder why? Here are a few of my thoughts why this is:

It's not because the series had run its course: "An All American Toothache", the final Todd/Kelly film maintains the nice mixture of originality and bonkers humour that, in my opinion, the series showcases. Even "Pan Handlers" and the two short films with Kelly and Lyda Roberti tick that box - original, slightly bonkers, laugh-fests. So it's not that.

Perhaps this is why:

I always used to groan - inaudibly, of course, such is my love of silent cinema - whenever I saw a Pitts/Todd or Kelly/Todd film that featured boyfriends - generally I think that the films with boyfriends in are not as funny as when Pitts/Todd or Kelly/Todd are left alone together to their own devices.

"Top Flat" confirms my suspicions with that respect. Fuzzy Knight and Gary Owen get their irritating characters down to a 'T' with their performances, but I just don't warm to them that much. I know I'm supposed to find them irritating, but they just grate me most of the time. Especially the god-awful singing, which requires Todd to dance awkwardly and for Kelly to sit awkwardly on the piano - both very much taking a backseat. It's just not that funny.

It's hard to explain, but I often feel that in films where Laurel and Hardy's wives are present, they heighten the comedy. In this particular Kelly/Todd short, the boyfriends just seem to get in the way. They don't heighten the comedy with Patsy and Thelma, and it's probably not surprising that in this film, after a while, the women are paired off together and the men are paired together with little interaction between them until the end. Patsy clowns around in the bath to the annoyance of Thelma, whereas the two men are stuck with each other throwing water bombs. That kind of reinforces my point that pitting boyfriends as comedic foils alongside Kelly and Todd does not work.

Perhaps I'm being overly harsh on the men; it might just be that the script for this particular film is not that strong. After all, for how many minutes can you drag out the scenario that Thelma is hurriedly trying to tell Patsy that she has lied and the penthouse isn't hers? Just about long enough to make a short film in the Kelly/Todd series, could be the answer.

It sounds like I don't think much of "Top Flat". That's not necessarily true. I don't dislike "Top Flat", but it is quite weak in terms of originality and, well, laughs. I just don't find it that funny compared to many of the other Kelly/Todd films. It has some nice moments, but they are more "wry smile" moments rather than uncontrollable smirks and snorts of laughter, as I've already mentioned above.

However...

The girls seem a little out of character, as well, which is strange. Patsy's still brash and loud in places, but gone are many of her particular quirks - such as clumsiness and hostility - and pet names for Thelma which feature in other films. But, don't get me wrong, Kelly is not that different compared to her character in the series. It's Todd's which strikes me the most in this instance. Thelma's character requires her to be anxious and nervy for the majority of the film, which is quite markedly different from the type of figure she usually cuts in the other Pitts/Todd and Kelly/Todd films. I often think that Gus Meins was the best director for the Pitts/Todd and Kelly/Todd films, and he often brings out the best chemistry between the girls. And, of course, he doesn't direct "Top Flat". Instead we have two directors, which seems a tad strange for an eighteen minute film. Does anybody else feel that things feel a little flat - apologies for the pun - in this film?

In fact, some of the best bits in this film are at the start when Thelma is reciting her poetry and the ending, with Patsy trying to escape from the flat with Thelma's assistance as Mr Lamont bungles around. The bits in the middle are merely "meh" rather than making "whoopee!" - as Mr Lamont would have it.

So, what do I like about this film?

I genuinely think that the opening footage of the film is the best. It's funny to see Thelma's character strongly believe that her "poetry" is brilliant, and chuck in Kelly's humorous asides and blatant facial expressions revealing disgust towards the poet laureate, it's good! Patsy's line that Thelma "had better go on the wagon" is well-timed after Thelma mentions a horse, as in Patsy's mind her pal has been drinking too much. Patsy's snarky quips and Thelma's staunch defiance give some of the best laughs in this film, but it's a shame that after Kelly retorts to the poetess "Wouldn't you be surprised if [the poems] sold for $10,000", the comedy goes downhill in the film...

It's slightly funny, I guess, to laugh at Patsy when she's looking gawky in her uniform in the street carrying a package, when she meets a glamorous Thelma. Both Kelly and Todd milk this exchange for all it's worth, in what is effectively a necessary exchange to set up the possibility of getting Kelly into the "top flat" with Thelma. It is mere scene setting rather than an opportunity to provide humour, although when Patsy walks away muttering to herself in the style of Thelma's poetry, that was a nice touch.

Then we get the part of the film with the boyfriends....(see my comments above)...

As Thelma's character requires her to become increasingly anxious - with a distinct lack of comedy and humour in the part - it's down to Patsy to provide comic relief. Kelly's dislike of the alcohol she consumes is OK. It's not vintage Kelly, and, if anything, seems to be a excuse to get the girls into the bathroom and out of sight of the boyfriends on the balcony. Once again the plot feels a bit forced and unnatural...

...and it's made worse by the fact that Kelly decides to take a bath! I ask myself: Really? During a date with boyfriends at Thelma's swish apartment, Kelly just decides to get in the bath? I've often suspended my disbelief at many a theatre production and comedy short over the years, but even I find this a bit forced. The plot requires Kelly to get in a bit of a scrap by losing her clothes, so a bath seems to be a nice option, but it just makes the whole film once again seem a bit forced and unnatural. There are plenty of Kelly/Todd films where the situation lends itself to great, believable comedy out of the circumstances presented to Kelly and Todd - usually with Kelly's bungling; see "Backs to Nature", for example - but, I don't know, again, it feels weird here.

It's funny seeing Kelly in the bath, but not that funny. I like it when Thelma holds her under the water for quite a while when Mr Lamont enters, though.

Ferdinand Munier and Grace Goodall as Mr and Mrs Lamont give some good life to the final parts of the film, especially Ferdinand Munier as the bumbling old fool who has the hots for his French maid.

It's right at the end of the film where things do pick up, with Thelma anxiously trying to get Patsy out of the flat. It's funny to see Kelly in Mr Lamont's oversized pyjamas, but again, the final laughs are garnered by Munier and Goodall as Mr Lamont is chased through the apartment before he ends up in the wheelbarrow clutching the "Men at Work " sign.

The segments with the boys throwing water bombs are actually pretty good, if a little overdone. Especially when their water bombs hit an old English gentleman: "Oh, I say, old chap, is that cricket?" - probably the best line in the whole film. And I wonder whether that is Pert Kelton being hit by one of the water bombs? It looks like her. It's very hard to tell, but Kelton may have just started working for Roach at the time that "Top Flat" was filmed. It's worth noting that Pert had dark hair in most of her films prior to working with Kelly in "Pan Handlers" where her hair is "ice cream blonde" coloured, but that's a whole different story for when I get to the "Pan Handlers" review...

What do you think of "Top Flat"? Does it feature in your list of favourite Kelly / Todd shorts? Have I been too harsh on the film?

 

Watch it

"Just like old times, huh, Thelma?"

 

 
"Top Flat" is available on DVD, beautifully restored by the German Filmmuseum as part of their "Female Comedy Teams" set.

 

Here's the link: Female Comedy Teams DVD