So You Want a Raise

So You Want a Raise (1950)

*** (out of 4)

Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) is being pressured by his wife to ask for a raise and he's about to do so when he over hears his boss talking to two different thugs about sneaking Mexicans in the country. McDoakes decides to call the police before the boss can pin the crime on him but of course Joe doesn't have the biggest brain going. This is another fine entry in the long running series and it features just the type of laughs you'd expect as our hero gets himself into one mess after another. There are many funny scenes here but the best has to be the one where Joe is trying to brown nose but then catches the bosses hand in the door. Another fine sequence is when he's talking down about the boss only to get caught and then try to work his way out. O'Hanlon gives another very good performance.

George O'Hanlon wants a raise. His boss says that the man who relaces him when he goes on vacation gets a bonus and a raise. George is very hopeful..... until he hears his boss rehearsing some lines from a play about smugglers. Thinking it real, he does.....

Well, tin the long-running Joe McDoakes series, Joe always over-reacts. That's comedy the Richard Bare way, in a world where everyone is a little bit crazy, and O'Hanlon always out of step.

It's not the best of the series by any means, but Bare and O'Hanlon care the laughs coming throughout the length of it. That's why Bare continued to direct into the television era, and O'Hanlon was chosen to voice George Jetson.

When the story begins, Joe's wife is nagging him unmercifully to ask for a raise. Considering that he's a blundering idiot, it's actually amazing he isn't fired...and asking for a raise seems ridiculous. And, when Joe asks, the boss indicates he's in no mood to listen. In fact, after one failed attempt, Joe agrees to take a pay cut! But when Joe accidentally overhears the boss having a conversation, he assumes it's the truth...though the boss was really practicing for a play at his lodge. But Joe impulsively calls the police and they soon arrive to arrest this mob ring leader!!

This is a very funny short...one of the better Joe McDoakes films. The plot is silly but had me laughing out loud several times. Well done and well worth your time.