Made at Columbia the same year by the same director (Charles Lamont) as the short I just reviewed, NEW NEWS with Monte Collins and Tom Kennedy, SAILOR MADE stars former silent comedy star Polly Moran, and she is amazing--aggressive, wild, over-the-top. Only Patsy Kelly or Vera Vague at their wildest come near Moran in terms of manic female comedy. Here she is an illegal immigrant (wait, where's the accent? I'm guessing she is supposed to be Irish, but who knows where she is supposed to be from--there are no clues) who needs to find someone to marry in order to stay in the US. She eventually finds a sailor who grows to like her and want to marry her, but they get separated by various events and she must go find him on his ship! I'm assuming the sailor is played by Frank Mills (most of whose 1930s film appearances are "uncredited"), who is a stocky guy with great comic timing who could well have had his own series of comedy shorts. But this is a vehicle for Polly Moran, and it's "tailor made" for her talents: wonderful facial expressions, great ability to do pratfalls and comic fights, hilarious hard-boiled delivery of her lines in the style of an Iris Adrian. It's a shame she did not have a longer series with Columbia. Still, here is proof that Moran was as successful in sound comedy as in silent comedy. If you like Patsy Kelly, or Vera Vague, or Iris Adrian, or Lucille Ball at her wildest, you will want to check out SAILOR MADE, a wonderful Polly Moran vehicle.
