Considering the presence of producer, director and co-screenwriter Mack Sennett in the credits, it's not surprising that the talkie film is frequently staged like a silent film. It's also incredibly tacky, featuring the blackface team of Mack and Moran who on top of being eye rolling just aren't funny, their gags not even worthy of cheap burlesque.
The film is typical melodramatic comedy "Penelope Pittstop" style, characters drawn so black or white that the cartoon mice that gave me giggles seemed less animated. Wallace Ford is the best written, the victim of a fake hypnotist (silent vet Ernest Torrance) in losing a sweepstakes ticket. Maria Alba, as a cliched temperamental Spanish princess, is unbearable, and Herman Bing completely overplays the phony German accent to annoyance.
Some good moments come from an unbilled Hattie McDaniel as a ladies room attendant, showing again that she was often the smartest person in the room. Fortunately, Mack and Moran don't dominate much of the film, the bulk of the gags involving a tamed lion scaring the bejeebers out of everyone. With comics like the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Buster Keaton and Wheeler and Woolsey dominating in 1932, it's easy to see why this one's forgotten as the style seems very dated and other comics in it like Charles Murray deservedly forgotten. Not hideous, but rather forced and ultimately pointless. However, the use of globes in the company marquee is quite funny.
The film is typical melodramatic comedy "Penelope Pittstop" style, characters drawn so black or white that the cartoon mice that gave me giggles seemed less animated. Wallace Ford is the best written, the victim of a fake hypnotist (silent vet Ernest Torrance) in losing a sweepstakes ticket. Maria Alba, as a cliched temperamental Spanish princess, is unbearable, and Herman Bing completely overplays the phony German accent to annoyance.
Some good moments come from an unbilled Hattie McDaniel as a ladies room attendant, showing again that she was often the smartest person in the room. Fortunately, Mack and Moran don't dominate much of the film, the bulk of the gags involving a tamed lion scaring the bejeebers out of everyone. With comics like the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Buster Keaton and Wheeler and Woolsey dominating in 1932, it's easy to see why this one's forgotten as the style seems very dated and other comics in it like Charles Murray deservedly forgotten. Not hideous, but rather forced and ultimately pointless. However, the use of globes in the company marquee is quite funny.