This was made when they were still trying to turn Olsen and Johnson into the next Wheeler and Woolsey instead of the next Abbott and Costello, and long before their Broadway hit, "Hellzapoppin'".
This is really a weak mixed bag. It starts out in a boarding house where O&J have stashed a trained seal as part of their vaudeville act, and are trying to hide it from the landlady (who towers over them! What were Ole and Chick, midgets?) They go to a theater to audition their act and discover the theater is supposed to be haunted. So you think this is going to be their "Hold That Ghost". But no, they quickly forget the ghost angle and get involved with trying to save the theater by putting on a show and solving a murder on a live radio broadcast.
Ole and Chick are the stars and get featured bits with the seal, doing a ventriloquist act, and have a mildly amusing Abbott-like scene where the slick talking partner tries to get his tubby sidekick to confess to the murder. They also do a nice play by play broadcast of the final chase scene as the cops try and capture the killer, constantly punctuated by the product placement: "brought to you through the courtesy of MacDougal's Mackeral".
James Finlayson took a holiday from the Laurel and Hardy films to play the angry Mr. MacDougal. He's okay, but its not his best work. The crazy theater stage manager probably has the best bits in the film, which is far from Olsen and Johnson's best, but still watchable.
This is really a weak mixed bag. It starts out in a boarding house where O&J have stashed a trained seal as part of their vaudeville act, and are trying to hide it from the landlady (who towers over them! What were Ole and Chick, midgets?) They go to a theater to audition their act and discover the theater is supposed to be haunted. So you think this is going to be their "Hold That Ghost". But no, they quickly forget the ghost angle and get involved with trying to save the theater by putting on a show and solving a murder on a live radio broadcast.
Ole and Chick are the stars and get featured bits with the seal, doing a ventriloquist act, and have a mildly amusing Abbott-like scene where the slick talking partner tries to get his tubby sidekick to confess to the murder. They also do a nice play by play broadcast of the final chase scene as the cops try and capture the killer, constantly punctuated by the product placement: "brought to you through the courtesy of MacDougal's Mackeral".
James Finlayson took a holiday from the Laurel and Hardy films to play the angry Mr. MacDougal. He's okay, but its not his best work. The crazy theater stage manager probably has the best bits in the film, which is far from Olsen and Johnson's best, but still watchable.