YET ANOTHER VARIATION on the home handyman school of situational comedies. Rather than what the title would suggest, neither Joe (George O'Hanlon) nor Marvin (Rodney Bell) actually take up the trade. Any and all applications of any wrenches, pliers and expanders are a result of needing to apply them in desperation, rather than in the exercise of craft.
WE ARE INDUCTED into the action at the beginning of the short, where the great inadequacy of the plumbing system in the household is put on display. The antiquated piping system won't adequately supply more than one water outlet at a time. The simultaneous application of Joe's attempting to take a shower being pitted against an industrious Alice doing the dishes in the kitchen sink becomes a sort of war of aqua attrition.
AT THIS POINT, Joe is joined by his neighbor and eccentric, Marvin whose enthusiasm is matched only by his ineptitude. It seems that in whatever the episode, Marvin's unrealized skills and childlike logic prove to be Joe's undoing.
PERHAPS THE CROWNING achievement and most unique contributions to the unique niche of the series in this short is the off beat pair of sight gags employed at the films conclusion. The first was that of having Joe attempting to speak to Alice over a waterlogged and completely submerged telephone. What we heard and saw was a desperate tirade of glub-glub-glubs amplified in visual and sound effects with a deluge of bubbles.
THE SECOND AND last of these bizarre gags is that of Joe's being sucked into the great drain by the heavy rush of water running down out of the aquatic hell that was once the Mc Doakes basement!