The Miss They Missed

In addition to his usual profession as a professor of French, dialect comedian Willie Howard is also a detective in this comedy short. He is hired to find a missing lady--first he goes after a mysterious character called "Red Herring"! You can imagine how this progresses, as Howard stumbles from one situation to another--you even get to see him do an Asian routine, decades before Jerry Lewis! He also does a British routine, making me wish he did more various dialects in his shorts, as he is quite versatile and they are a welcome relief from the bogus French accent. I understand that Howard was born in Germany-- he could probably have done many different European accents. The short winds up at a party, where music can be featured, always a staple of Educational Pictures comedy short. This allows us to see Howard do a brief musical comedy sequence. Overall, this is a funny entry in Howard's series of Educational shorts.