Meet the Baron

After years of seeing the Ted Healy & His Stooges sequences of this movie on the VHS tape "The Lost Stooges", I just finally watched the whole movie of Meet the Baron. It stars Jack Pearl as the title character who tells tales that can't be believed. Jimmy Durante provides support as his manager, Edna Mae Oliver is the dean of a girls college, and Zazu Pitts is a maid. As for Ted Healy with Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Jerry (Curly) Howard, they're plumbers sent to get water back in operation so the female students can continue showering. You know this was a pre-Code movie when you see various nude (though strategically covered with water) ladies singing while showering! Overall, the Stooges were perhaps the funniest parts of the movie with some amusing lines from Pearl, Durante, Oliver, and Pitts. Not really hilarious all the way through but Meet the Baron had some good moments. P.S. I wonder if Herman J. Mankiewicz got the Rosebud name that became a part of a classic he co-wrote called Citizen Kane from this film which he also had a hand in writing and in which the mule is called by that name!

It should be pointed out to anyone reading the reviews here that we are not seeing the Baron Munchausen of German literature. For that you would have to see the German epic film that starred Hans Albers and was made by the Nazi controlled UFA studio during World War II. What we are seeing here is a version of Baron Munchausen adapted by vaudeville comedian Jack Pearl for which he had great success on radio during the Thirties. When Meet The Baron came out, Pearl was at the height of his radio success with the character.

Now the radio show with time out for commercials and a guest star consisted of Pearl telling these outrageous tales in this overblown German accent to straight man Ben Bard who is in the film as well. He was the Charlie to whom Pearl answered whenever 'Charlie' would question the Pearl's veracity, "Vas You Dere Charlie?" That line became the catchphrase associated with the show, as well known in its time as Jack Benny's 'well'.

In fact Pearl and Bard do one of their typical dialogs which comes about 20 minutes into the film and goes about 20 minutes. But Louis B. Mayer was smart enough to know that would not fill out a whole feature film, so MGM loaded the film with such people as Jimmy Durante, Ted Healy and The Three Stooges, and Edna May Oliver. They all get to do the shtick they were all known for.

The starts out bearing some resemblance to the Marx Brothers Animal Crackers and then segues into one of those college pictures so popular in the Thirties. It's a girl's college where Edna May Oliver is the dean. She plays a Margaret Dumont type character, but a lot shrewder and Oliver looks like she's enjoying herself.

Jack Pearl's type of humor is most out of date, but I kind of like it and with so much else to enjoy in Meet The Baron you don't have to be a fan of his to like the film.

This movie was written by Herman Mankiewicz. We may ask, "Is this as good as his "Citizen Kane?" This movie was produced by David O. Selznik. We may ask, "Is this as good as "Gone with the Wind?" This movie has song lyrics by Dorothy Fields. We may ask, "Is this as good as "Swing Time," "Roberta" and "Sweet Charity?"

Unfortunately, I would have to say, "No" all five times.

While this is a zany hour or so of music and vaudeville style comedy, it is too slight to be considered more than an amusing, quirky farce.

There's a lot of talent both behind and in front of the camera and everybody seems to be having fun, but nothing matches, meshes, or stands out (with the exception of two minutes of naughty precode fun watching some singing beauties taking showers.

Seeing Edna Mae Oliver and Zasu Pitts is always a joy. I didn't find either Jack Pearl or Jimmy Durante more than occasionally amusing.

Some reviewers have attacked Ted Healy for his bad treatment of the Three Stooges. This is the third or fourth film I've seen him in with the Stooges and I think he does interact very well with them. He is just playing a character and his mean treatment is just part of the act, not anything real. Essentially Moe just takes over Healy's harsh boss role after they split. We should give Healy the credit he deserves for creating the successful slapstick formula. If you watch Healy in "Varsity Show," you'll see a totally different side of him. He is both funny and charming in that movie. Sadly, he was killed a few months afterward. I think if he hadn't died, he would have continued to be successful without the Stooges. Perhaps he could have answered some of the charges that the Stooges later brought against him.

For years, Hollywood has been turning TV stars and their shows into movies -- a trend that began back in the days of radio. A good illustration is "Meet the Baron" starring Jack Pearl in his popular persona as an habitual liar with a mittel European accent and an endless supply of puns. Providing him with comic support are a young Jimmy Durante as his manager, a man who never met a malaprop he couldn't mangle, and Zasu Pitts as his daffy love interest. When things slow down, a chorus line of MGM starlets, masquerading as college co-eds, perform a mildly risqué musical number in the shower. And for those who wonder how Moe, Curly and Larry started out, they appear (playing hapless janitors) as Ted Healy and his 3 Stooges. Sure, it's a curiosity piece and a not a very good movie. But oddly enough, it's a lot of fun.

I don't understand critics. Leslie Halliwell's Guide gives this movie no stars and writes, "An incoherent script provides an opportunity for several comics to do their stuff." So what's not clear about the script? The story seems perfectly intelligible and well-structured, with three foreshadowed, logical but surprising twists of fortune for the main characters. This is a very funny movie, tightly edited and continuously amusing (OK, droll). It picks up steam after the introductory scene, and clips away pretty briskly after that. I intended to see just a few scenes at a time, but ended up watching it all the way through (with no fast-forwarding).

Maybe Halliwell was confused about the script because so much of the action is at a girl's college. Anyway, he's certainly right about the comics. I've been disappointed by Durante films since childhood, but this comes the closest I've seen to a "real" Jimmy Durante movie. (If only he had a song!)

Healy and the Stooges have large sequences throughout, and succeed as the only comedy team to manage a sufficiently interesting 4th member. Although I'm not a fan of Pearl or Pitts, here they seem fittingly cast, with Pitts at her most natural and likable. But the real treat is Edna May Oliver, not a bad looking woman and perfectly cast as the prissy (but not entirely prudish) dean. She is a marvelous comedienne, her timing and gestures and faces are exquisite, and she doesn't shy from an insult, a shove, or a slap in the rear. She takes it in and dishes it out, and her ensemble work with the roughest comedians of the day is stunning.

Jack Pearl's puns seemed much funnier to me watching alone than they did years ago in a revival theatre with an audience. I guess it helps the enjoyment of dopey humour when you don't have people around you groaning.

The film of the Warnervideo release has some nicks at the beginning, but that clears up after a few minutes, and it becomes a clean, sharp, vintage-looking print the rest of the way through.

Eight stars not to signify proximity to a "great" movie, but because that's how much I enjoyed it, and an excellent print to boot.