I found "Two Lame Ducks" on a DVD of 1930s comedies from Alpha Video. Oddly, however, the film is silent with intertitle cards. This IS odd since by 1930 all American films were being made with sound...yet this one from 1936 is a silent. I have a couple ideas why. First, perhaps the print is actually from Castle Films or some other company that converted films for home viewing...and home movie projectors at that time were all silent. Second, perhaps they made two versions--a silent and a sound one. The silent one would be sent abroad, as in many countries (especially in Asia) they were still using silent equipment. Either way, I am pretty sure that there IS a sound version out there somewhere. This one, however, only has music...no spoken dialog or sound effects.
Vince Barnett and Billy Gilbert are two idiots who are out duck hunting. However, instead of getting ducks, they mostly just make nuisances of themselves and nearly get themselves and others killed due to their dopiness.
The laughs are in this one but most tend to be more slapsticky and are a bit dumb. However, the final bit about the shotgun shells in the fire...that is pretty funny. Worth seeing if you don't mind watching a silent, but I can't score this one higher because it certainly should have sound and isn't filled with good laughs.
