Prunes and Politics

I recently bought a couple DVDs filled with Edgar Kennedy domestic comedies for RKO. In the course of watching the 20 shorts, I was surprised to see how frequently they changed wives for Edgar--though the plots were otherwise all pretty similar. Florence Lake and Vivian Oakland made a bunch of these films but you can also find Mrs. Kennedy played by Sally Austin, Irene Ryan and, in this film, Pauline Drake!! His character seemed to change wives even more frequently than Mickey Rooney! Yet, oddly, he often was saddled with the same obnoxious mother-in-law no matter who played the wife (except for Oakland--hers were made without the nasty old buzzard).

In "Prunes and Politics", both Edgar and his battle-axe mother in law have been nominated to run for office. Not surprisingly, this creates even more tension in the home than usual. And, repeatedly, Edgar makes a mess of things. First, he insults women when he's talking to a reporter, then he is caught trying to release rats to disrupt his mother-in-law's campaign--but his crazy schemes don't stop there. All in all, a pretty stupid film--one of the worst of the series.

By the way, Hugh Beaumont (Ward from "Leave it to Beaver") is in a supporting role. He's pretty skinny here but otherwise it's the same old Beaumont.