All Over Town

For a movie made on a shoestring during the Great Depression, this movie delivers plenty of laughs -- which is precisely what it was designed to do. It isn't educational, and it doesn't have a "moral", and it isn't high-brow. Neither were the Stooges. The only public goal of making a movie like this (besides getting paid) is to make people laugh a little during one of the darkest times of modern history. And it pulls that off with aplomb.

For anyone out there seeking depth where there isn't supposed to be any, I have this to say: Just because the plot changes direction to fit the jokes instead of the other way around, that doesn't make it a bad movie. Watch the flick and laugh along. It's only 63 minutes long. Can you stand 63 minutes of laughter in your life?

I'm a person whose taste in film runs to strong plots and structured stories. But in the case of Olsen and Johnson one doesn't really need them, they get in the way.

Even the Marx Brothers had to have a structured story line for their films, but Ole and Chic had to have them forced on their persons. All Over Town is the story of a couple Oklahoma filling station operators and part time vaudevillians with a seal act who are behind at their theatrical boarding house with their rent. Somehow the sale of their filling station which nets them the astronomical sum of $150.00 makes some think they've inherited a bankroll. As we learn that term is relative.

They try to get a show going at Mary Howard's theater, but the place has been closed down for years due to an actor's homicide there. Then another homicide of a potential show backer in the same place almost finishes Olsen and Johnson and the seal for good. But a choleric radio sponsor played by Laurel and Hardy regular James Finlayson gives them their break with a promise of them solving the crime. It's close run thing after that.

I have to say that in his scenes Finlayson proves just as perfect a foil for Ole and Chic as he was for Stan and Ollie. And Stanley Fields who does equally good in comedy and drama has a great scene as the murderer's henchmen who gets outsmarted by the seal.

All Over Town is a fine introduction to the zany comedy of Olsen And Johnson.

In Manhattan, vaudeville comic team Ole Olsen (as Ole Olsen) and Chic Johnson (as Chic Johnson) practice performing with their live seal. Probably their room has a "no pets" policy, because "Sally" the seal annoys landlady Blanche Payson (as Mother Wilson). Also, the rent is due. Olsen and Johnson are mistaken for oil millionaires and decide to help nice Mary Howard (as Joan Eldridge) re-open her musical theater, which was shut down after a mysterious death. That death is never explained or connected with another one, which our heroes attempt to solve. They also become suspects. Olsen and Johnson are much better represented in the 1941 film version of their Broadway hit "Hellzapoppin'!" (1938).

*** All Over Town (9/8/37) James Horne ~ Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, Mary Howard, Harry Stockwell

This was made when they were still trying to turn Olsen and Johnson into the next Wheeler and Woolsey instead of the next Abbott and Costello, and long before their Broadway hit, "Hellzapoppin'".

This is really a weak mixed bag. It starts out in a boarding house where O&J have stashed a trained seal as part of their vaudeville act, and are trying to hide it from the landlady (who towers over them! What were Ole and Chick, midgets?) They go to a theater to audition their act and discover the theater is supposed to be haunted. So you think this is going to be their "Hold That Ghost". But no, they quickly forget the ghost angle and get involved with trying to save the theater by putting on a show and solving a murder on a live radio broadcast.

Ole and Chick are the stars and get featured bits with the seal, doing a ventriloquist act, and have a mildly amusing Abbott-like scene where the slick talking partner tries to get his tubby sidekick to confess to the murder. They also do a nice play by play broadcast of the final chase scene as the cops try and capture the killer, constantly punctuated by the product placement: "brought to you through the courtesy of MacDougal's Mackeral".

James Finlayson took a holiday from the Laurel and Hardy films to play the angry Mr. MacDougal. He's okay, but its not his best work. The crazy theater stage manager probably has the best bits in the film, which is far from Olsen and Johnson's best, but still watchable.

A simple telling of the plot would go something like this- Olsen and Johnson talk their way into putting on a show in a jinxed theater. The theater isn't really jinxed but is wanted by some one who'll do anything to get it. A murder occurs during a rehearsal after which Olsen and Johnson state that they will reveal who done it on a radio program, Unfortunately the murderer has other plans. Since any detailed explanation of the goings on would take as long as this hour long film, you'd better just find a copy and watch it to see for yourself.

Lets face it, Olsen and Johnson never really made a movie with anything that resembled a plot. Oh sure the movies have a through lines but its a rare film that ever went there on a straight course. Olsen and Johnson loved to take the scenic route to "The End". Plots were never more than something to hang a never ending series of gags on. Here the plot takes frequent detours and stops for what is often inspired lunacy. In most of the duo's films you really don't care about the fits and starts since you're laughing too hard. Here the fits and starts cause an unevenness to the affair with some bits going on too long and some bits not long enough (for example the bit with the radio program is rather too short, as if they came up with the idea, then ran out of time only to realize that they really had to do something with it). Its an odd mix that makes it not quite as good as the other films I've seen by the pair. Sure its funny but it doesn't hang together a well as it should (and the disappointment is only in comparison to other Olsen and Johnson films).

Is this film worth seeing. Yes its funny and it will make you laugh. But while I am a fan of the stars, and I know you will laugh, you probably won't come away as fans since this is a lesser film. (though you might want to try to get a second classic comedy to round out your nights viewing)