Hot Spot

The Taxi Boys have a rough day when Harry Woofs mistakes Ben Blue's ineptness for an affair with wife Muriel Evans.

There were ten shorts in this Hal Roach series, with lots of auto gags under specialist director Del Lord., assisted here by H. Bruce Humberstone. Unfortunately, while Billy Gilbert was a skilled and funny comic actor, Ben Blue's abilities have often mystified me. Here they're cast in a comedy that could have been intended for Laurel & Hardy, and while there's nothing particularly wrong with it, the combination of old routines *like "Can you let me have two tens for a five?) and Blue's erratically fey character got on my nerves.