User Reviews

Looking back it is hard to see what Paramount saw in Hal Skelly. He was one of the original stars from the Broadway show "Burlesque" who Paramount contracted to star in the all singing, all dancing movie version "The Dance of Life" (the female star, Barbara Stanwyck was replaced by Nancy Carroll) and he was terrific in that as the vaudeville clown who hits the big time and also the skids and is nursed back to health by his loyal partner Bonnie (Carroll was magnificent, Stanwyck could not have been better). But he wasn't exactly leading man material, being more a young character actor and his roles reflected that. "Men Are Like That" was the first talkie version of "The Show Off", a favourite of many a comedy actor. Initially a New York stage hit from 1924 written by George Kelly (Grace Kelly was his niece) and all about a likable braggart who exasperated both friends and family.

Ma and Pa Fisher (Clara Blandick and Charles Sellon) are not too pleased that their daughter Amy (Doris Hill) is over the moon about "show off" Aubrey Piper (Skelly). From the start Skelly makes this role his own - even when he is not in the scene, his annoying laugh can be heard all over the house. Ma calls him the human radio station (Blandick has the best lines, in another scene she says he can be made "our foreign representative"). He tries to advise young Joe (Morgan Farley), a budding inventor, about modifying his invention - Joe looks confused and amused as it seems that weeks before Joe had explained his ideas to him and now Aubrey is passing them off as his own!!!

He and Amy get married but eight months later nothing has changed except maybe Amy's illusions - Aubrey still has big ideas while still on $32.00 a week. Suddenly the mood turns bleak - Pa has a stroke and dies at work, Aubrey and Amy come back home to help out and Aubrey is involved in a minor traffic altercation which escalates in fines after Aubrey can't keep his opinions about big city councils and police procedures to himself. Once again big sister Clara's (Helene Chadwick) husband (William B. Davidson, a familiar movie face) is on hand to bail him out - his bank account seems to be a bottomless pit but in an insightful moment Clara tells her mother she would rather have the love of a ne'er do well like Aubrey than sensible Frank, who has never gotten over an earlier love who died. The movie finishes quickly (just under an hour) as Aubrey's bombastic negotiating on behalf of Joe produces unexpected results.

Doris Hill had been a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1929 and Paramount obviously had faith in her ability but there was nothing to make her stand out from the crowd, she was attractive but not a head turner and her acting was just competent. Morgan Farley was also an actor quite busy in those turbulent "you have to talk as well as sing and dance" days. He had a similar look to William Bakewell, played the same type of roles but left movies in the early 1930s to concentrate on the stage.