The Queen's Birthday

In the opening credits, it proclaims that "The Queen's Birthday" is "a song comedy hit". Well, that IS a lot to live up to in this short from Educational Pictures.

It seems that the queen of some fictional nation is only 10 years-old. Her courtiers all seem bored by one of her minister's blathering, so the young queen sneaks off and find the staff having a party. In many ways, it seems more like a talent show than a party. However, as everyone had pretty much fallen asleep during the minister's speech, when they awaken the courtiers run about frantically looking for her. She then orders these new friends to perform for her.

The talent show aspect of this short was very common in the 1930s...especially in the Vitaphone shorts from Warner Brothers. Today, they just seem odd....but some of the performances are pretty incredible, such as the tap dancers. But this also means that there's not a lot of plot here...nor is there a lot of comedy. The comedy act they do show isn't particularly good, though they make up for it by being rather loud...and a bit like Three Stooges wannabes.

So is it any good? Meh...it's okay but very dated. More a curio of the period than a movie you just have to see.

Queen Mary Lou's minister gives a speech that sends the courtiers to sleep. This allows the Queen to sneak out, where she finds people holding a party with entertainment.

I use that last word in its broadest sense, since one of the acts on display in this variety short are a trio of Three Stooges knock-offs, and two sets of tap dancers, none of which have I heard of before. An internet search turned up one of the dancers, Tommy Riggs, who seems to have spent much of his career on the radio, mostly in the midwest, but occasionally doing summer replacement shows for the major networks' stars.

I wasn't terribly impressed by any of it.