User Reviews

"The Operation" is a short from Vitaphone that happens to be the first film appearance by Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy. It's not particularly funny nor well written but it is the first.

The story begins with Charlie lying on a bench in the park and he's moaning. A woman and Bergen approach him and it just so happens that she's a nurse and he's a doctor. And, it just so happens that she has a thermometer on her. She gives it to Charlie and only a few seconds later, she reads it an announces he had a fever. Bergen announces they need to take him to his office as he probably needs an operation! Apparently the pair were really looking to drum up business!

The amazing thing about this short is that apart from the novelty of seeing a ventriloquist in action, there really isn't much to recommend this film. It's not all that funny and the film is far from their best work. Interesting but just not all that good.

Operation, The (1930)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Better than average Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy short is actually the first film for the ventriloquist. In the film Bergen plays a doctor who comes across a kid (Charlie) suffering from some illness so he takes him back to his office for an operation. The entire set-up is pretty straight-forward and simple but we actually get a couple nice laughs. I'm not the biggest fan of the duo but I found this here to be one of the most pleasant films I've seen with them. I think a lot of this has to do with some nice one-liners from McCarthy and most of them are aimed at the sexy nurse played by Christina Graver. The scene on the park bench when McCarthy throws off some more sexual-natured jokes was clearly the highlight. As with a lot of these shorts, the material runs pretty thin as the running time moves along but if you're a fan then you'll want to check this out. I'm sure others will be hit and miss depending on your sense of humor.