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!

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.

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.

This is not a great film, but it has great interest for cinemaphiles. One reason is its pre-code action, particularly the "Clean as a Whistle" shower scene. Secondly, the film has a diverse cast of MGM talents on display.

The film's story is silly. After years of searching, they find Baron Munchausen in the jungles of Africa. When they bring him back to civilization, they first take him to Cuddles College (of course), where a bevy of (MGM dancing) girls reside.

Noteworthy cast members include Jimmy Durante, Zasu Pitts, and the Three Stooges.

When the Baron visits Cuddles College, the locals and coeds deliver a rhyming sing-song poem in the style of "The Wizard of Oz" Munchkins six years later. I looked for a connection; Herman J. Mankiewicz was a writer for both films.

Munchausen, played by Jack Pearl, is featured in another film in 1934, so audiences must have responded to this lightweight but light-hearted fare.

I confess I found it hilarious. Stooges were a bit stiff, probably because of Ted Healy's (a truly unfunny person) relationship with the Stooges off camera. How can you not love Jimmy Durante? A true ham, hamming it up every second on screen. Zasu Pitts, Edna Mae Oliver, and newborns performing on a twirling fan as the final shot - I can't help but like it. Hey, it's screwball not exploding cars and obscenities mouthed every few seconds while someone passes gas (and that's just a current PG-13.) I'd rather watch a poor movie from this period than any of the trash being spewed out today. The print is of wonderful quality and hopefully more MGM classics of this calibre will surface. If nothing else, perhaps the gorgeous MGM girls routines will bring a new audience to this DVD.