Where the Pest Begins

Shemp Howard has new neighbors, and in true Shemp style of trying to be friendly, he makes a nuisance out of himself. To add to the comic possibilities, the neighbor, Tom Kennedy, experiments with explosives. The premise for the short comedy is fine, but it is marred by the direction of Harry Edwards, who is at the end of his career. Edwards was once a fine director of silent comedy, was instrumental in the career of Harry Langdon, but as the years progressed, his alcoholism worsened. By the time he made this short, comic timing and subtlety had been tossed out the window and the Jules White style of violent sight gags became the easy way out. But White kept his comedy moving, while Edwards would spend too much time on a gag situation. The performers, including the lovable Shemp, had all been turned into one dimensional human cartoons. These sight gags could have been performed by any group of comedians on the Columbia lot. Characterization was out the window and so was individual performing style. It is to the credit of Shemp Howard that he is able to maintain his basic comic persona in the midst of this mess.