Halfway to Hollywood

Tom Kennedy and Johnny Arthur (best known as Darla's long-suffering father in the 1930s Our Gang shorts) make a great team in this one-shot comedy where the two are employees of an insurance agency who are constantly berated by their skinflint boss (Harry Holman, the frazzled professor from Hoi Polloi with The Three Stooges). Johnny is an aspiring writer who wants to go to California to pen screenplays, but he comes up with an idea to make a low-budget movie based on their boss, claiming that nobody else will see it or know about it. Of course, things don't go as planned.

Directed by Charley Chase, which is a partial remake of the 1929 Hal Roach short Off to Buffalo, which featured Chase in a starring role, this comedy is nicely-paced thanks to a good script and wonderful performances.

During the 1930s-50s, Columbia Pictures made hundreds, perhaps thousands of shorts...and not all of them were Three Stooges films. Many were down and out comics who were in low points in their careers (Harry Langdon and Buster Keaton are good examples) and many were folks you simply don't associate with comedy shorts today (such as the incredibly unfunny El Brendel as well as the odd teaming of Tom Kennedy and Johnny Arthur). Both were supporting actors in films, but until recently I had no idea either starred in these shorts...including "Halfway to Hollywood".

Tom and Johnny work for a very grouchy man. So, they decide on the weekend to make a movie...and end up making fun of their awful boss in this film. Unfortunately for them, the grouchy boss SEES this home movie! What's next??

The pairing of Arthur and Kennedy is odd. They just seem too different and ill-matched. Perhaps if they'd made more than a few shorts together I might have felt differently, though their styles were very different and the pairing just seemed random. So does it work here? Well, the film isn't bad and has a few good moments...but the pair just seem like the unlikeliest of friends...too unlikely..