So You Want to Go to a Night Club

Jane Frazee blackmails husband George O'Hanlon into going to a night club. He's grumpy and tightfisted until an office buddy shows up with Joi Lansing in a strapless evening gown. O'Hanlon spends freely, to Miss Frazee's annoyance. But when the bill comes, how many dishes of soup can he eat?

Although other woman played Mrs. Joe McDoakes in the long-running short comedy series form Warner Brothers, Phyllis Coates and Miss Frazee did it the most times. Miss Frazee had been a musical comedy star for Universal a decade earlier, but now she was reduced to parts like this. She would conclude the run of the series in 1956, then retire from the screen. She died in 1985 at the age of 70.

So You Want to Go to a Nightclub (1954)

*** (out of 4)

Funny and at times clever entry in the series has Alice demanding that Joe take her to a night club even though he's tired and doesn't want to go. Once at the club Joe runs into a friend and his beautiful woman and decides to impress them by picking up the tab, which he doesn't have the money to cover. This entry doesn't have the biggest laughs but there are enough good ones to make it worth sitting through. The film really comes alive during the final minutes once it's clear that Joe doesn't have the money to pay and he must figure out a way to get away without paying. That's when a conga dance starts up and what follows was very clever and you can't help but smile at how the film plays out. Joi Lansing, who would go onto appear in some ultra low-budget stuff like HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE and BIGFOOT, appears as the blonde and actually gets a few nice laughs. Jane Frazee is once again back as Alice and it's rather clear that she doesn't have the same charm as Phyllis Coates who had played the part up to the previous entry. George O'Hanlon once again delivers the goods as McDoakes and certainly keeps the film moving with his funny performance.

This is the second of eight Joe McDoakes shorts in which Jane Frazee played the missus. Why the usual Phyllis Coates wasn't in these eight, I have no idea. But this Mrs. McDoakes is amazingly patient, as Joe sure gave her reasons to wanna clobber him!

Mrs. McDoakes wants to go out to a night club, but Joe is a drip about the whole thing. Finally he agrees to take her but only wants to be really cheap and he complains how he doesn't want to dance! But, when his co-worker Homer arrives with a hot blonde, suddenly Joe spends money like it grows on trees and is very solicitous to this lady. Oddly, Mrs. McDoakes didn't seem too upset by this. However, his big spending creates a problem...they cannot afford the bill!

This one is pretty funny and enjoyable...and worth seeing. Nothing brilliant but plenty of what you've come to expect from the series.