Getting their clothes splashed by mud gets working class girls Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts not only a fashionable new wardrobe, but dates with two dandy bachelors, John Loder and Claud Allister. Just where do you think that two members of the upper-crust decide to take them? That swell resort of Coney Island, of course, and they get put through one hell of a time, especially in a delightful fun house where every possible gag is utilized in this fun and racy short comedy by Hal Roach. There's a lot of sexual innuendo and some incidents that just a few years later would be considered taboo in the movies. Of course, any good old fashioned fun house has a wind machine which blows up ladies' skirts, and an audience awaits with hysterical laughter over each incident where a ladies' dainties are exposed. Allister, who is Loder's very effeminate best friend, ends up with Pitts, but for some reason keeps up ending in the arms of blonde Dorothy Layton and her boyfriend, Otto Fries, showing a bit more of a delight when he ends up in the macho man's arms. To add to the subtle hint of gay men there is also portly Billy Gilbert going down Franklin Pangborn territory as a very prissy host at a fashionable dressing store who suddenly goes "macho" on his models when he demands that they get out there immediately.
The fun house scene is the highlight, though, with shots of some of the classic parts of it-the spinning tube where those inside can barely walk to get to the other side, the whirling circle like contraption which shoots those off who can't hold on, and a giant slide that ends up as a trap for Todd and a lolly pop lost by a young boy rider who literally climbs inside Todd's skirt to retrieve it. "This thing cost me a nickle!", he barks at her hysterically, not giving a hoot or a holler about the sights he's just witnessed taking this unplanned ride. Then, a water ride goes awry which is pretty much the end for Thelma and Zasu who return home in exhaustion, only to get a sudden invitation by two surprise guests who show up in the final minute. Hysterical beyond belief, it may be short on plot, but it's long on laughs, and you may not have a breath left after its all over.
The fun house scene is the highlight, though, with shots of some of the classic parts of it-the spinning tube where those inside can barely walk to get to the other side, the whirling circle like contraption which shoots those off who can't hold on, and a giant slide that ends up as a trap for Todd and a lolly pop lost by a young boy rider who literally climbs inside Todd's skirt to retrieve it. "This thing cost me a nickle!", he barks at her hysterically, not giving a hoot or a holler about the sights he's just witnessed taking this unplanned ride. Then, a water ride goes awry which is pretty much the end for Thelma and Zasu who return home in exhaustion, only to get a sudden invitation by two surprise guests who show up in the final minute. Hysterical beyond belief, it may be short on plot, but it's long on laughs, and you may not have a breath left after its all over.