Behind the Eight Ball

The first 'guest act' in the summer stock revue was killed by gunshot, and the police couldn't figure out who did it. The second time, the new guest act dies in the same way. In the immortal words of a producer who doesn't want to return the box office receipts, the show must go on! Besides, local police chief William Demarest thinks if they do it again, they'll figure out who is murdering vaudeville. He heads down to Manhattan to find performers, but only idiots will work with a murderer gunning for them, so he gets the Ritz Brothers.

Normally I don't enjoy Al, Jimmy and Harry, because they're all mugging in stereo. Here, under the direction of Eddie Cline, they not only get some good gags, but good songs and dances, and there's some shaky differentiation between them. This being a Universal musical, they also have Grace MacDonald singing a song or two, some nice dancing, and good performers backing them up, like Carol Bruce, Dick Foran, and Johnny Downs. Some of the jokes have not aged well, but you can see how they could actually be funny on stage.