So You Want to Go to a Convention

George O'Hanlon is heading to the Hoot Owls convention in Omaha, he tells wife Phyllis Coates. So he thinks he is, until pal Jackson Wheeler shanghais him to a Girl Musicians convention in Palm Springs. When O'Hanlon calls his wife, he discovers she is going to Palm Springs for a few days. So he checks out in a hurry, and heads to Omaha. But it's not over at that point.

The husband going to a convention (supposedly) and having far too good a time to please his wife is an old plot in comedy. Lurel & Hardy's THE SONS OF THE DESERT is probably the best known example, but I've seen variations on the themes from the 1910s. This is a pretty good one too.

One of Laurel & Hardy's greatest films was "Sons of the Desert". It's the story of the guys sneaking off to a convention and having a ball when they pretended to be leaving town for Ollie's health. Why? Because they knew their wives wouldn't stand for them going off to have a good time without them. The plot was recycled many times on television on such shows as "The Honeymooners" and "The Flintstones" and here it makes its way to the McDoakes series.

Joe is supposed to be going to Omaha for a convention. However, his slimy office mate, Homer, leads Joe astray--and they go to a women's convention in order to chase women! But Mrs. McDoakes ALSO checks in to the same hotel in Palm Springs and finds out the truth...and Joe has no idea he's in deep, deep trouble.

Despite being a recycled plot, the story manages to have enough new elements and a funny twist at the end that I heartily endorse you seeing it. Clever and just plain fun.

So You Want to Go to a Convention (1952)

*** (out of 4)

Joe McDoakes tells wife Alice that he's going to Omaha for a convention but he's actually talked into a trip to Palm Springs by "Good Times" Charlie Jones. Once down there Joe calls home to have Alice say she's just happening to take a trip there so he must try and get home without her finding out the truth. Fans of the series are going to eat this one up as O'Hanlon and Coates are both in top-form and they really milk every laugh that they can get. The highlight of the film is without question when Joe and Charlie arrive back to their bedroom and they're so drunk that they think they have double beds when in fact it's just one. The pay-off to this sequence is very funny but so are various other gags including a rather hilarious "owl dance" that the boys must give. I was surprised to see how well Jackson Wheeler was as Charlie. He is constantly singing bad songs but doing them with such nice comic timing that you can't help but laugh. As usual the film ends with a punchline with the gag here working very well.