So You Want to Be a Paper Hanger

AFTER STARTING OUT looking as if it was a variation on a previous series entry from that period, this one took several sharp turns. So instead of a reworking of SO YOU WANT TO BE A HANDY MAN, it really struck out on its own, bold and trailblazing path.

BY THIS PERIOD, the use of the Narrator had been largely relegated to a highly diminished role; if not eliminated. In this and several from around the same chronological period,. there is no sign or sound of our old friend, Art Gilmore; who had so handily performed the role so well. Art, you were missed.

WE ALSO FIND that Joe's neighbor and comic foil, the nearsighted Marvin (Rodney Bell) had replaced and filled that niche formerly filled by Joe's pal Homer. Homer (Clifton Young) had passed away at age 33 that previous year and did leave a hole in the regular story lines.

AS FOR THIS story's being unique and full of plot twists, we can only say that so much of the story as it unfolds is totally unexpected and hits many different targets. The range is phenomenal and varies from the stuff of an Edgar Allen Poe to Mack Sennett.

ALL OF THIS variable cinematic behavioural meandering came as a real surprise; albeit a very pleasant one!

WE VOTE TO give it a ****+ rating, right Schultz!

While this is far from the best of the Joe McDoakes shorts, it is worth seeing for a few of the jokes and in order to see Arthur Q. Bryan in the flesh. Who IS Arthur Q. Bryan? Well, he was the man who provided the voice for Elmer Fudd in the Looney Tunes cartoons and, oddly, he sounds EXACTLY like this character....and looks a bit like him, too!

Joe's wife (the first TV Lois Lane, Phyllis Coates) wants him to wallpaper the room--and have it done by this afternoon for her tea party! Joe (George O'Hanlon) gets his dopey friend to help him. Together, they work sort of like Laurel & Hardy or the Three Stooges but with less finesse or grace. Still, despite this there are some decent laughs--particularly at the end. So PLEASE keep watching and you'll see what I mean. Not great but worth seeing.

So You Want to Be a Paper Hanger (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Another entry in the long running Joe McDoakes series this time finds the husband being pressured into putting up wallpaper for his wife (Phyllis Coates) who has been invited to host a club of women. With the help of his neighbor Marvin (Rodney Bell), Joe gets going but soon things start to go wrong. This is yet another strong entry in the series with non-stop laughs right from the start and all the way to the closing joke, which had tears running down my eyes from laughing so hard. The subplot of the film deals with the men trying to finish the room so quickly that Marvin gets caught behind the paper and soon the police are investigating his disappearance. I won't spoil the outcome but it's a very funny one. Arthur Q. Bryan, best known for the voice of Elmer Fudd, appears here as a door-to-door salesman and nearly steals the film. And yes, he uses his Fudd voice.

I've seen far too many comedy shorts in which two men try to hang wall paper and create little but a mess. So when Phyllis Coates orders George O'Hanlon to repaper the living room in time for her ladies' club meeting, I knew there were a large number of classic gags they could pull.

This being a Joe McDoakes short, Richard Bare chose the most absurd situations, including Arthur Q. Bryan (with his Elmer Fudd voice) as a door-to-door salesman hawking a potato peeler. Meanwhile, Bare allows most of the destruction to happen off camera or in sped-up footage for maximum comic effect. A lot of fun in ten minutes.