It's That Man Again

Where did the comedians of vaudeville go when the talkies came to the cinema? Well most of them retired gracefully and vaudeville ceased to exist - but a few made the jump from stage to screen. The period around the 1930s and even later nurtured a crop of famous movie comedians like W C Fields, Laurel & Hardy and the Three Stooges. They amused millions with low comedy based on slapstick, vulgarity and absurdist banter.

There were others across the Atlantic who are not so well known to us now, including Arthur Askey and Tommy Handley. Some of the movies of these lesser lights still stand up well today, like Askey's `The Ghost Train'(1941).

Sorry to say that's where the flattery ends in this review. Tommy Handley should have stayed on BBC radio where he was apparently popular. This movie is crass and painfully unfunny. Perhaps we are victims of changing tastes in humor, but if you get your laughs from such gems as `Well, push me into the pit with a poleaxe!' or `There's something amiss, Miss!', then you'd be a rare person indeed. Handley races through the flimsy script in manic style relying on little more than funny voices and fast delivery to bamboozle us into thinking that something amusing is happening. It isn't. Even if you have an affection for vaudeville, don't bother with this woeful effort which will leave you feeling depressed. Watch something intellectual by the Three Stooges instead.