Hunting Trouble

This frantic comedy got lots of laughs at Capitolfest in 2017. Louise Fazenda has ordered a hunting dog for her husband (Walter Catlett) for his birthday as a surprise. He thinks she is philandering, which is funny because he is. Dopey Shaw and Lee are the dog sellers, really swindlers who intend to steal the dog back. The group is rounded out by the maid (Louise Beavers) and butler (Charles Coleman) who rip around the house after each other, often through a massive bathroom with a tub built into the floor, with speed, polish and lots of personality.

Looking at the credits, this one looks like it's going to be a Hal Roach sort of movie, with James Horne directing from a story by George Stevens, and Len Power behind the camera. The cast is good-looking: not only veteran movie comics like Walter Catlett and Louise Fazenda in the lead, but as a treat, deadpan stage comics Shaw & Lee.

When it comes down to it, however, it's another frantic, unfunny effort, filled with wirework and other ways to get the gags fast and cheap instead of right. Catlett and Fazenda are a couple, and she is buying him a Great Dane as a birthday present from Shaw and Lee, who will take the money and then whistle and get the dog back. Catlett mistakes what is going on for his wife having an affair.

There's a lot of mugging and I didn't enjoy it at all.