User Reviews

This is a later sample from the series of two-reelers that the comedian Snub Pollard starred in for Hal Roach Studios. It's also one of the strangest and often most nonsensical comedy shorts I've seen. We begin with Snub as a father trying to carve a rubbery turkey for Thanksgiving and in the process doing some very funny bits of physical business and also so some funny character work, managing to look surprisingly threatening -- for Snub Pollard.

His son asks to know "Why is Thanksgiving?" and then we are sprung into the storytelling-framework that makes up most of the film. Snub traded so much of his look -- the gait, the face and expressions, and the moustache -- that the rest of him could be dressed up as a pilgrim and we don't bat an eye. Now, the pilgrim sequences, mainly revolving around Snub competing over a pilgrim girl with frequent Roach supporting player James Finlayson (who, standing next to Pollard, much be given a smaller than usual false moustache), contains some great characteristic goofy visual/mechanical gags that both Snub Pollard and director Charley Chase were adept at (see Snub ogling Indians through a spyglass -- he girlfriend shoves her powder-puff in the telescope, so he thinks he's blind, and after a little pantomime, smashes that bottle he's got in his clothes).

There's a certain amount of laughs to be gotten out of things like pulling flowers out of the snow as Snub does here, but one wonders why most of this is set in Pilgrim times -- since the anachronistic jokes often revolve around things like automobiles, typewriters, and in one extended case, skiing. It works in a certain unashamedly absurd way (after all, it is Snub's story to his kid), but for much) of it there seems to be no story leading anywhere. The kind of cartoonish and gag-heavy humor that Snub was a specialist in sometimes had trouble stretching to two-reelers and was starting to go out of fashion a bit.

The filming here, amid endless drifts of real snow, is quite nice and there are a bunch of good trick shots. There are a bunch of undeniable laughs to be had in this short, but not all of the nonsense business really works and its often puzzling as to where people are coming from and why. This is good for a few laughs and probably one of your go-to shorts if you want a Thanksgiving comedy as there are not so many, but not the best work of most of the people involved.

While I realize this is far from Snub Pollard's best, it is still an enjoyable little short and has a unique setting. The film begins with Snub's young son asking his parents why they celebrate Thanksgiving. At first, Snub ignores the kid--after all, he's having an epic battle to carve the turkey. However, he eventually relents and tells a tale filled with tons of inaccuracies and anachronisms--but it's quite cute and enjoyable. While some of these mistakes are obvious (such as the use of cars back in the 1620s), a few are less obvious (they were called Pilgrims, not Puritans). Still, as it's SUPPOSED to be taught wrong, these certainly are not problems. The only negative is that considering the style of the film and setting, it could have had more jokes and been funnier. Still, James Finlayson (Miles Sandwich) and Snub (John Alldone) gave it their best and it's worth your time.

Oh, and by the way, like so many of the Hal Roach films of this time, this one is directed by Charley Chase--who soon went on to be one of the studio's top comics. Throughout his career he went in front of and behind the camera for many, many films.

Courtship of Miles Sandwich (1923)

** (out of 4)

It's Thanksgiving and a young boy asks his father ('Snub' Pollard) what the holiday is about. We then have his story told as some folks land in the country, make it off the boat and try a few "first" before meeting some Indians for dinner. This movie is spoofing 1923's THE COURTSHIP OF MYLES STANDISH with Charles Rey, which ended up costing around one-million only turning out to be a complete disaster and nearly costing the star everything he was worth. That film is lost sadly but this one here probably worked pretty good as a spoof even if the actual film isn't all that good. There are a few very funny scenes but just not enough to carry the twenty-minute running time. The best sequence happens when Pollard is fighting with another man (James Finlayson) and they decide to go skiing. One of the men gets a rope tied to him and a tree as he goes down the mountain with a very funny finish. Another good gag includes the smoking of the peace pipe that doesn't go as planned. Both Pollard and Finlayson are good in their roles but one wishes there were more laughs to carry the picture. Not a disaster but it's doubtful too many will be searching this one out.

The Plot.

When Papa tells son Malcolm the story of the first Thanksgiving, Malcolm imagines the tale with his father in the role of "John Alldone" and his mother as "Prisilly."

The prints available for this movie are atrocious. Largely because no one really cares about Snub Pollard any more. When I was a kid Blackhawk films released as many of his films as they could get. But even then the prints were not so great.

I liked some of his stuff, but today, he's more of a curio. I'd much rather see his later sound 2 reelers that were Laurel and Hardy rip offs after he left Roach.

Actually, I meant TWO second bananas, since James Finlayson has the title role. Snub Pollard, with an upside-down fu-manchu mustache, plays a father trying to put his unruly kids to bed. Finlayson plays Sandwich; jilted by "Priscilly" over John Alldone (Pollard).

You can tell the general quality of the movie by the character's names. A brief (Titled) dialog passage may suffice.

In a snow-covered landscape, some "indians" are teasing the pilgrims about lodging. "Are you going to build a log cabin?" They ask.

"Heck, no!! We're going' to the Biltmore!" the pilgrims respond. Anachronisms abound. Cars, twentieth-century money, even the "indians" costumes come in for fair play. This is what passed for comedy in the '20's. Shaw this isn't.